YOU WANT A PIECE OF THIS BIG, FAT, ION D

These days a lot of bands seem to like releasing a really heavy track as the first single — or even just preview — of their upcoming album. Makes a good first impression whilst calming the old-school fans who have inevitably been crying “sellouts!” about the band’s supposed new direction. This is definitely true of “After Everything’s That Happened, What Did You Expect?,” the first song to be released from Ion Dissonance’s forthcoming crusher Cursed. Shit is fucking heeeeaaaaavvvy, and its frenetic nature harkens back to the band’s more angular / spastic / dissonant (no pun intended, for once) sound of yore. So for all you original Ion D fans out there, this one’s for you.

But here’s the thing: Ion Dissonance started shifting away from this sound with their last album Minus the Herd into a more rhythmic, groovy territory, and while they’ve by no means abandoned their roots, Cursed seems to be focused more on those crushing rhythms and deep grooves as well. And that’s why I like Cursed so much; sometimes less is more, and though far less is technically being done by the musicians those grooves just fucking CRUSH, Gojira / Morbid Angel / Red Chord-style. My point here: while “After Everything’s That Happened, What Did You Expect?” is a pretty sweet song, it’s not really representative of Cursed as a whole. Check it out above.

Cursed drops August 24st on Century Media.

-VN