DILLINGER who? MESHUGGAH what? Forget absolutely everything you know about extreme technical Metal, because it doesn't matter anymore. ION DISSONANCE has unleashed their terrifyingly extreme debut and has slaughtered basically every other release this year. The album begins with shriek and within seconds the whole thing explodes into just over 30 minutes of unrelenting madness. Each song turns into a frenzied adrenaline rush that cuts its way under your skin and like an infection seeps it's way into your brain. I've never heard such harsh a-melodic music be so thoroughly…enjoyable? Well, maybe that isn't the best word to describe the album, but it'll do.

The chaotic nature of "The Bud Dwyer Effect" best showcases the schizophrenic nature of the band. It's like being drugged and thrown into the middle of an exploding mine field. All the confusion, violence and fear involved can all easily be attached to that song and the entire release. Each song continues to push the sonic barrier, often becoming discordant noise, but always performed with the utmost technical proficiency and unrelenting hate and violence.

I had very little faith for this year. Some good albums came out but nothing that I felt was really inventive, or any other kind of adjective that would be used to describe a brilliant album. The release of "Breathing Is Irrelevant", however, single-handedly made this year worthwhile.

Best album of the year? Best album of the last few years. (Online December 17, 2003)