Review Summary: A strong debut from a band with a ton of potential. They do need to improve their song-writing, however.
Dissonant is a band from Grand Rapids that has built a grassroots fanbase through two things: Harrassing people via Myspace, and releasing their album for free to download. Usually things like this are a double-edged sword. Yeah, it is free, but the production is probably crap and the band is probably junk as well. On the contrary, the production on
Copy. Burn. Distribute. Repeat. is fantastic, and Dissonant is a band with a ton of potential.
Their sound is most akin to metalcore bands like
Ascendancy-era Trivium and All That Remains. Dissonant did something out of the ordinary in their genre by deciding not to fall into the typical metalcore trap of writing every song around a breakdown. In fact, there is a distinct lack of breakdowns which is refreshing with bands like Winds of Plague and As Blood Runs Black only writing songs for the sake of breakdowns, and in turn becoming some of the best known bands in the genre. Instead, solos tend to anchor the bridge of the songs.
The guitar playing on the album is what keeps the songs interesting. Many leads get stuck in your head, the solos are not mind-blowing but they are fun to hear. That and the drumming, which does tend to get repetiive however, are what keeps this album above water. That being said, the vocalist is nothing amazing, and the production almost puts him in the background. There is also the occasional use of clean vocals, which in
Old Skool make you want to shove a pencil in your ears, yet in
Six Feet of Solace is above average, which makes you wonder if it is even the same guy singing in both songs.
The one thing that keeps this album from being excellent is the fact that the album bleeds together. There are maybe three standout tracks, those being
A God Who Was Not There, the previously mentioned
Six Feet of Solace, and the closer
To Recruit and Convert. Everything else tends to just flow into each other, which makes you pause and wonder which song you are listening to. It is the one thing that truly holds this album back.
All in all,
Copy. Burn. Distribute. Repeat is a strong debut from a band that clearly has talent. If they continue to work on their song-writing then I feel like they should become one of the top names in their genre in the next couple of years. Hopefully they will be looked at by labels to get these guys out on tours opening for big names to continue to get their name out there.
