Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance

Recording history

Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance was recorded at different studios, one being Mixing Lab A & B. The album was produced by Bill Metoyer.

Musically, the album went for a more aggressive thrash metal direction. The songs are complicated and technical and feature experiments with styles such jazz and blues. The latter can be heard on the song "Phantom Limb". The band's characteristical style of incorporating classical music into its guitar riffs is especially reminiscent on the beginning of the title track. The album introduced more Slayer-esque shouting vocal patterns by Gary Lenaire as well as a darker atmosphere. Guy Ritter sang less on the album than on previous Tourniquet albums. It is often thought that the vocalist Guy Ritter left the band during the recording session. However, in a HM Magazine interview he clarified:

Ritter stated his reasons for leaving the band:

According to Ritter, there was also some disagreements concerning the label:

Themes

The lyrics kept the pattern that began on Psycho Surgery and feature bizarre medical terminology. These terms and syndromes are used as metaphors for spiritual and social issues. The album title refers to color blindness and the title song uses it as a metaphor for lack of wisdom of sight from God. "Gelatinous Tubercles of Purulent Ossification" is about nicotine addiction that causes larynx benediction. The sound samples of the song are produced with Western Electric 5000 voice synthesizer.

The 10-minute song "The Skeezix Dilemma" uses the board Uncle Wiggily's (also a children's book series by Howard Roger Garis) concept as an allegory for child abuse. The song starts out with a minute of circus music (organ played by Bob Beeman) which is followed by a nervous child reading a bit of the game's introduction. The heavy metal song "Exoskeletons" contains a short riff of Black Sabbath's song "Supernaut" at the end. On the Metal Blade Records version of this album, there is a bonus track "The Tempter" (a Trouble cover lifted from Tourniquet's Intense Live Series, Vol. 2)

Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance was re-released and re-mastered in 2001 with new artwork and layout. The bonus tracks include live recordings of the title song and "Bearing Gruesome Cargo" played at the Dutch Flevo Festival in 2000.

Track listing

1. "Impending Embolism" – 2:05
2. "Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance" – 4:26
3. "Phantom Limb" – 5:41
4. "Ruminating Virulence" – 5:31
5. "Spectrophobic Dementia" – 5:16
6. "Gelatinous Tubercles of Purulent Ossification" – 5:12
7. "Incommensurate" – 5:48
8. "Exoskeletons" – 3:55
9. "Theodicy on Trial" – 4:29
10. "Descent into the Maelstrom" – 1:32
11. "En Hakkore" – 3:38
12. "The Skeezix Dilemma" – 10:00

Bonus track on Metal Blade version

13. "The Tempter" - 6:10

Bonus tracks on 2001 remaster

13. "Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance" (LIVE 2000) - 5:27

14. "Bearing Gruesome Cargo / drum solo" (LIVE 2000) - 10:30

Credits