Disco de Despised Icon: “Healing Process”

this has everything you want. 2 vocalists, crazy riffs, insane breakdowns, intense blast beats, and much much more. all the songs are great. if you like all shall perish, premonitions of war, or animosty get this. these guys are going to blow up and become your new favorite band

I'll make this review short and sweet, because I'm feeling lazy today. Anyways I've had this CD for about 6 months and whenever I pop it in my mind is blown away, and my brains are thrown in a blender. These guys have two singers, and they both constantly switch off between different vocal styles, the brutal death style, the hardcore style, high pitched screams, and it blends together in a way that you will not be able to comprehend. One thing this band does not do is ever sing like a wussy, no emo garbage here. Basically if you think you're some big tough death-core kid because you listen to Premonitions of War, The Acacia Strain or The Red Chord, you don't know nothing until you've heard this. No disrespect to the latter three bands, they are some of my favorites, and some of the best live....but this CD is something else. Now come to Colorado, Despised Icon because I wanna see how much chaos you cause live. Buy this if you want to hear one of the heaviest bands in existence

Despised Icon is a Canadian band mixing metalcore, death metal, and grindcore, if not more, and features members of Neuraxis, In Dying Days, and Heaven's Cry. Speaking of the terribly underrated progressive metal act Heaven's Cry, I had no idea their guitarist Eric Jarrin, known for his incredible technique and jazzy style, was also capable of ripping it up like the best of them. After hearing this disc, I found out he and the Heaven's Cry drummer were no death metal newcomers as they played in a death metal band called Necrotic Mutation in the early to mid-90's.

The Healing Process is Despised Icon's sophomore release, their debut being Consumed By Your Poison. They also released an EP and a split release thereafter before signing to Century Media for The Healing Process. In many ways, the material presented on this disc harks back to their earlier work, except that it has stronger sonics and musical precision. The songs are quite short, all under four minutes except one. The band loses no time to make their point: they start out with a relentless slab of agression underscored by mighty double bass drums and unbreakable bass grooves. On top of that, there is Jarrin and St-Amand's crushing guitar riffery to back the duel vocals of Alexandre Erian and Steve Marois. The singing is right up there with the likes of Dying Fetus, especially during the growled parts, but the band also sticks to their more metalcore-inspired screaming style. One song where this combination works perfectly is the brutally heavy "Bulletproof Scales", alternating between blood-curdling screams and deep, throat-ripping growls, and giving way to intricate riff and lead work along with rumbling bass and drum battery. Almost like a Dillinger Escape Plan song, it segues into "Silver Plated Advocate". Replete with lightning fast drums, mind-bending chord progressions, and rapid-fire riffery, the song briefly slows down at the end for a sludgy outro. Thus, the character of the album is introduced.

Confident they've made a strong impression, the band follow up their material with slightly more interesting compositions, "Immaculate" being one of them. Though the overdone screaming and heavy metalcore intro may turn some off, the band plows through great breaks and muted riffs only to put forth a nice acoustic section and some spoken clean vocals during the middle. However, to make up for it, they finish the song off with their heaviest playing yet. The cool grooves and primal rhythm work of "Warm Blooded" and the almost grindcore drive of "Retina" form the backbone of the album before the six-piece opts for a few more technical numbers like "The Sunset Will Never Charm Us", full of choppy riffs; and "Harvesting the Deceased", noteworthy for its stunning sweeping and picking.

It would be unfair to lump Despised Icon into the metalcore category based on their short songs fueled by slightly technical riffs and aggressive vocals, but they would certainly impress a good many of the genre's fans not to mention listeners of Strapping Young Lad, Dying Fetus, and Dillinger Escape Plan. That said, Despised Icon doesn't quite sound like any of them. They have their own thing going for sure.

The production is excellent. The album was mixed by Dagenais (Kataklysm) and mastered by Alan Douches (Dillinger Escape Plan).

I found this band by simply browsing on amazons recommendations and it blow me away like yesterday's newspaper. Things you can expect to hear in this cd are chugging guitars and fast riffs with amazing tech metal riffs. 2 vocalists that are both very talented, one vocalist unleashes high pitch screams while also having a raw scream. the second vocalist has a deathmetal grawl that just gets deeper as the cd progresses. I think my favorite part about this band is the guitars perfectly match the drums no sloppy playing that and the double bass and blast beats are fu*king insane!!!!!!!!!

Bottom Line: I can just see Despised Icon touring with some of the top dawgs in the metalcore scene. Expect to see lots more from this band and buy their cd,go to their shows.listen,learn it, live it

DESPISED ICON - The Healing Process

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Now this is Heavy! Combining Grind, Death Metal and Hardcore... This vicious amalgamation of styles is comparable to The Red Chord's latest album `Clients' but at the same time Despised Icon should not be considered another clone... Their biggest edge over the Red Chord is the dual-vocalists attacks... Between the two Vocalists, they incorporate about 4 different wide ranging vocals styles. Musically they are just as tight as technical and relentless as almost anyone else on the scene... causing them to be labeled as "deathcore" I remember when I first heard Cannibal Corpse and thought... that's the heaviest thing I've ever heard... Wow things have changed. (Though still not quite `Nile' heavy... Despised Icon are still ear shattering.) They are now trailing fellow Canadian's Cryptopsy as the countries heaviest band...

For all fans of Extreme (And Really Extreme) Music.

Favorite Tracks: Silver Plated Advocate, The Sunset Will Never Charm Us, As the Bridges Burn, and Harvesting the Deceased

-4 Stars.

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