DESPISED ICON

Shadow Work

Despised Icon refuse to concede they’ve been kicked into the deathcore long grass

NUCLEAR BLAST

Quebec’s deathcore forerunners stretch their muscles

WITH DEATHCORE UNDERGOING a resurgence, it’s easy to forget just how much the term was dismissed and ridiculed as it came crawling out of the underground in the early 00s. Few bore the brunt as much as Montreal’s Despised Icon, whose employment of unfussy chugging and pig squeals was seemingly admired and admonished in equal measure. Since returning from a hiatus in 2014, their status as deathcore elder statesman has nevertheless brought more respect and reverence, with albums Beast and Purgatory strengthening their position without setting new ideas loose.

However, much like fellow veterans Whitechapel’s latest, their first new effort in six years finds the Canadian sextet on riveting form. While the likes of Omen Of Misfortune, Obsessive Compulsive Disaster and closer Fallen Ones display the hulking menace Despised Icon have long delivered, guitarists Ben Landreville and Eric Jarrin take influence from some of the gods of death metal to mutate the band’s formula for the better.

Following the chaotic, fiddly opening of the melodeath-tinged title track, Over My Dead Body’s nefarious atmosphere and belligerent groove feels far more restrained than the symphonic overtures of deathcore’s current breed. The Hammer Smashed Face-aping Corpse Pose and The Apparition’s nods to Decapitated are riveted tight by ace-in-the-hole Alex Grind’s stick skills that continue to emulate a hail of machine-gun fire. The haunting undercurrents and exotic twin leads of Death Of An Artist even have a touch of Nile, while the ambling, piano-tinged In Memoriam sees Steve Marois and Alex Erian adding clean vocals to their usual maelstrom of barks and growls.