After driving in what felt like a monsoon to Albany and enjoying the vegan delights of Wizard Burger by the venue, it was a thrill to witness a top-notch deathcore show and check out Empire Underground finally. The venue is literally hidden down what feels like a back entrance tunnel of a complex and we weren’t sure if we were about to be robbed. It adds to the charm because soon you find yourself in a secret bunker for metalheads that feels like it is out of Cloverfield Lane.
Rock supergroup Saint Asonia will drop a new album next month, Flawed Design, via Spinefarm Records on October 25th. The band has dropped a new stand-alone single ‘Beast’ and a new music video for their already released track, ‘The Hunted’, featuring Godsmack’s Sully Erna You can check out both below! Exclusive pre-order bundles are available here.Continue reading
Devildriver has announced that they will re-release their first five studio albums on CD and vinyl through The Echo Label/BMG on September 28th. Those albums are DevilDriver, The Fury Of Our Maker’s Hand, The Last Kind Words, Pray For Villains, and Beast. Watch frontman Dez Fafara unbox some of the vinyl re-issues now. Continue reading
Reactivated deathcore legends Despised Icon have booked a full European tour for next winter, their first such tour of Europe in two years. The band is still supporting their 2016 album Beast, which released via Nuclear Blast. Direct support will come from Malevolence, Archspire and Vulvodynia. Full routing and tour dates below:Continue reading
Deathcore legends Despised Icon have added some dates to their ongoing comeback tour since reuniting in 2016 for their Beast album on Nuclear Blast. The band has so far announced four dates this fall.Continue reading
So it’s 2016 and we have a new album, Beast (Nuclear Blast), from Despised Icon. Yeah, the same Despised Icon that called it a career in 2010 as its members chose to focus on simple family life. The Despised Icon whose music had all the subtlety of a reciprocating saw.
I guess the question is why now? Well, what better place than here, what better time than now? Considering that their last album, 2009s concussive Day of Mourning (Century Media), landed them at number 162 on the Billboard Top 200, they may have called it curtains too soon. Proof? Quite a few “deathcore” acts shamelessly ape Despised Icon and fellow Montrealers Beneath the Massacre’s sonic brew in the years that followed and regularly find themselves debuting in the Top 40.
The better question is, has the passage of time dulled Despised Icon’s edge? Hell no. The Quebec septet are still stitching together bruising hardcore and rapid death riffs and tempos. So much so that about two minutes into Beast there is a clear/brazen callback to 2007s The Ills of Modern Man. The patented Steve Marois lock-stepped pig squeals that are oft-imitated but never matched? Just crank ‘Bad Vibes’ and ‘Time Bomb’ until your heart stops. What about breakdowns? This album is basically a buy one get one free kind of deal with those. ‘Grind Forever’ has a breakdown wider than Texas.
This is a Despised Icon album, through and through. It’s almost like it warrants two ratings. Dyed in the wool Despised fans will love this shit. Those unfamiliar with this noisy and relentless affair? Well, that could be a hard sell. However there are the briefest glimpses of experimentation. ‘Drapeau Noir’ has a name like a cheap boxed wine, but is death metal of the highest excellence, not unlike what you’ll find on a Black Dahlia Murder album. Complete with a fret-burning solo and all the fixings. And I’m usually not a fan of these things, but the two interludes, particularly ‘Doomed’ are used tastefully.
So you could say that the uncrowned kings of deathcore are finally ready to assume the throne.
8.0/10
HANSEL LOPEZ
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