Customer Reviews

Healing Process

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

A very drastic change can be heard between Despised Icon's debut album, "Consumed by Your Poison," and The Healing Process. Whereas their first album was straight death/grind, on this album they have incorporated a bit more. With their signature ultra-brutal deathgrind still intact, they throw some hardcore into the mix. They have 2 vocalists, and there are 4 vocal styles present on this record: hardcore shouts, high, agonizing shrieks, deep over the top death growls, and inhaled death growls, which make a sort of whistling sound. All these vocal styles are balanced perfectly throughout each song. As far as the music goes, there are massive breakdowns, insane drumming, terrifying grind parts, technicality, and death metal brutality throughout. The band is sometimes called metalcore, which is of course false. This simply cannot be called metalcore, because musically this album is most in line with grindcore. It has also been dubbed "deathcore," which is a slightly more accurate desciption, but not totally when compared to other deathcore bands like The Red Chord. Despised Icon has straight-out deathgrind, untainted, combined with hardcore, whereas other bands mix it in a much more subtle and less brutal way. Definitely one of the better metal bands around now.

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

This is by far the best new album that will be released this year as far as pure and unadulterated brutal metal/hardcore goes. This Canadian band really stepped up to the plate with their indiemajor label debut "The Healing Process". It's a solid performance from beginning to end, which is a very rare find these days. Honestly, there is not a dud on this disc. Amazon's "Album Description" lists a few bands that are quite dead on when it comes to describing the sound. It's a mixture of grindcore, death metal, and hardcore, all extreme genres that sometimes do not blend well. Despised Icon have found the winning formula, however. They brutally violate roaring deathmetal vocals with pounding doublebass and insane tech-metal guitar, and then layer mosh-worthy hardcore breakdowns with throaty battle cries that come deep from the chest and would make Hatebreed or Bleeding Through fans proud.

Some standout tracks are "Silver Plated Advocate", "Retina" and "Harvesting the Deceased". One of the most standout moments is during "Retina", where Despised Icon make history by becoming the first deathmetal/core band to use crowd singalongs on CD. This was a genius move, as they just add to the diversity on this disc and go perfect with the song. It makes me want to see them live just *that much* more.

Bottom line is that this disc will appeal to a very diverse yet massive crowd. Death metal, grindcore, and hardcore fans can finally unite over a band we can all kickbox and fingerpoint to but still hairwhip and mosh to. Amazon's "Album Description" is right on, but they should've mentioned Ion Dissonance, Cryptopsy, The Haunted, Hatebreed, All Shall Perish and Bleeding Through as some bands they are influenced by and sound like as well. They have done a fine job solidifying themselves with all the distinguished names they are mentioned with, and this is by far a genre-defying, bar-raising album, and one of the best debuts I've ever come across. You will want to keep your eyes on these guys for sure.

What do you get when you combine death metal and grindcore with metal and moshcore? Well, you get a record which doesn't skimp on the heaviness. Despised Icon (who are, for short, deathcore) is an immensely intense band. Their third release, "The Healing Process," is full of frenetic drumming, pulverizing riffs, and clobbering rhythms. It may not be the most original record out there, but Despised Icon incorporate a little of their own innovation by alternating between two vocalists (Steve Marois does Chris Barnes-esque growls, and the other guy, Alex Erian, does throaty metalcore yells.) Plus, most of the songs on here have a big breakdown and/or tempo change.

"Bulletproof Scales" opens up the album with rapid fire riffs and busy, pounding drums. "Silver Plated Advocate" keeps things going with buzzsaw guitars and a walloping double bass. "Immaculate" begins quite slowly and softly, but it eventually segues into a breakneck guitar assault. Next, "Warm Blooded" has a very "mathy" beat, with several tempo changes, and "Retina" launches full blast into a brutal barrage of power chords and blast beats.

As the album plays, it becomes increasingly obvious that most of the songs sound the same. But the album, as a whole, is more than intense and strong enough to make up for this flaw. Despised Icon are a young band, but they definitely show promising songwriting skills and instrumental abilities. So, in time, they'll learn how to make each song memorable.

This is clearly a band on its way up, and since heavy music is the in thing right now, Despised Icon definitely deserve to be more famous and popular. "The Healing Process" is recommended to metalheads who are fans of bands like Black Dahlia Murder and The Red Chord.

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

As far as metalcore goes, this is one of the heaviest, well-produced, most-tightly-played releases ever made. I'd say Despised Icon actually beat In Quest this time around, and I really wanted to vote for In Quest's new album after the amazing "Epileptic" spun in my player for months on end.

Anyway, this is highly recommended if you can handle blasting death metal brutality combined with hardcore vocals & breakdowns.

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've never really heard of a band that mixes death metal with metalcore. Well, this is the first band that I've heard to do it! This is Despised Icon's debut CD (I think). First song I heard by them was Silver Plated Advocate, off of a second disc from Napalm Death's latest album. This is an insanely heavy outing here, with one singer screaming his lungs out and another singer contributing to the traditional death metal growls. This would definitely appeal to any death metal fan out there! I hope these death/metalcore diehards from Canada will continue to make heavier music in the near future! As I usually end with what my favorite song is on each album I review, I cannot decide which one is my favorite off of this one, each song is sooooo heavy!!!!

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
-
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.


IF YOU LIKED, AGREED, OR APPRECIATED THIS PLEASE CLICK YES FOR:
"Was this review helpful?"