Despised Icon

The Healing Process (Century Media)
by Eric Chon

Despised Icon‘s second full-length effort unleashes a maelstrom of masterful riffs and ballistic rhythms. This Canadian sextet of precise death metalers let loose the fury in nine insanely cacophonic bursts. Tracks like “Immaculate” overrun with atonal, jagged guitar tones, lacerating the ears like rusty razor blades. Other songs like “Retina” and “As Bridges Burn” bring the full-on assault of grindcore’s blastbeats and pounding guitar, reducing your speakers to ruins.

But despite this onslaught of harrowing sound, Despised Icon keep the songs fresh and puzzling, with twists and turns worthy of your lower intestine. At one moment, the furious blasts tear it up, then they quickly break it down to an almost doom-speed mire, giving vocalists Steve Marois and Alex Erian a chance to growl like the newly risen dead.

The Healing Process is anything but it’s given name. This album cuts deep, gangrenous wounds that will leave scars well after it’s over. With complex rhythms and bat-shit insane guitars coupled with guttural bellows, fans of technical grind and death would do well to listen and feel the pain.
(www.centurymedia.com)