DESPISED ICON - Beast

July 26, 2016, 7 years ago

(Nuclear Blast)

David Perri

Rating: 7.5

review black death despised icon

DESPISED ICON - Beast

Despised Icon will forever be intensely associated with the time of its initial impact, this band encapsulating deathcore’s original 2004-2007 ascent more than probably any other. Which is to say that Despised Icon will never be timeless, but that’s not exactly a slight: how many records have slavishly tried to reproduce Entombed ’90, Norwegian Black Metal ’91-'94 or At The Gates ’95? Despite disbanding in 2010 and then reuniting in 2014, time has not caught up with Despised Icon, which makes the band either ageless wunderkinds or those born in 1983 with the continuing aspirations of those born in 1993 (but, then again, isn’t metal the world that allows its heroes to play young person to even 60 or 70 years old, as we’re unbelievably seeing with Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and, in the not too distant future, the Big Four?). All this to say: listening to Beast is going to bring you back to the countless shows at Le Medley in Montreal in 2005, even if those high-rise condos at the corner of St-Denis and René-Lévesque now stand in its place.  

Beast is, as its title suggests, a feral animal, the record a titan of energy, Despised Icon as usual not relenting. That said, this album is more straight-forward than its predecessors, the songs here focusing on two or three (or four) bursting riffs rather than seven spliced-together parts like we heard in the past, and the lyrics here convey easy to grab ideas (“I don’t trust that smile, you give me bad vibes!” vocalist Alex Erian growls in the not surprisingly titled “Bad Vibes”) instead of the esoteric ones of old (song titles like “Furtive Monologue”, “The Ills of Modern Man” or “Sheltered Reminiscence” aren’t found here). But, despite this streamlining, relatively speaking, of Despised Icon, Beast still fits in the trajectory of the band: it’s not like this is Cold Lake, or Load, or Siren Charms -- my God, how that’s still an awful record. This is very clearly a Despised Icon album featuring the band’s many unique strengths, and it’s safe to say this the effort that would have followed up 2009’s Day Of Mourning had the disbanding not happened (although, man, the symphonic, Dimmu Borgir worship of “Dedicated To Extinction” is massively out of place).

The Ills of Modern Man might always be Despised Icon’s best record, but Beast proves that the group still has life to it and more to offer its fans, both those around at Le Medley in 2005 as well as those who now listen to Despised Icon because the band comes up as ‘related artists’ on a streaming service. When Beast’s highlights, and there are many, move into high-gear on the road, the circle pits are going to form without question, no matter what year it is.



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