Despised Icon – ‘DÉTERRÉ’ [EP] [Album Review]

Quebec technical deathcore crew Despised Icon is one of those bands that the underground extreme metal scene took to their hearts during the early years of the 2000s. Having disbanded in 2010, there was much excitement when they reformed to release their crushing Beast album in 2016, followed by the equally savage Purgatory three years later. Well, here we are post-Covid, and, despite the initial disappointment that DÉTERRÉ isn’t new material, there is still plenty to get excited about in these five remastered tracks.

DÉTERRÉ, the French for “unearthed,” sees the Canadian heavyweights digging back into their archives and remastering five tracks from their slamming back catalogue. Diving back to 2005’s The Healing Process, the first two tracks, “Warm Blooded” and “Bulletproof Scales,” the fresh mix just really opens up the sound and takes these older gems into a different league. Mixing jackhammer bursts of hardcore, deathcore, pig-squeals, slam metal and even nu-metal, the sonic punishment these reworked tracks unload on your ears feels even more brutal even compared to 2022’s standards.

Thankfully, there is still a certain rawness to the material, meaning that, while the likes of “Oval Shaped Incisions” from 2007’s classic The Ills of Modern Man may sound a little fresher, the buzzsaw feel of the guitars will have fans of the group reminiscing back to the days when Despised Icon was first stamping their own mark on the extreme metal scene. Ending with “Sever The Ties,” a rare single released in 2005 from a split EP with US grindcore troop Bodies In The Gears Of The Apparatus, DÉTERRÉ may only be a brief visit from the band, but it will keep their hardcore fans happy until new material appears.

DÉTERRÉ Track Listing:

1. Warm Blooded
2. Bulletproof Scales
3. One Last Martini
4. Oval Shaped Incisions
5. Sever The Ties

Run Time: 18:11
Release Date: October 28, 2022
Record Label: Nuclear Blast Records