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Mere hours before Gojira played the best show of 2009, our friends at Metal Injection interview G to the Jira main man Joe Duplantier, and even got him to pick his favorite metal videos. No shock: the man has good taste. So, needless to say, this is pretty awesome.
Vince’s own interview with Joe should go up sometime next week. You’ll wanna read that, too. Trust me.
-AR
While Despised Icon didn’t show up early to the deathcore party, they did manage to show up right on time with 2005’s laudably solid The Healing Process. Squarely at the intersection of technical death metal and tough guy hardcore, the band provided a then-fresh perspective on both genres with remarkable precision. Fast forward to 2009: deathcore is (relatively) big business now, and has, in its short existence, become a polarizing and ultimately tired genre. Any kid that grew up listening to breakdown-fueled hardcore can throw on a Suffocation shirt, meet a few other dudes that spend 8-12 hours a day practicing guitar, find a drummer one can trigger out of existence, and – BOOM! – you’ve got an honest shot at being signed to Sumerian or Victory. And yet, The Healing Process retains its fresh sound. This is, perhaps, the greatest disappointment in terms of Despised Icon’s latest outing, Day of Mourning: while there are certainly salvageable bits, it veers close to sounding like tired, triggered deathcore overall. Trying to keep up with the times has ultimately made the band a victim of them, and in a genre as massively overpopulated and interchangeable as deathcore, it’s an unwise decision to sound like anyone else.
As evidenced by their new video, “Day of Mourning,” Despised Icon are the latest deathcore band to start making the move towards more traditionalist death metal (although co-vocalists Steve Marois and Alexandre Erian have retained their distinctly wigger sense of style). I’ve already heard some butt-hurt reactions from fans; like All Shall Perish’s The Price of Existence, DI’s last release, The Ills of Modern Man, was a kick-ass record that actually gave deathcore a good name (read Erik Thomas’ excellent write-up for Metal Review here), so some disappointed cries were bound to happen, I guess. Plus, nine times out of ten metal fans get pissy about the slightest change to a band’s sound anyways, so really any bitching and moaning is not shocking.
Everyone will get to decide what they think of DI’s musical evolution when Day of Mourning is released September 22 on Century. In the meantime, here’s the aforementioned video for the title track.
-AR
The MetalSucks co-sponsored Thrash & Burn Tour is currently about half-way through with its month-long U.S. trek. Those in California and the South have already gotten their Thrash on with MetalSucks faves Devildriver, Despised Icon, Veil of Maya, Periphery and Thy Will Be Done (among others), while those in the East and Midwest will get their chance in the coming weeks. After playing Baltimore last night, the tour picks up again tomorrow in New York City and then works its way through the Midwest, wrapping up August 24th in Minnesota. Is the end of August / summer really that close? FUCK!
Check out the full list of tour dates on the Thrash & Burn MySpace, and be sure to pick up your tickets in advance.
Everyone’s favorite French Canadian deathcore band, Despised Icon, have a new song, “MVP,” currently streaming on their MySpace page. The track comes off their new album, Day of Mourning, which drops September 22 on Century.
Preliminary thoughts: it’s a somewhat less core-y song than we’re used to from DI, but, frankly, I don’t find it as distinctive as anything from 2007’s excellent The Ills of Modern Man. Still, I’m anxious to hear the whole album and see what these fellas have cooked up.
Despised Icon are crushing skulls this summer on the MetalSucks co-sponsored Thrash & Burn tour. Get dates here.
-AR
Tickets for the MetalSucks co-sponsored U.S. Thrash & Burn Tour — headlined by DevilDriver and featuring Despised Icon, Veil of Maya, Periphery, Thy Will Be Done and others — have now gone on sale, and if you pre-order by the end of today you’ll also receive a free tour poster, and, if you order 4 tickets, a t-shirt! By ordering today (I feel like I’m selling a fucking Ginsu knife) you’ll also be automatically entered to win the “Ultimate Thrash & Burn Tour Package.” Only one winner will be chosen, and will receive:
The Ultimate Thrash & Burn Tour Package includes:
- A Thrash & Burn guitar, provided by Washburn
- Dinner with one of the Thrash & Burn bands of your choosing before the show
- A T-shirt pack, including a shirt from each band on the tour and a Trash & Burn tour shirt
- An autographed poster signed by all of the bands
Check out the full list of tour dates after the jump, and pre-order tickets here; remember, this deal is only good through today.
I went to bed and when I woke up this morning a number of interesting bands had announced album titles and release dates for their new records. Wowza. So… here we go:
As a co-sponsor of the 2009 run of the Thrash & Burn Tour, MetalSucks is pleased to announce the full, confirmed lineup of bands for this year’s trek. The tour will run through the U.S. from July 24th through August 30th, 2009, and will be headlined by MetalSucks-faves Devildriver. Support will come from Emmure, Despised Icon, My Children My Bride, Veil of Maya, For The Fallen Dreams, Oceano, Periphery and Red River Revival [UPDATE: Red River Revival will not be on the tour. -Ed.]
While we at MetalSucks can’t say we vouch for every single one of those bands, we appreciate the “something for everyone” angle of this year’s tour, and there’s absolutely no denying it; that is an amazing lineup, and if you aren’t interested in at least a few of those bands we highly suggest you stop drinking that Haterade pronto. We’ll be there for sure. We’ll have tour announcements for you leading up to and through the duration of the tour, including tour dates and cities very soon. As soon as we know, so will you!
See you this summer.
The good news is, Century released a clip from the David Brodsky-directed concert film that will be on the DVD! Yippee!
-AR
When you think about it, being French Canadian must be the worst of both possible worlds. You’re not really French but you are, you’re not really Canadian but you are, and if you’re like most people, you probably don’t really wanna be Canadian anyway (All due respect to Sebastian Bach, William Shatner, Michael J. Fox, and MetalSucks’ own resident canuck David Bee Roth).
So maybe that’s why Despised Icon make such furious music. It can be hard to understand what they’re actually saying amidst all the br00tality and pig squeals, but I think it’s something along the lines of “FUCK! WE’RE FRENCH CANADIANS! GRRRRRR!!!”
ANYWAY, Century will release a decidedly intense, decidedly French Canadian Despised Icon DVD, entitled Montreal Assault, on January 27, 2009. I haven’t seen it yet, but it already has a few things going for it:
I don’t particularly care for Despised Icon or the death metal-tinged brand of hardcore that they pedal, but this video is aesthetically fucking beautiful, like something from the brain of Tool’s Adam Jones. The animation sequence starting at 2:20 and lasting the duration of the breakdown (“which
breakdown?” I hear you asking. Good question.) is how I feel when I see kids at these kinds of shows starting ninja moshpits.
-VN
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The good gents over at Metal Injection have just released a whole shitload of new, never-before-seen video footage of The Red Chord, Through the Eyes of the Dead, All Shall Perish and Despised Icon from their summer tour. The new footage includes interviews, live performances (with soundboard audio!) and classic Metal Injection tomfoolery. The intro below, and all the goodness over at Metal Injection.
-VN
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