Sechs Jahre nach ihrem letzten Album melden sich Despised Icon mit „Shadow Work“ zurück – einem Werk, das gleichermaßen kraftvoll, reflektiert und kompromisslos daherkommt. Die kanadischen Deathcore-Veteranen haben in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten nicht nur ein ganzes Genre mitgeprägt, sondern auch bewiesen, dass sie selbst nach fast 25 Jahren Bandgeschichte nichts an Intensität verloren haben. Im Interview mit uns dem Frontstage Magazine spricht Alex Erian über die Entstehung des Albums, persönliche Erfahrungen während der Pandemie, die Bedeutung von Beständigkeit in einer Szene voller Wandel und darüber, wie Despised Icon ihren unverwechselbaren Sound weiterentwickelt haben, ohne ihre Wurzeln zu vergessen.
Frontstage Magazine: “Shadow Work” is your first album in six years. How does it feel to return after such a long break, and what makes this record stand out compared to your earlier work?
Alex: It feels great! Everyone worldwide has been impacted by the pandemic in some sort of way, and we are no exception. So for almost 2 years, it’s been very hard to see each other to write music and exchange ideas. But as soon as the lockdowns were over here in Canada, we wasted no time in writing new material and now that we can share it with our fans, it feels like it was long overdue. But the difference with this one is we allowed ourselves to take the time to work on the songs until we felt there was nothing more we could add. So to me, the songs feel very complete.
Frontstage Magazine: The album deals with themes of resilience and inner healing. What personal or collective experiences shaped these lyrical directions?
Alex: All the lyrics have been penned by Alex, one of our singers, but we both often discuss life experiences and as we grow old, some of the stuff that happens to us is very relatable for every band member. Whether it’s going through physical or mental issues, overcoming obstacles in life, the theme of keeping the ball rolling and making it through these challenges has always been part of what we wrote about. All I could say is every band member now is pretty much in the same situation where we don’t do this for a living, and we have to take care of ourselves and live our lives at home in a way that wasn’t shared by everyone in the group before.
Frontstage Magazine: Having kept most of the core lineup together since 2002, how important has that stability been in preserving Despised Icon’s identity while still evolving musically?
Alex: When we reformed the group in 2016, to have the core members was the only condition to come back and start playing and writing music again. With everyone’s personal situation, we agreed to tour once a year to make sure it’d be the original lineup people would see live. I think it is also the reason that when you listen to the new material, it feels and sounds like Despised Icon. Even after 24 years. We’ve seen so many bands have their line up change over the years and they just don’t sound like the same band anymore. To us, it was important to maintain that chemistry that defined who we are.
Frontstage Magazine: On “Shadow Work”, you feature powerful guest appearances by Matthew Honeycutt (Kublai Khan TX), Scott Ian Lewis (Carnifex), and Tom Barber (Chelsea Grin, Darko US). What inspired you to collaborate with these particular vocalists, and how did their contributions shape the album’s atmosphere?
Alex: We have a history with all these guys. We toured many times with Chelsea Grin and Carnifex over the years, and we brought Kublai Khan TX on tour with us in 2019 during their ascension into becoming a legendary band. Not only we became good friends with these people, but it was important for us to have people with whom we share a history and have a strong connection with. They also have a very unique vocal style and we asked them to contribute on specific parts in the songs that we felt would suit them best and bring the song to another level.
Frontstage Magazine: With Alex Erian and Eric Jarrin handling production and Christian Donaldson (Cryptopsy, Shadow of Intent, Signs of the Swarm) on mixing and mastering, how did this team dynamic influence the overall sound of the record?
Alex: It’s easy for Alex and I to sit in the producer’s chair as we wrote 95% of the music on this album. I recorded all guitars and was the engineer for bass tracking while Alex wrote and produced all the vocal tracks. Then, we handed everything to Chris so he could make it come to life in terms of sound but has always followed a certain direction in regards to our vision of how it should sound like. We’ve known Chris for a while, have worked with him on the previous record and knows what we are chasing and he knows how to deliver the impact we are looking for in a production. He’s the man!
Frontstage Magazine: Deathcore has evolved massively since you helped pioneer the genre in the early 2000s. Where do you see Despised Icon’s role in today’s scene, and how do you continue to push boundaries while staying true to your roots?
Alex: After close to 25 years of existence, I feel we don’t have anything to prove anymore. And I say that in the most humble way possible. I consider Despised Icon a legacy band. Especially when most successful Deathcore bands nowadays cite us as influences when they grew up and started out! We’ve always been making music for ourselves first, and for the sake of having fun and enjoying ourselves. The cherry on the cake is we gathered a lot of people around that music we created and we built a strong fanbase. We’re super grateful for that. We have the most dedicated and loyal fans we could ever hope for. But we also understand that we might not be the flavor of the month anymore and we accept that to stay relevant, it is important to keep making connections with the younger bands and stay in touch with today’s scene. That’s why you’ll see us on tour with bands like Sanguisugabogg and Shadow of Intent. And as far as staying true to our roots and pushing the boundaries, that’s easy as it’s always been our playbook since the inception of our band and you can bet that it is what we’ll keep doing for as long as we’ll be a band!
Fotocredit: Eric Sanchez
