Despised Icon

Born in Montreal, Quebec, Despised Icon took shape in 2002 amid a convergence of brutal death metal, hardcore and North American extreme metal. The band quickly honed a dense, technical deathcore formula, driven by the complementary vocals of Alex Erian and Steve Marois, the massive guitar rhythms and the very fast drumming of Alex Pelletier. After their first album, Consumed by Your Poison (2002), Despised Icon consolidated its identity with The Healing Process (2005), followed by The Ills of Modern Man (2007) and Day of Mourning (2009) — records that firmly established them on metal and hardcore stages in North America and Europe. The group split in 2010 after several years of touring, but returned to the stage as early as 2014 for reunion shows and officially resumed activity in 2016. That revival produced Beast (2016), then Purgatory (2019), the EP Déterré in 2022 featuring re-recordings of older tracks, and Shadow Work in 2025. Throughout its trajectory, Despised Icon has kept a clear line: abrasive, compact and deeply rooted in the meeting of death-metal violence and hardcore impact.