Review: Despised Icon – Shadow Work
Despised Icon’s “Shadow Work” is the kind of album that doesn’t just demand your attention. No, it seizes you by the throat and refuses to let go until you’re left gasping for air, bruised but exhilarated. This is deathcore as it should be: unapologetic, self-aware, and brutally honest about its own legacy. After two decades of defining and redefining the genre, Despised Icon could have easily rested on their laurels, churning out another formulaic slab of breakdowns and blast beats. Instead, they’ve delivered an album that feels both timeless and timely, a record that understands the weight of its own history while still pushing forward with something to prove.
The opening track is a masterclass in controlled chaos, a whirlwind of technical precision and raw aggression that sets the tone for what follows. The band’s signatures are all present, but there’s a newfound maturity here: a willingness to experiment with blackened melodies, dissonant leads, and even moments of haunting acoustic beauty. Songs like “Death Of An Artist” and “Over My Dead Body” (featuring Kublai Khan TX’s Matt Honeycutt) showcase this evolution, blending hardcore ferocity with a touch of thrash and death metal eeriness. It’s a sound that feels fresh without betraying the band’s roots, a rare feat in a genre often accused of stagnation.
Yet, for all its strengths, “Shadow Work” isn’t without its stumbles. The latter half of the album occasionally succumbs to the pitfalls of predictability, leaning a bit too heavily on formulaic patterns that, while competent, lack the same spark as the record’s earlier moments. It’s as if the band, having spent the first half of the album pushing boundaries, suddenly remembers they’re still a deathcore band and defaults to what’s comfortable. The result is an uneven listening experience, one that teases the complete savagery Despised Icon are capable of but doesn’t always deliver on that promise.
Still, these missteps do little to diminish the album’s overall impact. “Shadow Work” is a record that feels alive, a testament to a band that refuses to be defined by nostalgia or trends. The closing moments of “Fallen Ones” offer a flicker of humanity amid the wreckage, a reminder that even in the most brutal of genres, there’s room for beauty and introspection. It’s this willingness to embrace contradiction, to be both vicious and vulnerable, that makes “Shadow Work” stand out.
In the end, “Shadow Work” is an album that rewards repeated listens, revealing new layers with each spin. It’s not perfect, but it’s honest, and in a genre often criticized for its lack of substance, that honesty feels like a victory. Despised Icon may not have reinvented deathcore, but they’ve reminded us why it mattered in the first place and why it still does.
