The Apparatus

 Friday, 14 December 2007 Mixed feelings always arise for me when an artist is scooped up by a major label (or as major a label gets when it comes to the metal scene). There are mingled feelings of happiness and derision; the former due to the band getting the budget and attention it (in theory) deserves, the latter out of accusations of selling out and, more importantly, a fear in a drop of quality on the part of a band that no longer particularly needs to struggle for their paychecks. While we can pretend all we like that such paranoia results in a better signal-to-noise ratio than normal, the fact is it generally does nothing more than breed resentment against various self-described factions of the metal community that does nothing but heighten the superiority complexes of everyone involved. For this reason, I try to reserve judgement for an artist who has made the leap to major label until I have heard their work.

So it is with some mild trepidation that I approach Despised Icon's second LP, 'The Healing Process'. After the release of 2002's 'Consumed By Your Poison' on Galy Records, Despised Icon floated around for a while before being picked up by Century Media just in time to release their second LP. I'd imagine there were some grumblings around the Quebecois metal scene when they jumped ship in that matter; the movement from a label with a fairly high level of intra-scene credibility such as Galy to Century Media, which could in many not inaccurate ways be called the Wal-Mart of metal today. Philosophical masochism aside, though, it was a no-brainer on the part of the deathcore artists to make a move. Perhaps their exposure resulted more in their success than any change in sound; they were finally able to tap the niche that they had sought all along, which resulted in rapid dissemination through the metal and hardcore scenes, making the sound more acceptable to the majority.

With Alexandre Erian and Alex Pelletier now firmly cemented in the Despised Icon lineup after their split release with Bodies In The Gears Of The Apparatus, this LP was released merely 3 months after that split. There is clearly another distinct change from the earlier material present on this release, which can be pinned on a number of factors, from the departure of miss Marie-Hélène Landry, the movement of Alexandre Erian to vocals, and perhaps a pinch of something that was once known as 'natural evolution'. The music on this LP is certainly a bit closer to archtypical deathcore, and has lost most of the grindcore influence that one would notice on their debut release. However, this does not mean that Despised Icon has gone the Gothencore route with their sound. Instead, what we have here is essentialy a more refined, orderly Despised Icon, with a renewed sense of focus towards their musical goals.

With the aformentioned loss of grind influence, one could say that 'The Healing Process' is somewhat less blistering, but more measured and calculated overall. Gone are the one-minute tracks of the previous LP (and gone is the excruciatingly short running time) and here are longer, more complex and developed tracks overall. Song structure is more organized, and the transitions between various movements, while still somewhat conceptually stilted, flow together technically in a much better way. 'Smooth' would be an appropriate word to describe the album, at least in relation to their earlier works; while others thrived off the energy of constant shifting in directions that they themselves seemed confused by, 'The Healing Process' seems to possess a more logical, traditional method of structuring that is at once more pleasing to the ear and more pleasing to the artist in each of us.

Kicking off with the track 'Bulletproof Scales', one can see that all of the past hasn't been lost: Despised Icon still has that rapidly changing spectrum of sounds, but now the sway to their breakdowns is less one of unsteadiness and more one of resolute headbanging, at least before the band tears into another ripping tremolo section. This track seems to have an introductory feel to it, with it's cool, drifting chords at the end of palm-muted chug sequences that seem to reflect a band that is much more in control of its sound than it ever has before. This is not merely due to experience, but also a matter of the improved technical skill of the band: everything is much faster and more layered overall, particularly in the guitars. While 'Consumed By Your Poison' possessed interesting guitarwork in the way rhythms and techniques were changed based off narrative theme, this idea has expanded manyfold in this installment, with strings that stop on dimes and glide smoothly yet percussively across the fretboard.

The second track, 'Silver Plated Advocate' is one of the highlights of the album. This shows Despised Icon completely and utterly in control not only of their performances, but of the listeners as well. This might be the most memorable track on the disk, with it's exquisite shifts into particularly dark breakdown segments and trademark Despised Icon drum experimentation (fans of the band will immediately recognize the absence of a snare drum during the breakdown portions, one of DI's signature moves), along with excellently unfolding and demonstrative vocal patterns. However, such patterns do pose a problem on certain parts of this album, such as on 'The Sunset Will Never Charm Us', a frequent joke between myself and friends over its awkward trade-offs and overly manipulated pronunciation and rhythm. At times, the album seems to be too vocal-driven for its own good, with lyrics that are at times haphazardly jammed in and instrumentation that seems to be more a background for the vocals to complete their narrative before cutting out at the end of that track's story. This is not a deathblow, but it is a highly noticeable aspect.

Lyrically, the departure of Marie-Hélène Landry has excised essentialy all of the French portions of Despised Icon's music. Reflecting the goal of the new album, the lyrics also seem more organized, with specific narratives present as opposed to the generalized criticisms of government or society or media that composed most of the words on 'Consumed By Your Poison'. Now, personal struggles are expressed through understatement and a more deep-seated odium towards individuals (who often represent the human race as a whole) than was present on the previous LP. The lyrics can compare to those on the debut in their structure (essentialy death metal writing within a metalcore framework), and there is a certain familiarity to the dragged out lists of moderately related metaphors all appealing to a higher general concept (frequently better illuminated by the title of a song rather than the lyrics). The vocal patterns, while somewhat clumsy, have improved in certain dimensions when it comes to delivering lyrics, such as on closer 'End This Day' with its anthemic riot shouts that seem befitting of a more developed band.

Production is generally similar to that on the first LP, though obviously somewhat less brackish and more balanced overall. Vocals are somewhat louder than the instruments, which mostly operate similarly in volume, including what is at times a fairly noticable and enjoyable bass. Probably the strongest criticism that one could make about 'The Healing Process' is that it still lacks full definition between songs, though there is a definite improvement in this regard when compared to the first LP. Unfortunately, the tracks still require a rather hefty amount of listening to fully differentiate, as the riffing patterns for many of the songs are so similar on a superficial level. However, I will say that there is little genuine recycling on this release, which is a pleasant change from many of Despised Icon's contemporaries.

Despised Icon always seems to be a band grasping at possible brilliance but just barely falling short each time. 'The Healing Process', while still not achieving that peak, is most certainly a step closer to that eventual goal. I genuinely believe that they will achieve such a level within their next few releases, and I for one am greatful for a band that for once seems to be going uphill.

 Friday, 14 December 2007 If it's not one thing, it's another. After the (relative) demise of nu metal in the early 00's, a new genre was developed, partially as an artistic expression of its own, and partially to create a new enemy for the metal scene it pit itself against. Of course, this genre was metalcore, whose fusion of hardcore and various flavors of metal created a simplified and easily opposable genre that could be made a scapegoat for the percieved decline of music by both sides of the fence. 'Tis always a wonder how the most hated things are frequently those that last the longest. Darwin's theories never functioned appropriately for obscure cultural trivia such as this. Either way, the metal scene hunkered down for another period of indeterminate length for such a genre's mass popularity to blow over.

Slightly after the popularization of metalcore was, logically, further experimentation with its various components. The most popular of these experiments (apart from the more or less traditional metalcore sound typified by artists such as Lamb Of God and Killswitch Engage) was undoubtedly the fusion of death metal and metalcore, now frequently known as deathcore. This particular stylistic differentiation too split into essentialy two varieties: that of bands fusing Gothenburg-style melodic death metal with metalcore (for instance, The Black Dahlia Murder), or those those that combined the more brutal variety of death metal with metalcore, such as Animosity. The former developed into the standard of metalcore over time as the Gothenburg riffing and melodic sense appealed to a wider audience, while the latter occupied a sort of no-man's land, too extreme for the masses, but too attached to the stigma of metalcore for most extreme metallers.

About the same time that metalcore had really started to take off (not merely in development as a musical genre, but in critical and commercial success as well) Despised Icon arrived on the metal scene. Forming in 2002 and releasing their debut LP the same year, the band achieved modest but present commercial and critical success with their release. The high-valued beast that would later release the much more successful and popular 'The Healing Process' was not yet present, and was instead dilligently plugging away on Galy Records. On this LP, we see Despised Icon in the crudest form they'd ever been; though that form is actually far more refined than numerous bands many years their senior. Perhaps commendation of the band's timing is in order: one of the earlier bands to experiment and succeed with a full deathcore style, and certainly the one who popularized it the most amongst its followers.

Despite being one of the originators of this specific style, Despised Icon doesn't have a particularly archtypical sound. In fact, without knowledge of their later works, the metalcore elements on this release wouldn't be quite as apparent as they seem to be in hindsight. Instead, we have tightly wound, percussive death metal with metalcore influence mostly apparent in structure as opposed to obvious aesthetic qualities. The music is rather neatly divided between furious, claustrophobic blasting passages reminiscient of Morbid Angel in composition (though not in melodic style) and slower hardcore/metalcore passages where the dual vocalists employed by Despised Icon are used to full effect. The music is reasonably technical, with guitar and drumwork that frequently changes not merely in note values but in rhythmic concepts and playing styles.

Dual vocals on this album are handled extremely well. Handled by Steve Marois and the now-departed Marie-Hélène Landry, the former concentrates on guttural brutal death metal vocals with the occasional scream, while the latter covers a wide range of growls and shrieks. Marois is certainly very skilled and competent at his style, but Landry is most definitely given more space to shine within the context of this music. Landry is certainly one of the best female unclean vocalists that metal has seen, being both more brutal and guttural than her predominantly male peers as well as displaying an unusually high technical skill. Particularly of note is her ability to swing from high to low pitches on a dime (not unlike George 'Corpsegrinder' Fisher of Cannibal Corpse), and even more impressively being able to pass through the entire range of notes when doing as such. The rapidly changing shape of the music on 'Consumed By Your Poison' seems to fit Landry's style more than Marois', who is somewhat left out of his element. When the two work together, however, such as on 'Clef De Voûte', both vocalists are used expertly, adding an entirely new rhythmic dimension to the music on this LP.

Other instrumentation is somewhat less awe-inspiring, but certainly no less capable. The strings are quite varied in rhythmic and melodic styles, though the riffs don't seem to really stick in one's mind after a listen. They seem to provide more propulsion and texture to bounce off the vocals rather than taking the forefront themselves. As mentioned before, they possess a relatively high degree of melodic skill, which accentuates the constantly changing and transforming nature of the music on this album. Drumming (on this album handled by Alexandre Erian, who would later take over vocals after the departure of Marie-Hélène Landry) works in a similar fashion, though it seems more mechanical on this album than on later releases after Alex's move to vocals. Many of the elements of percussion that would be accentuated on later releases are present here, albeit in a simpler and more primitive form, such as the experimentation with cymbals and sudden shifts in tempo and style, not unlike the stringed instruments. Overall, all the instrumentation on this album is handled capably, if not in an incredibly unique fashion.

Also worth mention is 'Consumed By Your Poison' on a lyrical front, with a rather interesting form of metalcore-inspired lyrics inserted into the framework of those that would appear on, say, a grindcore CD. While 'The Healing Process' would shift its focus to more abstract issues of personal empowerment within a shackling society, 'Consumed By Your Poison' concentrates more on direct cultural criticism that, interestingly enough, benefits highly from what appears to be a feminine as well as masculine critique of such issues. And yet, they are not in the ways one would think; Landry handles all the French lyrics on the album, while Marois handles those in English. Marois attacks contemporary Western culture's emphasis on shallow ideals, while Landry is more preoccupied with extended metaphors describing one's victimized role in society (reflecting more the later lyrical themes of the band). Such a dynamic sets an intriguing tone, with alternating attacks on the lives of most people today ramming home the central point that all is not as it should be.

The album boasts two central flaws: a lack of differentiation between tracks, and a very short running time. Clocking in at less than a half hour in length, 'Consumed By Your Poison' ends very quickly, despite how good it is. However, this may be a good thing considering most of the tracks sound very similar to each other, and certain ones seem to be there merely to pad out the length. In particular, the two tracks that appear to aspire to be grindcore ('Dead King' and 'Despise The Icons') appear to be genuine afterthoughts that were written in a couple hours when eight tracks clocking in at twenty-five minutes seemed a little too short for comfort to the band. This lack of differentiation is really what handicaps an otherwise fantastic album; the philosophical points of the LP fall short when one can't tell the difference between one and the other, preventing a genuine bridge from forming between meaning and music.

If you purchase the 2006 re-release of this album, you will have an additional two bonus tracks, those being re-recordings of the first two tracks of the album, 'Compel To Copulate' and 'Poissonnariat' with the 'The Healing Process' lineup. Hearing the tracks in the new format is rather interesting: they possess a more organic, less strict feel, with looser guitar and drumwork. The incorporation of the vocals of Erian also alter the tracks, making them somewhat more pit-friendly with the incorporation of his hardcore vocal style. The two tracks, while probably not worth picking up a second copy of the album for, are an enjoyable inclusion to the release, making it a preferable choice over the original if just for novelty alone.

The debut release of Despised Icon, while flawed, is certainly a worthwhile addition to one's metal collection. Interesting for both musical and philosophical reasons, it is a jack of all trades, incorporating elements of historical, musical, and social significance. The open-minded metaller should give it a go, as well as those who haven't heard this style pulled off correctly. A very worthwhile album that sheds light on things to come.

 Tuesday, 04 December 2007 2005's 'Bleeding The False' was, to be very blunt about it, awesome. I often described it to my friends as 'Deicide times a thousand': it was that band's fast, brutal delivery taken to an extreme that I hadn't even thought possible. That album was traditional death metal overdriven to an insane degree, with a level of utterly single-minded brutality present that I'd never heard before anywhere else. Above and beyond merely being brutal, it had another, less common quality about it. 'Bleeding The False' felt like it was a sort of Satanic war march: an attack on the listener, if you will, with everything always going a thousand miles an hour, with neverending rivers of blast beats and tremolo riffs dominating the majority of the music. It was, as direct and fairly one-dimensional as it was, absolutely great.

Two years later and Aeon has returned with their sophomore LP, 'Rise To Dominate'. It's still brutal. It's still fast. It's still absurdly anti-Christian. But now it's a lot more multidimensional than the previous album was: there's a great deal more tempo changes, rhythmic and melodic variation, and a general sense that the band has become more complex as a whole in the time between the last album and this one. Tracks like 'You Pray To Nothing' and 'No One Escapes Us' bring the tempo down a great deal to create extremely dark, burning compositions, like a good version of Deicide's 'Insineratehymn'. The riffing has become a good deal more complex and melodic, and the drumming has become less binary in nature; vocals are also now less deep and more intelligible (not that they were particularly Lord Worm-like before). A more melodic and varied Aeon, though, is still more brutal than nearly any other band on the planet, and the overall tone of the band has not changed. If anything, the general attitude has gotten more focused, with all of the humor of the previous album gone from this one. It's even more demonic than before.

The technical performances have ramped up since 'Bleeding The False', and Aeon plays tighter and harder than ever. It's not just the speed that makes Aeon seem brutal: it's the intensity with which they play their instruments, that can't be faked through studio trickery. Each blast beat sounds positively crushing in the same way that Suffocation's drumming has: it really sounds like drummer Nils Fjellström is attempting to kill his kit through massive, crushing blows. The riffs are similar: each chord is wrecking and massive, and the only slight reprieve from this is in the brief solos. There's a machinelike delivery that Aeon has, a truly warlike sound that few others have been able to replicate, which gives their music an entirely new and ferocious edge when compared to the average these days. I wouldn't describe Aeon as brutal death metal; they don't really sound like Disgorge or Suffocation. Rather, it's traditional, early 90's style death metal, only sped up and brutalized dramatically; most of the riffs wouldn't seem very out of place back in '93, albeit much slower.

The production is, of course, great. Rich and bass heavy, with all elements audible, and all the power kept in the guitars and bass drums, just as it should be. It seems that it's a more serious album: 'Bleeding The False' was awesome, but it also felt like the band was playing around a bit. Not here. The anti-Christian sentiment is completely devoid of humor or good time feelings, and is, if possible, even more direct lyrically than the material on the first album. Aeon has essentially taken the crown of Satanic death metal from Deicide, and in the process, created material better than the vast majority of what that band better turned out. But the great question always is: "Is it better than the previous album?" Well, for that, I'm not so sure. As far as composition goes, this is obviously superior, being a great deal more complex and varied than 'Bleeding The False' could ever hope to be. But the absolute single-minded aggression and hatred of that album is still pretty cool to me. I suppose it comes down purely to personal preference.

Nothing more should need to be said. If you liked Aeon's first album, this one is the perfect logical successor and the perfect logical choice of purchase. Aeon is the fist in the face of Jehovah, and I don't think they'll ever stop doing what they're doing. If the band's values are as uncompromising as their music is, churches will mysteriously burn to the ground long after each member of Aeon has rotted away. Buy it or you're a Christian. And you don't want that, do you?

(Originally written for www.vampire-magazine.com)

 Tuesday, 04 December 2007 This is going to be a toughie, but bare with me.

The year is 1993. Hell, that alone could tell the story of this album. This was the year of 'Covenant', the year of 'Breeding The Spawn', the year where the Earache/Warner union looked like it might actually work. The air was thick with certainty and a sense of direction, with every album coming out in the death metal scene seemingly becoming an overnight classic. Now, considering that this was the year of 'Elements', experimentation was most certainly an accepted part of the equation these days, with death metal bands going further than they ever had before in writing engaging yet esoteric music that, oddly enough, more and more people were beginning to be enchanted by every day.

Now Cynic had been kicking around for six years at this point, originally starting as a thrash metal group but steadily adding more and more progressive elements to their music over time. By the time that Focus was ready to be released, they had metamorphosized into a full-blown jazz-fusion death metal band with an emphasis on extreme technicality and progressive songwriting. And, as anyone with even a passing interest in metal knows, this album is one of the definitions of 'metal milestone'. It would be very difficult to overstate how groundbreaking and influential 'Focus' was and still is today; it is without any doubt whatsoever a critical part of the development of metal as an artistic form.

But let me back up a moment and clarify something: there is a very, very large degree of difference between something being 'important' and something being 'enjoyable'. Because in all honesty, 'Focus' to me is very much the former and only sporadically the latter. I find it meandering and pointlessly technical at times, and completely overblown and cheesy at others. It's easy to see why this is such an important part of the metal scene, but at the same time I can't help but find in hindsight that this album is easily cause for eye-rolling and snorts of derision. Everything about 'Focus' is overly proud and bombastic (which seems strange for something so influenced by jazz fusion, but there you go), and represents the most absurd excesses of the early 90s in its construction. From the ridiculous tinkling synth lines to the insipid wafting 'island breeze' acoustic portions to the idiot distorted vocals that robotically croon some of the worst, most stupidly ham-fisted lyrics imaginable ('Freedom and reason shine through/Paddle upon the clouds one's own canoe', really, what the Christ were they thinking), all of it simply screeches the things I decry most in metal.

However, at the same time, despite how fucking stupid this album seems at times, I can't help but respect the purpose of such bizarre machinations. Yes, the synth lines and robot vocals are stupid, but it was most certainly a stupidity that no one had thought to attempt before. 'Focus' opened the doors to numerous new musical ideas for metal music as a whole and broke down commonly held barriers against fusing metal with such flagrantly 'un-metal' music. While jazz/metal experimentation had existed before due to bands such as Atheist, it had never been attempted in such a passive, gentle way that eschewed most of the internal aggression that defined heavy metal in favor of introspection, no matter how awfully phrased such introspection might be. So while I'll make no attempt to claim that I particularly 'enjoy' this album on an aesthetic level, I'll similarly make no attempt to discredit all the lavish praise that is heaped on 'Focus' either. Such praise is well deserved for an album that did so much to advance the metal scene beyond where it currently was, even though certain people such as myself might find many of the features rather distasteful.

Though one has likely gathered what the general sound of Cynic is like from the previous statements, I'll do my best to encompass it once again. The base of Cynic is in a highly technical breed of thrashy death metal with an emphasis on melody and texture provided by keyboards and other nontraditional metal instruments such as the Chapman stick. Vocals come in three distinct flavors: snarling male growls not entirely unlike what one would hear on a dusty copy of 'Seven Churches', sporadic operatic female clean vocals, and synthesized male vocals with a 'robotic' tone. The most logical adjective to use is, of course, 'progressive', as Cynic never ceases to change the direction or tone of their music. This album rarely settles down, with consistently shifting textures that trade off and overlap in what can only be described as organic manner. Frequently a technique will be employed where instrumentalists will slip one by one into the next movement until they have all collected before performing such a maneuver again, making this an oddly flowing listening experience.

Certainly, Cynic can frequently make this a thrilling release on tracks such as closer 'How Could I', where previously mentioned techniques blossom into full, gorgeous prog metal bloom. This is a supremely unaggressive album; instead of portraying typical metal fury, this album concentrates on introspection and tranquillity instead. Certainly one's mileage will vary based on what they seek in a metal album, or, rather, how little metal they're will to tolerate at any given time. The particularly closed minded would likely derive nothing from 'Focus' except frustration and boredom. However, I would stand by my assertation that every metalhead, and indeed every progressive music listener in general, should hear this at least once in order to better trace the development of the genres that we love.

If you own the 2004 Roadrunner re-release of 'Focus', the album does not end with the final strains of 'How Could I'. Instead, it extends for another six tracks. The first three of these are remixes of the songs 'Veil Of Maya', 'I'm But A Wave To', and 'How Could I'. The instrumental tone on these remixes is slightly fuller and crisper than on the original cut of the album, but otherwise, the remixes have little perceptible difference from the original versions. After this, the re-release concludes with three tracks from post-Cynic band Portal's self-titled demo. These tracks in a way provide the denouement to the untimely end of Cynic, showing us where they would likely have gone had they continued. In this case, they would have turned into a full-blown progressive rock band, eschewing all death vocals and most metal instrumentation, replacing those instead with poppy melody and gentle, sweeping harmonizations and jazzy percussion. While not at all poor music (indeed, these tracks seem superior to Cynic at times!), they are most certainly not 'metal' in any sense of the word.

'Focus', while not aesthetically for everyone, is an undeniably seminal work in the dimension of metal and progressive music. While only a certain segment might enjoy what is presented on this album, what is presented is an utterly necessary compendium of sounds that must be appreciated for what they allowed to be created more than what they are in and of themselves.

 Tuesday, 04 December 2007 I never thought I would actually write this, but Animosity's 'Empires' is actually a deathcore album WITHOUT A BREAKDOWN. I'm not even sure how it's possible. This album manages to be completely different from anything on the market today purely on the virtue of not having any 80 BPM cut time china cymbal smacking, and if nothing else, you need to listen to this album because of that. I have to say, it's refreshing to have a band who realizes that hardcore isn't just a handful of stereotypes (the breakdown being the most obvious among them) and is able to willingly eschew the most obvious among them to make unique music.

That's another element that sets Animosity apart: the 'deathcore' they play is rather different from what we normally think of it as. Here the music is a pretty pure combination of Throwdown style metalcore and death metal, not the 'Suffocation plus shouting' stuff that everyone else is doing. And yet, no breakdowns. Sure, there are some mid-paced hardcore sections, but the band never quite goes into DUNDUNDUNDUN *tshh* territory like so many others do. For the general sound, Despised Icon is a good reference point (though, once again, without breakdowns), but once again, the songwriting is fairly different from any of the deathcore bands out there today. At first listen, I was rather confused by 'Empires' trying to figure out precisely what was going on in the songwriting, but it all came together for me on the second and third runs through.

You know those mid/fast-paced sections in every death/hard/metalcore song that you wade through to get to the pit riffs? Animosity has taken these and made them essentially the whole of their music, but has actually made them good to listen too. Another unbelievable thing, I know. Most of the riffing is low and rhythmic, with the occasional bit of tremolo during the (surprisingly infrequent) blasting sections. And the riffs are good! They're pretty firmly rooted in modern hardcore but never parodize themselves like so many of those bands do. The drumming is pure DM: lots of double bass and fills, not entirely unlike Despised Icon. The vocals can also draw a comparison there: the low growls are very Marois, and the higher pitched, almost black metal-esque (that means that they sound like black metal, not merely that they're high pitched/raspy) are an additional unique yet pleasing touch to the overall equation.

Each one of the songs on the album is very solid. The band keeps it short at at 27 minutes total; perhaps too short for some, but I prefer this to any needless filler material. The music is consistently heavy, moderately technical, and laced with enough hooks to keep the listener interested throughout without having to rely on gimmick or novelty. The music here is just very well written: I've never heard a combination that's quite like this, in delivery or immediate success. A reviewer delivering a rather scathing critique of Nortt mentioned that said band was a combination of black metal and funeral doom, and nothing more. I feel that this is an issue with many bands: they feel that merely combining two genres is enough to set them apart from the pack. While Animosity clearly combine two genres, even two genres combined commonly enough to have a name of its own, they are able to add enough of their own songwriting talent to the mix to set themselves apart from other bands quite nicely.

For all the deathcore fans currently out there, this is a definitely an album to check out. For those who dislike the genre based on its typical fulfillment of metalcore stereotypes, however, it should also be investigated as a very different spin on the fusion that may hook listeners where Despised Icon or Through The Eyes Of The Dead did not.