Despised Icon

Canadian deathcore pioneers DESPISED ICON release their sixth full-length album, "Purgatory", on November 15 via Nuclear Blast. "Purgatory" was produced by Yannick St-Amand, Eric Jarrin and Alex Erian. The music was recorded by DESPISED ICON's former guitar player, now-front-of-house engineer Yannick St-Amand while the vocals were recorded by close friend Antoine Lussier of ION DISSONANCE. Mixing and mastering were completed by CRYPTOPSY's very own Christian Donaldson at The Grid in Montréal. For the album artwork, the band selected Eliran Kantor to create a piece that echoed the themes and concepts of "Purgatory".

Montreal Metal – a seal of approval to be reckoned with: the perfect breeding ground for bands looking for a rather menacing wall of sound! Next to Despised Icon, Beneath The Massacre and Cryptopsy THE AGONIST seem to be designed to make it all the way to the top of the extreme metal scene with their fine-tuned mixture of melodic death metal and metalcore. “Five” makes the exceptional position of the Canadian fivepiece even clearer – as well as its goal to escape all things ordinary. Ever since singer Vicky Psarakis joined the group in 2014…

Four years after the release of their highly anticipated album The Immortal Wars (2017), Juno Award-nominated EX DEO returns with more massive, brutal soundscapes than ever! The Roman Empire inspired death metal band’s newest release, The Thirteen Years Of Nero, transports the listener back to Ancient Rome with 10 cinematic masterpieces that tell the emotional, conceptual story of the reign of Emperor Nero. Accented by sounds of ancient instruments like lyra and harp and detailing the harrowing stories of Nero’s surroundings, close allies and enemies, listeners will connect with intense psychological tones of political turmoil and paranoia. As always, the Canadian unit is led by founding frontman Maurizio Iacono (Kataklysm) and producer/guitarist Jean-François Dagenais (Kataklysm, Misery Index, Despised Icon), but this time, features the stylings of Jeramie Kling (Venom Inc.) on drums and Clemens Wijers (Carach Angren, Lindemann) manning the album’s intense orchestral score.