Review by Allan on July 31, 2005.

The last album I heard by Canada’s Despised Icon was their debut, Consumed By Your Poison. Now they’ve returned with The Healing Process, a follow-up that continues along the same death metal path they started out on. Unfortunately, The Healing Process doesn’t show the band making any huge leaps of progression since the last album – one that showed potential, but had room for improvement.

Despised Icon is a good death metal band, Consumed By Your Poison was a good release, and the same can be said about The Healing Process. I suppose the issue that I have with their latest album then is that it doesn’t challenge the status quo, but rather teeters on the edge of it. Something about Despised Icon stands out stylistically. Maybe it’s their spatial arrangements or ability to throw unpredictable hooks at the listener. But mix that in with a lot of cliché death metal tactics and a good amount of not-so-special riffage, and The Healing Process leaves a bit to be desired.

As an album, it tends to fly by from beginning to end, falling into more of a background music that is quickly forgotten about until it’s over, only for you to realize suddenly that you need to put in another album. Technical riffs and odd rhythms don’t quite cut it these days. There aren’t many moments that catch you off guard with sheer brutality or atmospheric flare.

Don’t get me wrong – The Healing Process is a good death metal album… well, it would be if I hadn’t heard most of it before. And for a group of people that obviously have quite a bit of talent and the ability to write good songs and come up with good ideas, it’s too bad their selling themselves short by working within a modest framework. I wish I could say I love it, but I can’t. Hopefully next time we hear from them they’ll have something more ambitious for us.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 8
Atmosphere: 5
Production: 8
Originality: 5
Overall: 6

Rating: 6.4 out of 10