Deathcore – my genre préféré de choix, my favorite choice of genre. The Quebecois gang in Despised Icon are considered by many to be in the upper pantheon of the genre, among the creators, among the forefathers. Among the greatest of all.

I thoroughly enjoyed their previous record, 2019’s Purgatory, and reviewed it HERE. In that review, I praised its unprecedented levels of ferocity in a near-unhinged measure. A death-bordering-on-grindcore album grabbed you by its throat and left you gasping for reprieve and more in equal measure. With such superlative praise, you can bet your last breakdown that I was salivating at the thought of consuming what they put out next. Here we are, six long years later, with Shadow Work.

The first single of the record, the harbinger of their return, “Over My Dead Body,” wastes no time in kicking you in the shin with old-school hardcore focused deathcore, the sound that put Despised Icon. Clearly, to be a crowd stomper, the title callout is a call to violence in the pit. This song is not reinventing the wheel, merely breaking your nose with it. Adding variety, “Death of an Artist” is a faster-paced banger, with blast beats laid over menacingly diminished chord runs. Leaning towards the death metal side of the genre, the singles show the contrasting goodness that deathcore has to offer.

To kick off a record with a title track is a ballsy move, but “Shadow Work” is a heatseeker. Ferocious intensity prevails, bringing vicious riffs that made Purgatory a great record. The dissonant panic chords add a nice flavor to the breakdowns, another DI staple. The melodic solos a la Dethklok were a welcome surprise and show that DI can still surprise us, decades later. Keeping up the pummeling, “Corpse Pose” has that classic Cannibal Corpse diminished hammer-on run, which was popular in the first wave of deathcore. The first third of Shadow Work is straight heat. A promising start.

Despised Icon throw in some variety on Shadow Work to mixed appeal. “The Apparition” and “In Memoriam” add symphonics at a time when that has become a nigh-maligned trope. While no snooze, these tracks feel like a pale imitation of a Carnifex track with its blackened deathcore sensibilities. The addition of clean vocals (first time?!) chose the deathcore-yarl, which is personally gratifying. Fortunately, the pig squeal vocals on “Reaper” feel almost nostalgic in 2025, albeit on a track that was a bit of a snoozer. The middle section of Shadow Work, while praised for changing up the stereotypical DI formula, felt middling in its overall enjoyment.

The back half fares a bit better, but doesn’t fully recover the joy of the first third of the record. “Omen of Misfortune” and “Obsessive Compulsive Disaster” are a razorwire-hammer one-two punch, and “ContreCour” is a ninety-second grindcore-crustpunk beatdown. Album closer, “Fallen Ones,” tries to lengthen the tempo game with melodic sections and progressive overtones with the exotic acoustic overdubs in its closing moments. Another example of the band trying to freshen up the tried-and-true method, but ended Shadow Work on a bit of a whimper.

Shadow Work is an uneven follow-up to the much more vicious Purgatory. The first third of the record has thrashers, pitstarters, and crowdkillers aplenty, but when the band tries to step away from their roots, the new elements lack the veteran hand of the veteran band. New deathcore kids may enjoy this record, and it serves as a good entry to the band, but old hands like mine, who grew up on their classic records, may leave faintly disappointed.