Sonic Squeals: Despised Icon

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IN THE LINGUA FRANCA of extreme metal, the sound seething from the lips of Despised Icon co-vocalist Steve Marois is called a "pig squeal."

"That's one of our trademarks," said fellow Despised Icon vocalist Alexandre Erian, "and a lot of bands have copied that sound since, so it doesn't sound that original anymore. People were overdoing it, too."

While the inhaled-style of singing may sound routine coming from other bands, Marois' version of the pig squeal actually sounds more like Tuvan throat singing, or some kind of electronic ring modulator you might hear in the ambient guitar-tronica of an artist like Fennesz, rather than a purely brutal scream.

Those slight stylistic tweaks are true of Despised Icon's music in general, which transcends deathcore (and its cliches) simply by being better conceived. The Montreal five-piece may make extreme music, but there's precision and clarity in the band's sound, which gives it razor-sharp power.

The group is out on its final tour in support of its last album, "The Ills of Modern Man" (Century Media)," as well as a forthcoming DVD, "Montreal Assault Live" (Century Media). Actually, the DVD was supposed to be out already, and the Montreal theme was an integral part of the tour since Despised Icon picked fellow Quebecois metal champs Beneath the Massacre, Neuraxis and Plasma Rifle as part of the package tour.

Express spoke to Erian about the DVD delays, metal merch, the band's next CD, hockey, Francophones and Canada.

» EXPRESS: This tour was to support the new Despised Icon DVD, "Montreal Assault Live," but it still hasn't come out yet. What's going on with it?
» ERIAN: I wish I could be nice about it, but unfortunately we're dealing with idiots right now. It was supposed to come out [in January], but it's still not out. ... Normally, I'm polite and stuff, but I dunno what the problem is. It was supposed to come out in November, but then our label decided to push back the release date to time it with this tour, because this tour is a DVD launch tour — that was the purpose of this tour ... and it's also the last tour we had lined up for this record "The Ills of Modern Man," before entering the studio, which we're going to enter right after this tour. ... I cannot even get an official release date right now [for the DVD]. Nobody knows what the problem is with the DVD. Some sort of manufacturing problem. Nobody knows if it's the producer's fault, or Sony's fault, or the label's fault, but nothing's really happening right now. I thought we were in good hands — apparently not. ... I thought they would print everything in advance, make sure everything is ready on time considering this DVD has been done for months. I saw the final result last year! I dunno what's up with that. It's really frustrating, actually, and the fact that we're still left in the dark about the whole issue is unacceptable, but I voiced my opinion to our label and manager and all that. But I still don't have a clear answer about when this freakin' DVD is gonna come out. Hopefully it will come out by March, or something?

» EXPRESS: But the tour is also sort of promoting metal from Montreal in general, not just your DVD.
» ERIAN: We've headlined in Canada, we've headlined in Europe, but for some reason we've never done any headlining tours in the U.S. Finally, we get the opportunity to do so. Finally, I get to pick the bands, and instead of picking what band is the coolest, what band draws the most, what band has the most sales, I decided to put all that business-related bullshit aside and just pick my friends. So, I took all our friends from back home, and basically we're just a bunch of Montreal dudes on tour, having a good time. It's as if we're just hanging out at home. ... It feels good; we're really into it. ... All the shows have been really badass so far.

» EXPRESS: Despised Icon has an impressive amount of merchandise for sale. Is going on tour and selling stuff pretty much the only way bands can survive these days?
» ERIAN: Gotta figure out a way to stand out, sell some extra merch, pay the rent and stuff. We have basketball jerseys, mesh shorts, skateboards, vinyl, belt-buckles, and all sorts of merchandising, trying to figure ways to sell stuff to kids and pay rent. We're not doing this for the money, because we're all broke regardless, but we have to figure out a way to keep this band alive, and merchandise is pretty much the only thing that helps us survive. The [concert] guarantees we make are just enough to pay for gas and food every day, and we're not making a dime off CDs, so merchandising is how bands get by.

» EXPRESS: Since you sell basketball jerseys, are you guys into sports?
» ERIAN: We're mostly just into hockey. We support the Montreal Canadians and that's about it. We played on Super Bowl Sunday, and I didn't even know which teams were playing.

» EXPRESS: For the longest time it seemed like you couldn't find a hockey fan, let alone a metal band, in the Baltimore, D.C., Northern Virgina area. Now there are sell-outs at Verizon and have bands like Darkest Hour from D.C., who wrote a playoff anthem for the Caps last year, and Baltimore's Misery Index, who tour the world and are all about the Washington Capitals.
» ERIAN: Misery Index, they are the biggest Caps fans I've seen. They literally follow the score while on tour, and follow games and everything, and [guitarist] Sparky always has his Capitals jersey and Capitals beanie [on]. Cool dudes. Back home, instead of having Darkest Hour playing the hockey theme, it's Simple Plan. [Laughs]

» EXPRESS: Since Despised Icon are Francophones, how many songs do you sing in French?
» ERIAN: We three records out right now. Our first record that came out in 2002, half the songs are in French. Back then, I was playing drums, and we had a different singer. She would write in French, and Steve, our other vocalist, would write in English. Then we did two other records, and this other record that we're working on, we have two French songs so far. That's what came from the heart, and it came out in French, so we decided to keep it that way — and why not? We're just a bunch of French kids anyway. ... We toured Europe three times last year, and played 15 countries, one of which was France, and we're really starting to do well over there. They're really supportive of us Francophones over there. ... We just got confirmed for Hellfest, which is the biggest metal slash hardcore festival in France — if I'm not mistaken — so we'll be doing that next summer, and I'm pretty stoked.

» EXPRESS: Since Canadian radio is required to play a certain percentage of music from Canadian bands, has that helped Despised Icon break through up there?
» ERIAN: Coming from Quebec, which is the French minority part of Canada, we have pop stars that are huge in Quebec, but as soon as they cross over to another province, they're nobody — nobody even knows about them. So, when a band like us comes along and tours the world — and our last record did about 50,000 copies sold worldwide — even pop stars back home don't get to break outside of Quebec. Right before leaving on tour, we had an interview on Le Telejournal, which is like news at 6. There was a whole one minute, two minute interview of us on the daily news. Mom and dad and my grandparents got to see it and everything, and stuff like that doesn't happen. We're also on this documentary that's going to air next summer on CBC, and we're also on this thing called Bande a Part, which is online and owned by CBC. We've also been on Musique Plus, which our equivalent to MTV, and not too many bands from where we're from get this opportunity, so I think we're starting to turn some heads. I don't want to sound pretentious or anything, but things are going well and I'm trying to enjoy it while it lasts.

» Sonar, 407 E. Saratoga St., Baltimore; with Beneath the Massacre, Neuraxis, Carnifex, Plasma Rifle, Fierce Allegiance and Shinakumah, Mon., Feb. 23, 6 p.m., $18; 410-783-7888.