DESPISED ICON Calling It Quits

Montreal, Quebec, Canada extreme metallers DESPISED ICON have released the following statement via MySpace: (Note: The message has since been removed from the band's official MySpace blog.)

"The time has come for us to move on. Some of us have recently reached a new chapter in their lives, starting families, buying houses and pursuing other careers to make it all happen. Writing music, touring and leaving home for months at a time is slowly becoming impossible because of that. We all decided that it'd be best to pull the plug now and end things right.

"It's hard to believe we started this band almost 10 years ago already. At first, DESPISED ICON was mostly just an excuse to hang out, write brutal slam riffs and play local shows once in a while. With your support, we got the opportunity to actually play music for a living, make friends around the world, be MVPs and travel to places we never even dreamed of visiting in our lifetime.

"Thank you all for some of the best times of our lives.

"We're currently working on setting up our final tours in Canada, USA and Europe. Expect to see us in a town near you sometime before the end of the year. If all goes as planned, we'll also be touring Australia and Asia for the first time in the fall. We'll keep you posted on everything.

"These last shows will be fucking epic! See you guys then!"

HardTimes.ca conducted an interview with DESPISED ICON when the band played in their hometown on December 5, 2009. Watch the 21-minute chat below.

"Day Of Mourning", the new album from DESPISED ICON, sold around 3,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 162 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD landed at position No. 6 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.

"Day Of Mourning" was released on September 22, 2009 via Century Media Records. The CD was produced by Yannick St-Amand, while the mixing duties were handled by Andreas Magnusson (THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER, THE AGONY SCENE, SCARLET, DUFRESNE, BECOMING THE ARCHETYPE, SPITFIRE, TWELVE TRIBES). The whole thing was mastered by Alan Douches (MASTODON, THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN, NILE).

DESPISED ICON last year released a DVD entitled "Montreal Assault Live". The disc features a "stellar" multi-camera shoot from the band's sold-out hometown show, alongside a new hour-long documentary and all of the band's promotional video clips.