When we last heard from the boys in Hypocrisy, Peter Tagtgren
\nand crew were showing their skills on the live album
\nHypocrisy Destroys Wacken Live<\/i>, a disc that served
\nunofficially both as a “greatest hits” disc and as a hell of a
\nwelcome for someone who may have never heard this Swedish band’s
\nwork before. I was in the latter group, and after listening to the
\ndisc, I was dying to hear more.<\/p>\n
From the “Boy,
\nThat<\/i> Was Fast” department, vocalist\/guitarist Tagtgren,
\nbassist Mikael Hedlund and drummer Lars Szoke return with their
\nlatest release, a self-titled effort that leaves any expectations
\nyou might have had in the dust.
\nHypocrisy<\/i> is an album that moves from the closest thing one
\ncould call a “ballad” in heavy metal to grindcore that will leave
\nyour neck snapping for days, to more – dare I say it? –
\nconventional performances. All of this will leave your jaw scraping
\nthe pavement in disbelief – and pleasure.<\/p>\n
One side note: The copy I was sent to review was an advance with
\nthe warning, “All songs are unmastered!” You sure could have fooled
\nme; I hope they didn’t change much, ’cause the sound on the advance
\ncopy promo was incredible.<\/p>\n
Tagtgren and crew quickly get down to business on tracks like
\n“Fractured Millenium,” “Fusion Programmed Minds” and “Static
\nInverted Vision,” creating such a rich layer of sound that it
\nalmost seems impossible that you’re listening to a three-piece
\nband. (It also seems impossible to think that not terribly long
\nago, Tagtgren almost pulled the plug on Hypocrisy.) There are times
\nwhere the music takes a spooky turn, almost making you feel like
\nyou’re watching a horror film; when Tagtgren’s seven-string guitar
\nwork kicks in, it’s just like the murderer put their hand on your
\nshoulder. (No joke; I actually jumped at one point when Tagtgren’s
\nplaying started.)<\/p>\n
What makes
\nHypocrisy<\/i> such an intriguing listen is that the band can go
\nfrom one extreme of speed (the break-neck pace of “Apocalyptic
\nHybrid”) to the other (the almost ballad-like “Disconnected
\nMagnetic Corridors”) and make it all sound like this is the way all
\nmusic is supposed to happen. It takes musical skill and solid
\nsongwriting to make such a shift work, and Hypocrisy is a band that
\nknows how to do both well.<\/p>\n
The only drawback to this album – and the only thing keeping the
\ndisc from being perfect in my eyes – is that it’s often difficult
\nto understand what Tagtgren is screaming about. I don’t know if the
\nfull commercial version of this disc comes with lyrics (my promo
\ndoesn’t), but they would have been beneficial. Even so, you don’t
\nhave to understand every word of the song to grasp the importance
\nof the story.<\/p>\n
I would not be surprised if a lot of metal magazines named
\nHypocrisy<\/i> one of the best albums of the year. However, I
\nwould be surprised if this album didn’t break this band into the
\nmore mainstream knowledge of today’s metal-heads.
\nHypocrisy<\/i> is a portrait of a band who deserve every ounce of
\nsuccess that comes their way, and is another album that leaves me
\nwanting to hear more of this group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7344],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-39146","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-hypocrisy","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39146"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}