Hypocrisy – The Fourth Dimension
This album is the first album from Hypocrisy while there were only three band members (you may say their second album if you include one of their EP’s), the album has a brutal, dark, evil and sad sound to it. The lyrics is about hate, dispair, violence and hopelesness etc. Peter Tägtgrens vocalstyle is deep growling which makes it hard to concentrate on the lyrics. He also uses a few screams here and there but it is the growling that stands for the sound.
The Line Up
Peter Tägtgren – vocals/guitars
Mikael Hedlund – bass
Lars Szöke – drums
Track Information
Apocalypse
The song starts with spooky sound effects and later a keyboard turns up and plays a sad and melodic part and the rest of the band kicks in. The song is like a slow and heavy ballad with directions to evil. There are also some chanting to fill in before the chorus. This song is really apocalyptic to its sound and it sounds really good. 4.5/5
Mind Corruption
This is one of the faster song, starts with a medium heavy intro and breaks loose with triplet riffing. The lyrics is about ¨they¨ that first come for your rescue but later kills you for religion.
The lyrics suits fine to the vocals and lyrics. Great solo and is one of the albums stand out songs. 5/5
Reincarnation
This song is a moderate song, it is not fast nor slow. Dark and evil vocals and good dubblebass drums in the chorus. There is not much to write about this song, the song is calm but it may sound boring with time. 3.5/5
Reborn
Starts with fast guitar playing and later on intensive drumming, the structure of the song is similar to thrash-metal songs. But it also sounds like black-metal from Norway, but the song is not one of the better even if the solo makes a big score. 3/5
Black Forest
The intro has a challenging sound and it sounds a bit scary. The song is almost like Reincarnation but with more screams and a slightly turned up tempo. Good solo but you might get tired of the drumming, it has an ending part which sounds very hopeless if you would be in big trouble and there is no way out. 3.5/5
Never To Return
Fast drumming and heavy guitars makes the intro uninteresting to the listener and has a bumpy feeling to the song. There is other vocals here that reminds of chanting of some kind but it dosen’t make the song any better. This is definetly not a highlight and I think this is a boring song. 2/5
Path To Babylon
Has a heavy and fast intro with annoying guitar sounds, the riffing reminds a bit of Mind Corruption but the drumming is also intensive in this song. I would say that this is an average song and has fragments that is typical for death-metal, the guitar solo is one of the best here but it is to short. 3/5
Slaughtered
This is a slow, grinding song and is has a groovy feel to it, the intro section may song boring but when the main riff kicks in you almost have the feeling to headbang. Good vocals and is one of my personal favorite tracks. 5/5
Orgy In Blood
Another intensive song which sounds a bit like black-metal, the vocals is bad and has some heavy riffing. But this song is not even near the top to be a good track, though Tägtgren does have good guitar skills the solo is not so good. 2/5
The North Wind
The intro is heavy and moderate and sounds like power-metal, the song has a galloping pace and it sounds great, but the song looses its tempo at a few points which is bad. The lyrics contains of gore and violence but this is one good song. 4.5/5
T.E.M.P.T
Yet another song with an intensve structure, sounds like the other fast songs but the triplet riffing sounds good though. A few sections of the song is catchy but I can’t find anything more to write about this song. 3/5
The Fouth Dimension
An acousitic intro and heavy slow riffing, great intro and has the apocalyptic theme. The song sounds almost like the song in the old PC-game DOOM, to me it sounds like that but I guess it’s just me. 4/5
Arrival Of The Demons
This is not really a song, it contains of this weather effects that sounds like a slow breeze after a storm or something like that. The vocals is just whispering and has a small part of chanting. 2/5
This is considered to be one of Hypocrisy’s better albums but I think it is not that good. I’m not a dedicated death-metal fan so I might lower this albums rating but there are songs that sticks to my brain. The best song from this album is Apocalypse, Mind Corruption and Slaughtered. I would recommend this album to whose who like growling vocals asnd not to ordinary ¨metal heads¨, but this is death-metal and I guess this is how it is supposed to sound.
This album is hard to judge though and but I will give it: 4/5
