Hypocrisy – Penetralia
Album Information
This is the only album from Hypocrisy with five band members including the trio which made quite many albums and sideprojects until Lars jumped of the band and was replaced by Horgh which has also played in bands like Immortal and Grimfist. This album is their first and it concentrates on satainc themes and hatred against God any other religious areas.
Band Members
Masse Broberg – vocals
Peter Tägtgren – guitars
Jonas Österburg – guitars
Mikael Hedlund – bass
Lars Szöke – drums
The Instumental Section
The band shows alot of skills in this album in my opinion, especially when you hear Lars’s drumming. This is very great drumming compared to many of their albums which was about to come later. The vocals sounds like Peter’s growls and the riffing style is basically the same as one the forward-coming albums. The bass is not much to notice because it is not heard so well on this album. The guitars are very impressive here because of the riffing style, there is shredding riffs, triplets and a few acoustics here and there but mostly there are the fast, brutal riffs that dominates in the songs.
Track Information
As I said before, the band concentrates on satanic themes which can be cleary heard by just judging the track-titles like Impotent God, God Is A Lie and Jesus Fall for example. The sound consists of the famous ¨cookie-monster vocals¨ and fast, brutal riffing and the over-the-top drumming. The growling is the only vocals that you will hear on this album so there is no vocal mixing except for the remade growls which I will come to later in this review.
Most of the tracks is fast and raw in their sound, some of the most catchiest riffs is heard on tracks like ¨Suffering Souls¨ and ¨Escape Is To Die¨ and so is the drumming. The lyrics is satanic and hateful, the band is quite serious on their opinion in the track ¨God Is A Lie¨ when Masse makes a short laugh after singing the title. There is lot of triplet-riffing in this album which can be quite enjoyable for whose who like that kind of riffs. The soloing does not make a big impression because they sound to chaotic and they are fast, they are indeed skilled but there is no highlight solos in this album.
I noticed that the song ¨Penetralia¨ was the only song that I found to be the most extreme, the vocals is more screaming growls and there is some very odd speaking here which gives me the chills when I listen to it. It is Masse who is speaking about something and it sounds like a beast from hell that is preaching about something. The song starts with acoustics and the ¨famous¨ Hypocrisy chanting and later the song bursts to an very energic song. I find the vocals quite funny because they sound somewhat faked in my opinion.
Final Rating
I think that this is one of the bands most extreme albums but I found a few songs that was quite good. I don’t like this album as much as their later stuff. Personally I hate most growlings and ultra-fast drums and it is a album that you don’t listen to many times in a row. I recommend this album to more experienced death-metal listeners because of the lyrics, satanic themes and the growlings. The final rating will be: 4/5
PROS
-Great drums
-Great riffs
-The heavy sound in general
CONS
-The cookie monster vocals
Recommended Tracks
-Suffering Souls
-Burn By The Cross
-Escape Is To Die
-Penetralia
