Review Summary: The album title says it all.
Old-school death metal is pretty self-explanatory. What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, but normally most fans who have lived through it all will know, along with novices like myself, that death metal is something you throw on for an experience leaning more towards the musical, rather than psychological. We may have adopted several types of dances as musical genres and styles began popping up, but then fast forward to the late 80's and you have an innovation of death metal. Oh, but wait. What kind of creativity have we fitted to this latter? That's right, it's the dangerous but beautiful art of headbanging. In truth, we needed to get a smaller part of the body to mirror the fast beats of the drumming and riffs, so that is why we use our head. But with style comes compromise, and while die-hards can most brutally show off their roots, they are bound to loose a few braincells in the process. Just like the cliché, there's nothing as good as some cold beer, you could say there's nothing as good as classic death metal, and there have been quite a few who have provided the world with good clunks of the genre, following a simple formula and sticking to some basic ground rules.
Hypocrisy, although known to few, have done and aced their homework.
Hailing from Sweden and formed in Ludvika, Stockholm of October 1991, this band attaches yet another significant name to Melodic Death Metal (yes, melodic). This may seem like your regular slab of death metal, but what is perceived over long period of time points to so much more. It features lethal contrasts and swings as the album progresses, and perfectly makes the album that I regard oh so proudly. It is anything but a monotonous and bland piece of death metal; this is the foundation of all. From the purity that came from “Hypocrisy” and “The Final Chapter”, and the technical abilities from previous work, this album compiles some of their best material. It’s a throw-in consisting of a bunch of key songs from their previous albums, and arguably some would say it missed out on a bunch of classics. Their sizy discography flocked in around their name, after having sheltered themselves behind Germany’s Nuclear Blast Records who secured a deal with them in 1992. Through 10 years of, well, chaos and confusion, they have now risen to rape the world. Now, to shy away a little from the fanboy’ism, I don’t think they’re raping me to the maximum, compared to their older stuff. Anyway.
Sure it’s got some of the classics, but the song selection is a bit dangerous, and for those who know “Best Of” albums, this could just be a skid mark on the underpants of their brain (?). Some songs don’t leave a lasting impression; “Heck, if these are like their best songs, then the others can’t be so good”. Fortunately most of the songs are
extremely good, which make the album what it is.
Apocalypse starts off with a melodic hold out, giving leeway to the vocals. An almost Gothic style chanting is what creates this tune, and builds an ancient death metal pillar. As for this melody,
Hypocrisy take it slowly and simply, and what they can create is mind-boggling and arousing to the senses. I’m usually turned off by keyboards, which create an artificial sound, but this sounds too real.
Peter Tägtgren is an important figure in the band. He has stuck with it from the very beginning and even created side-projects by himself.
Hypocrisy were initially known as Seditious. Long before this venture, both Tägtgren and drummer Lars Szöke had previously been members of Conquest, an act dating back as far as 1984.
Hypocrisy was established when Tägtgren had returned from North America where he had put in tenures as a member of both Malevolent Creation and Meltdown. It’s a band that has suffered several hardships along its way, as well as losses. However, what is left still staggers up to meet the challenge and well, they have some songwriting material now damn it.
Tactful shredding and cymballing is featured on
Killing Art, together with an amazing versatility of vocals. For the record, there are some amazing leads on this CD, as well as foundational riffs; both chugging and soaring. Towards the end however, I get a little bit bored, and some parts in between lose the vibe a bit as well. Seeing as I blatantly have no intention in doing a synopsis of all the tracks, or furthering my analysis, I guess what could be called an incoherent review ends here. That is not to say this album is bad in any way, because it’s not, it’s amazing. This an artful compilation of some of the best death metal made in history. But no, hold the phone. Stating the last sentence would leave a big question mark hanging in the air. Hypocrisy has not gathered everything it has sowed, and it has sowed a lot. It would not be an overstatement to say that
Hypocrisy come through to the top group when it comes to producing death metal, but this album does not show entirely what they are capable of doing. It makes me feel ambivalent when small technicalities like these take away from what could be a classic album, but what is blatantly excellent still deserves attention.
Key Tracks:
- Apocalypse
- Killing Art
- Deathrow
- Until the End
- Fractured Millenium
They’re all worth a listen.
.. but I can't find their self-titled, have been looking all over the net 
