Review of the Album Catch 22 by Swedish Death Metal Band Hypocrisy

“Catch 22” is the 8^th studio album by Swedish death metal band Hypocrisy and this one continues pretty much in the style of the previous album Into the Abyss. It has that electronic sound in it that we hear. It is also stylistically getting into the melodic death metal style. The band would re-record this album in 2008 and call it Catch 22 V2.0.08. But for the purposes of this album review we will analyze the original album Catch 22 and we might as well analyze the remake of it as well. Hypocrisy has experimented and as of 2002, this approach has worked. For the avid death metal fan, Hypocrisy is sure to offer enough musically to suit that person's tastes.

As we get to the second song called Destroyed, there is a definite In Flames feel to this song as the message is that the person described in this song refuses to conform to society's demands so he vows to not be destroyed. On the Edge of Madness is lyrically about what happens as people get consumed by the consumerist lifestyle and they try to keep up with others. They feel like they never have enough money so they are on the search to get even more money thinking that the extra income will make them happier. It is fine to live well in life but being trapped in a lifestyle of excess consumerism can lead to burnout and exhaustion. The original recording of the album Catch 22 has an unusual drum sound and this is one of the reasons that it has been criticized. Even with this drum sound, it is not like St. Anger so that's one thing to keep in mind. The re-recorded version has better production and better drumming as well. A Public Puppet is a song about someone that has basically given up on their life and they just want to conform to what society has programmed for them to experience as they just basically waste away.

The vocals in this album have not changed all that much but when we get to the song called Uncontrolled, there is now definitely that 1990s melodic death metal influence. This album has lyrical themes which address certain human issues such as not being able to control oneself and not knowing why. Our ego can get in the way of our life and we may not even realize this.

“Turn the Page” is a very heavy death metal song that has the Fear Factory influence in it. These next two songs deal with dishonest people and those that hate others. These two human emotions have always been present but Catch 22 was released at a time when the world was anxious and tense because there were plans by the US and UK governments as they were planning another war against Iraq, a war that was fought for oil and because of hatred of Saddam Hussein. However Catch 22 is nowhere near as good as The Fourth Dimension and all the other Hypocrisy albums I've heard since do not quite match up to that one but that's not to say that this album is bad. It is however more creative as the band was wise enough to try a style that is in demand in their country of Sweden. Near the end of the album there is a song that may be underrated called Another Dead End for Another Dead Man. This melodic song is about what happens when in life it feels like the walls are closing in on you and you feel stuck and have nowhere to go.

The strongest songs in Catch 22 and especially the re-recorded version are Destroyed, Edge of Madness, Uncontrolled and then the 8^th track with a long title. In addition, the song called All Is Black has something different from these Swedish guys and that is a song with clean vocals and this song is about looking for that peace but not being able to find it because everything that we do makes us get into a worse situation than before. We can describe that life's downward spiral. This clean vocal song does not necessarily weaken this album but it makes it more diverse.