Review of the Album "Hypocrisy" by Swedish Death Metal Band Hypocrisy

“Hypocrisy” is the name of the 1999 studio album by the band of the same name. They have continued as a band and according to the website Metal Archives, they are still active and going even though their last album was released in 2013. This album is described as an atmospheric album and immediately I am sitting here impressed at what I hear.

“Apocalyptic Hybrid” lyrically tells the story that we will all face questions when it comes to the end and that we will all die. Even if some of us would not want to die for whatever reason, we will all have to face this end at some point. Fusion Programmed Minds is a song that once again has that In Flames influence. It is a great thing that readers will read more material about a band that has really matured musically and three songs into this album, I am left wondering could this really be the best album of Hypocrisy? Three or four songs into an album, you can’t always tell whether an album will be as great as to be a certain band’s best. Some bands hit their peak early and some hit that peak later in their career. The song is heavy, slow, and there are some clean vocals in here which we never would have seen Hypocrisy use even in 1994.

Reversed Reflections continues the melody as the song is about someone that is really having so much pain that he wants to escape from this world. The melody is impressive considering the fact that the album is over 20 years old now. I hear myself saying over and over “Man this is good!” Some albums really get your attention quickly and this one appears to have done just that. Even if “Hypocrisy” is an atmospheric album, the musical maturity of Hypocrisy is complete by this time in their history and it only took 8 years to get to this point which isn’t that long even in musical terms. If Penetralia and Osculum Obscenum were warm-up death metal albums, Hypocrisy is the almost complete maturity and evolution for this band. It sounds almost kind of weird to say this but this self-titled album from these Swedish guys has this sort of pure, angelic quality to it it sounds so cohesive. Until of course, we get to the song called Time Warp. This one consists of shouting style vocals, is super heavy and sounds muffled.

Through the first full listen of “Hypocrisy” I would rate it one of the most solid death metal albums ever. Yes, for some fans, it is hard to believe that this album might be better than their 1994 album “The Fourth Dimension” but it only took five years for these guys to sort of reinvent themselves, mature and impress me! The first song Fractured Millennium lyrically tells the story or narrative that mother nature and the planet is dying because of burning lives but it is up to us as a people to do what we can to preserve Earth so that it can survive even after we have passed on. Hypocrisy has influenced Finnish melodic death metal bands and even the band Eternal Tears of Sorrow must be in the discussion.

The song “Until the End” is a good mixture of interesting guitar tones and in this song Peter changes his vocal style and instead of growling, he uses a vocal distortion device I guess to make his voice sound different. The interesting sound returns in the middle of the song. Peter returns to his growling for a brief period as the atmospheric sound has some melody in it, making this song interesting. “Disconnected Magnetic Corridors” further shows the exploratory nature of this band in this album as I hear a mix of Amorphis style guitar play and a sort of Fear Factory style vocal approach except there is no roughness in these vocals at all.

Paled Empty Sphere starts with beautiful acoustic guitar that works, something that we would never have heard from Hypocrisy in the past but it is evident that Peter and the rest of these band members knew what they were doing. The song is about someone that feels like as they have been tortured as a result of their humanly existence. They feel like they have paid some kind of ultimate bad price for this Earthly existence. It is tough to see the light at the end of the tunnel when we feel like the walls are closing in on us and we feel like we are drowning. What are the strong songs in “Hypocrisy” you may ask? The answer is that pretty much most of them are really solid tracks and the album is experimental but it is a formula that really works!