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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Excellent Metal Album, October 25, 2005
This was the first album I bought by Hypocrisy, and I am pretty damned impressed. Usually metal albums like this-death, melodic death, black-take several listens to grow on me, but I was pretty into this one by the second listen. The Hypocrisy on this album had a lineup consisting of three people: Mikael Hedlund on bass, Lars Szoke on drums, and of course Peter Tagtgren on vocals and guitar, and keyboards as well.
The band, especially Tagtgren, write some great melodic metal songs, and this album is chock full of them. The first real track and album highlight "Rosewell 47" begins with a brooding buildup, and builds upon itself from there. It's a slow paced jammy track that really creates an eerie atmosphere. The next track, "Killing Art", is a much faster one, with many thrash elements. I'd say this album has an even amount of both slow, atmosphering tracks and fast, thrashy tracks, but neither are so much to the point that they get old. In fact, it balances quite well so you don't get too tired of the sound before the album's over.
Tagtgren's vocals are brutal, and consist of everything from screeching to growling to almost whipser-like passages. There's even a some clean singing, as heard in the chorus of "The Arrival of the Demons (Part 2)", and the guy doesn't really have too bad of a clean voice. But his vocals aren't really revolutionary, or even that creative, and they certaintly aren't the best extreme metal vocals I've ever heard, but they don't sound bad at all. He's got a good, clearly audible voice that's clealy mixed into the album.
Tagtren's lyrics on this album are kind of lacking. Like many foreign bands, he sometimes combines English words in the wrong way, forming odd sentences ("They got what to do to hurt"?), but just accept the fact that English isn't the man's native language and he doesn't know any better. But it's not just that; the lyrical matter is sort of silly. "Rosewell 47" is about the supposed alien spaceship crashing in Rosewell that occurred in 1947, which could be an interesting subject, but Tagtren kind of leaves this song filling unfinished. "Abducted" tells the story of, well, abduction of course. But the lyrics come off a amatuerish: "In 1994 / Something else took control / They came to grab me / As I was sleeping in my bed". It's not exactly a horrible line, but it could've been a little more creative and detailed, couldn't it of? But the lyrics aren't that big of a deal, and shouldn't turn off anyone interested in this band, as it's only a small problem.
Tagtren's a very skilled musician, and he shows it in both his speedy and slow guitar playing, as well as his solos. The bass is typical; not very audible and it's usually just following what the guitar's doing. The drums are good, with a fair amount of fills and interesting beats. All in all, the band's solid, and they work together well on this album.
I recommend this album to all fans of In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, Soilwork, Children of Bodom, Amorphis, At the Gates, etc. While this may not be the best melodic death metal album ever released as it does have a few minor flaws, it's a very worthwhile listen over all and it should please most fans of the genre.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best Death metal albums I've ever heard., June 9, 2003
This is the album that turned me on to the exiting, yet misunderstood genre of Death metal. Before tuning in I thought that Death metal was basically unlistenable noise performed by untalented neanderthals. Not true. This album convinced me that Death metal is performed by talented musicians who can create good atmospheres, rythms, and melodies and is just misunderstood because of the fact that it's more extreme than anything the mainstream has to offer. Having listened to their previous albums and a little of their latter work, I have jumped to the conclusion that this album was basically a mix of their early, brutal style and their melodic side. I personally like the drumming and the guitar work of this album which remains very heavy but smooth at the same time. Peter Tagtgren's blending of Death metal bellows and raspy Black metal vocals works well with the music. Some shocking surprises about this album are portrayed at the end of the album with excellent back-to-back ballads (That's right. A Death metal band performing ballads. It's frightening, isn't it?). This is a Death metal cornerstone and I highly recommend this album to any fan of extreme metal.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
All Hail the Kings of Foreign Metal, March 7, 2002
"Abducted" proves to be one of the most solid extreme metal releases ever. It has something for everyone even remotely interested in power, death, black or goth metal. By the mid '90s, death metal had begun to lag after it's huge, dark explosion earlier in the decade. Hypochrisy's "Abducted," released in 1996, clearly volted the band to the top ranks of Swedish metal hierarchy. The band also stormed to the front of the world's extreme metal circuit.
At this point in his career, Hypochrisy's axeman and vocalist Peter Tagtgren had become one of the best producers in the metal world as well. This is evident in the album's giant guitar sound and very piercing vocals. After primarily releasing pure death metal releases, Tagtgren and company explored different realms of chaos. There were more breaks and mellow valleys in the songs. The growling vocals were still there but a new distinct, higher-pitch tone was added. Instead of disinteresting me, these elements made the album heavier and more intriuging than any Hypochrisy release to date.
Another factor that makes the band interesting to myself is the vocals. Tagtgren sings of the blackened world of demons and emotions of fear and terror. The album also contains the band's biggest hit to date, Roswell 47, which is the most massive sounding disturbence I've ever heard. The lyrics focus on the events of July 8, 1947 in Roswell New Mexico. Were a misterious flying saucer shaped object was scene falling to Earth. The Roswell Army base said it was a weather balloon, but there are many arguments and believers that say different.
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