Customer Reviews

Hypocrisy

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album was my introduction to the vast world of Hypocrisy. After listening to it, I didn't quite know what to make of it. At the time, my favorite bands were At the Gates, In Flames, and Amorphis. I was told that I would like these guys since I like death metal, and boy were they right. Hypocrisy is brutal, yet melodic, angry yet soothing, fast yet strangely slow. This album kept me guessing the whole way. A total unpredictable album, which makes it fun, yet scary to listen, because you never know where Hypocrisy will take you next. One song might be like thrash, yet the next might be atmospheric, and the next comes with the screeching vocals whereas the next song brings the growling vocals.

I kid you not: Hypocrisy is one of the best death metal bands around. My only regret is that I didn't discover them sooner.

Hypocrisy's self-titled 1999 release was my introduction to the band almost five years ago, and after listening to their entire catalog, easily remains my favorite release by this band.

Fractured Millenium - 5/5 - Probably the greatest opening track of all time. Simply a masterpiece. Mid-paced, great lyrics, great guitar riffs, and a killer bass sound. If you ever have the chance to see these guys live, go see the show and pray that they open with this song. It will be the highlight of your concert-going experiences, I guarantee it.

Apocalyptic Hybrid - 5/5 - Opens with one of Lars Szoke's trademark drum beats and goes into overdrive with Peter grunting and sounding a lot like Masse Broburg. Nice solo, too.

Fusion Programmed Minds - 5/5 - This song reminds me of some of the work on Catch 22, but with better production. Great chorus and guitar work.

Elastic Inverted Visions - 10/5 - Without a doubt my favorite song on the cd. It starts out with a clean guitar riff and then moves into a mid-paced heavy song. Not a weak point in the whole song.

Reversed Reflections - 5/5 - This song sounds much more Gothenburg than the other songs on this cd. Some clean vocals here that sound a lot like Peter's sideproject Pain.

Until the End - 7/5 - Imagine the emotion you get when attending the funeral for a good friend. If you have never had to feel this emotion, listen to this song. The feeling captured in this song is just incredible. It is a slow song, but very heavy.

Paranormal Mysteria - 5/5 - I really love the lead guitar parts in this song. Very nice use of keyboards and vocal harmonies.

Time Warp - 5/5 - No, not the song from Rocky Horror Picture Show. Another fast song. Peter tries something new with the vox on this one. Really cool solo here.

Disconnected Magnetic Corridors - 6/5 - Yet another great song here. Slow, to mid-paced with lots of nice guitar melodies and clean vox. Probably my third favorite after Elastic Inverted Visions and Until the End.

Paled Empty Sphere - 5/5 - Another slow song. Very melancholic feel to this one. It has the feeling of death, but with a sense of defiance. The closing song on the standard release, and a very fitting end to a great album. The lyrics are fantastic.

Selfinflicted Overload (Bonus Track) - 5/5 - This song was a bonus track included on the digipack version of the album. A great song that would have been a bit more at home on Catch 22, but good nevertheless.

Overall, this album is a great addition to any collection and is a great introduction to Hypocrisy. The production is flawless and the cd has some of the strongest songwriting you'll ever hear. A point of interest is that Hypocrisy's next work, Into the Abyss, was originally scheduled to be released with this as a double album.

I will give Hypocrisy credit where credit is due. They are probely the most unique Death Metal on this planet, yet even though I love some of their more progressive type grooves, this self titled album just isnt my cup of tea. Dont get me wrong here, its not a total flop, and there are some good songs here, but the un-even type of music on the album just never seems to flow right, and YES, I do understand that this is more of a story-type concept album that tries to be more diverse, but it just seems a bit to flat for my taste. I really love Hypocrisy's first two albums which were a much more straight-ahead true Swedish Death Sound. After that, the band shifted gears many times, with many types of sounds that they incorperated into their Swedish death sound. This album is my least favorite, yet it seems to be the fan favorite, as no one rated it below four stars. If you are looking to try to get into the bands unique sound, you might not want to start here, as in my mind, it doesnt give you a true feel of what the band is all about. For newer Hypocrisy albums (those released in the 2000's) start with "The Arrival" and "Virus" as they are both very good albums, and have a more metal feel then this.

HYPOCRISY sure have developed in so many ways. When I first listened to this cd I couldn't understand it, I couldn't hear it properly. It sounded wrong to me, but after a few listens I started to pick it up and appreciate it more with every listen. This is almost not even a death metal album. What it is is touches of black metal, trash, and Pink Floyd, yes Pink Floyd. Ever since they did that cover of Pink Floyd's 'Slippin Away' on their 'Abducted' album I think they fell in love with that sound, as did I, aswell as many other HYPOCRISY fans. This is a beautiful album with lots of variation in speeds and emotion. I have been listening to HYPOCRISY ever since I bought my first HYPOCRISY cd 'Osculum Obscenum' back in around '95. They are releasing their new cd 'Virus' on 20th Sep '05, it is available for pre-order here at amazom.com for only $13.99. I can't wait to hear it.

Hypocrisy, a Swedish Death Metal, have been around since the early nineties. The album Hypocrisy is one of the best albums from a Death Metal band. Strangely the album is not a real Death Metal album. The only two songs that could be seen as Death Metal songs are "Apocalyptic Hybrid" and "Time Warp." And although these two songs are great, they do not really fit on the album. The other 9 songs range from slow to mid-tempo paced songs. Every song is build around an excellent melodic riff. Compared to previous releases the clean vocals are much more used, but there are still screaming and grunting parts on the album. The album contains more atmospheric keyboards, but they always have a supportive role. I recommend people to listen to this album with headphones at night. Feel the apocalypse arriving.

Hypocrisy Continues to evolve from the simplistic brutality of '93's Osculum Obscenum, adding layer of keyboards guitars and haunting melodies that push this album into another galaxy of music. The only low point is the unwelcome hardcore-inspired Time Warp, which doesn't really fit on the album at all...Other than that, this is one of the high points of '99 and the high point (so far...) for Peter Tagtgren...

I don't intend to say anything new here. I agree with everyone else who gave this 4 or 5 stars. This is an absolutely masterful album, with not a step wrong.

I have occasionally found Hypocrisy a little short of subtlety, but never with this album. For me there are two of the best tracks of all time on this collation; Elastic Inverted Visions and Paled Empty Sphere, (Elastic Inverted Visions is my ringtone) but the sheer mind-boggling brilliance of those two never casts the rest of the album into the shade, as there isn't a weak track on it.

As others have said before me, if you only ever own one Hypocrisy album, make it this one.

In my opinion, this is the best Hypocrisy album. You can find a lot of clasical speedy / death metal Hypocrisy songs, but also still has a lot of melodic passages with an incredible atmosphere. "Paled Empty Sphere" is one song that can destroy your life in 6 minutes.

HYPOCRISY has slowly become my most listened to band. And this album, even if I haven't listened to as much as any of the other HYPOCRISY CD's I own, is infact an amazing listen. Almost sounds like a pure Black Metal album with high end production usually only used by Death Metal bands, and more Black Metal bands are doing this today (though HYPOCRISY have never really fallen into the pure black metal category, they are more like a perfect mixture of black/death/rock/metal in a Pink Floyd style).
It's quite hard to understand Peter Tagtgren's shrieks on this album (he uses many different styles of vocals aswell on this album).
Amazing blend of styles overall, too hard to put into words, I'd probably need to write a book to explain it all.
JUST BUY IT.

the best hypocrisy ever. a perfect balance of the faster-paced death and the slower melodic. peter and crew were flawless! if you only own one hypocrisy album, this should be it