Hypocrisy

The return of Peter Tantgren’s Hypocrisy is one that will cause some controversy among both their fans and critics alike. The Swedish trio still play death metal and their music remains very straightforward and in your face, but the keyboards sound a bit out of place. Sometimes you get the feeling that they have a rather elitist attitude, relying on their reputation instead of their musical chops. This is not to their favour. The music is not as brutal as it should be and there’s a feeling that the songs have been overworked. It is like they tried too hard to perfect their craft and in the process lost the all-too-precious spontaneous feeling of previous releases. Even the production is too much this time around. To be absolutely honest, it sounds too clean and polished. Every band is entitled to a not so good album at some point in their career. I hope they’ll return to brutality and record more great records in the future, because this really isn’t worthy of the title the band gave it.