HARDWARES

It’s not like this record does anything revolutionary but, Jesus, has Peter ever captured exactly what makes Hypocrisy itself. After contemplating his love for Slipknot on ’02’s Catch 22 and then trying to regain his metal cred with The Arrival and Virus (but who are we kidding, could Peter Tägtgren possibly not possess credibility in our circles?) Peter has written an album that is both timeless and stunning, one that is an amalgamation of what made both Stockholm death and Gothenburg melodic death so legendary and an effort that could have easily been released in 1992 to genre-shifting appreciation. It’s true that I’ve been steadfastly not on board with Hypocrisy for a good deal of its career, but Peter has closed off the decade in strong fashion, ironically re-visiting death metal’s beginnings to produce what is the ‘00s best Hypocrisy album. It’s in instances like these that I wish I was back in my old stomping grounds, because I know exactly where the most Scandinavian replicating areas of that city are and just how perfectly metal they become on a cold winter’s night.