Hypocrisy have re-released their 2002 classic “Catch 22” but they’ve also re-recorded the vocals, as well as re-mixing & re-mastering the album itself. A bit like what Dimmu Borgir did a few years ago with their classic Stormblåst album. I’m sure you’re asking yourself who the hell are Hypocrisy? Well, the band features the infamous Peter Tägtgren, who’s been involved with bands such as Pain, Bloodbath and Marduk to name but a few. Joining Tägtgren are Immortal and Pain sticksman Horgh and Klas Ideberg of Darkane provides some session guitar work.
Opening track “Don’t
Judge Me” is a guitarist’s wet dream, as it contains some
insane shredding; imagine the mutant offspring of Kerry King
and Adam Jones if they jammed with the whole of Meshuggah.
“Destroyed” and “A Public Puppet” sound fantastic now they
have been re-mastered, coming across as even more modern and
insanely heavy than they ever did before. The addition
of the slower, only slightly mind, “On The Edge Of Madness”
makes the faster tracks sound even heavier and thrash
filled. “Turn The Page”, don’t worry its not a cover of the
Bob Seger song, though that would be very interesting to
hear, involves more frantic fretwork and heavy in your face
vocals, which is probably from their “new” found influence
in Slipknot whilst “Another Dead End (For Another Dead Man)”
is like Children Of Bodom on PCP, it’s immensely heavy but
also adds synths and repetitive riffs galore, oh and the
chorus is catchy too! “Seeds Of The Chosen One” and “All
Turns Black” on the other hand are much slower but end the
album with a nice slab of heaviness.
This is a must if you
had the original but thought, like the band, that it didn’t
do them justice, or even if you’re a new fan of Hypocrisy,
it’s insanely heavy and it's from Mainland Europe, two
perfect reasons to invest in a copy!
John Consterdine
