You can't call Hypocrisy a death metal band all the time. They started as one, sure, but to avoid stagnation or for whatever reason, 'Catch 22' is something totally different, much for "fans" repugnance. Peter Tägtgren, the guitarist and vocalist of Hypocrisy, also has a band called Pain, where he mixes metal, pop and rock music together into boring stuff.

Before 'Catch 22', Hypocrisy had already travelled far from pure death metal of the yore. But still they had travelled their own path, sounding Hypocrisy. I don't know if Peter Tägtgren worked with this and the second Pain album, 'Nothing Remains the Same', at the same time as they were released only 3 months away from each other. On 'Catch 22' one can simply hear the musical amalgamation of Mr. Tägtgren's two bands. This fact rears its ugly head especially in the likes of 'On the Edge of Madness' with its truly annoying piano and organ sounds, simplified jump-da-fuck-up style to the hilt pieces 'A Public Puppet' and 'Turn the Page' (bassist Mikael Hedlund can also be blamed for this). Plus there's more accessible stuff like clean vocals and rock rhythms abound. Hypocrisy haven't entered as far into the pop fields with this one as In Flames and Soilwork have with some of their albums, so that's a small relief. Besides the war elephantine heaviness, there's familiar trademark Hypocrisy stuff in all the songs actually (yep, even death metal style riffs, epic melodic lead guitar work, and sturdy rhythm section, penned by every member of the band), and thankfully not that much of North American modern crappiness. However, even some the better songs sound somewhat watered down versions of the true Hypocrisy. There's been much worse coat-turnings in meal music scene during the years, let me tell you! The truth is, that the band have never been something too technical or deviant.

Vocals are varying. Peter stretches his vocal cords from growling to spine-chilling shrieks and more normal clean vocals, too. Music critics, mr. know-it-alls, modern society and also his own life, get some shit shoved in their faces by Peter on this one, so no UFOs this time. The production job is intensive with huge low end and huge mass of instruments. I like the rawness of it all. Tight snare drum sound is also cool, as is grinding rhythm guitar tone. Maybe this is generally warmer than the usual kind of Tägtgren production job.

I perversely like 'Catch 22' quite a bit and enjoy listening to it at times, always have. It's an energetic package, very suitable for car and housework listening. To the "metal" club DJs: Throw away your Rammstein, Slipknot, nu-In Flames and Pain shite and try this! Oh, I'd like to swill my beer in a bar or a club like that. For those who want to check out the true Hypocrisy, start with the classics like 'Abducted' (1996), 'Penetralia (1992) and and self-titled 1999 platter. If you want to try some 'Catch 22' material, try 'Don't Judge Me' (some brutal 'n' fast shit), 'Destroyed' (drummer Lars Szöke's heavy as fuck song with a good chorus), epic melody-infused and more melancholic songs 'Seeds of the Chosen One' and 'All Turns Black', and 'Hatred's cool flageolet-notes reminding of Metallica when they still were good. You should try 'em!

Rating: 7 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
11/21/2007 19:07