Author: Rok Klemše
Venue: Orpheum, Graz
Concert date: 15.02.2010
Attendance: 500
Ticket price: 20€
We waited for them long, way too long! After the release of the album Virus in 2005 and the tour that followed, the Swedish death metal giants Hypocrisy vanished into thin air for almost five years. In between, all we got was a remix of the much-criticized experimental record Catch 22, while mastermind and founding member Peter Tägtren left us thirsty and starving for Hypocrisy death metal and turned his attention entirely to his electro/industrial project Pain. The pleading and wishes of the fans finally became flesh, and in late 2009 Hypocrisy quite surprisingly announced their return with the excellent record A Taste of Extreme Divinity, a logical continuation of the melodic death metal laid out by its predecessor Virus. Even more importantly, the new record brought with it the long-awaited tour Long Time No Death… Europe 2010, and if Hypocrisy don’t stop by our place, we’ll stop by a Hypocrisy show, which this time stopped closest to us in Graz, Austria.
Support for the Swedes on this European tour came from the Finnish outfit Survivors Zero. Given how small and little-known the band is, the Finns got a unique chance with the Hypocrisy support slot to show a wider metal audience what they have to offer. Unfortunately, with the presentation of their latest, recently released record CMXCIX (2009), they showed that it isn’t much. Survivors Zero play fairly solid brutal death metal with a pinch of melody, but they bring absolutely nothing new or unheard to the already loaded death metal table. It’s true that these days, especially in metal, it’s almost impossible to offer something new, but the death metal Survivors Zero play we’ve heard in countless rehashed variations, and they don’t reach any further than cookie-cutter patterns. Still, the guys confidently delivered a few tracks from their debut, lead guitarist Jani Luttinen sawed off some nice-sounding solos, even though he mostly stood statically glued to the right end of the stage, vocalist Tommi Virranta (Deathchain) delivered a proper dose of good growling, and the excellent sound system Graz’s Orpheum is famous for helped bring the great, dynamic and varied drumming of new band member Seppo Tarvainen to the front. Survivors Zero successfully warmed up the crowd, which was slowly trickling into the hall, and they poured gasoline on the fire with a solidly performed Kreator classic, People of the Lie.
On the European leg of the tour, the Danish thrash/death metallers Hatesphere were supposed to play before Hypocrisy, but they were forced to cancel their participation in the tour for personal reasons. The wait for a dose of Hypocrisy was therefore shorter, and at half past nine the hall went dark to the sounds of an epic intro, after which, to a roaring welcome, Hypocrisy came out on stage and led us into the valley of the damned with the opening wrecking ball of the new album, Valley of the Damned. Unfortunately, the sound engineer’s considerable incompetence showed already in the first moments of the show, as the sound quality took a serious dive at times. Peter’s vocals were pushed too far back in the mix at times, the lead guitar parts could only be heard properly after a few songs, and Horgh’s bass drums simply had a strange, triggered sound. Still, it was a pleasure to see Hypocrisy on stage again, we last got them here at Metalcamp 2006, and the guys carried on uncompromisingly in the light of the new album and hung us up with Hang Him High. It was quickly obvious that there was a new session guitarist in the lineup, this time Tomas Eloffson (Sanctification, God Among Insects), who plays in Sanctification with former Hypocrisy vocalist Masse Broberg. Tomas did quite confidently and solidly for a newcomer, though his considerable stiffness, frequent glances at the neck of his guitar and a few little mistakes were distracting at times, even though he did great on the solo of the wrecking ball Warpath near the end of the night and sawed it off perfectly. It was nice to hear Tägtren in excellent vocal form, he growled extremely well, and especially fantastic were the high screams that Peter highlights so well in the songs, which really shines in the animalistic shriek at the start of the aforementioned military artillery piece Warpath. Hypocrisy didn’t forget the hits that are becoming death metal classics this time either: the obligatory Eraser with its unforgettably good central riff that cut right to the bottom of the soul, and the cosmic Roswell 47, which clearly refers to the alleged landing of aliens in Roswell in 1947. The guys didn’t forget the first two records, on which Masse was still handling vocals, and sent us tumbling into a vortex of brutal satanic death metal with the medley Pleasure of Molestation/Osculum Obscenum/Penetralia. We spun around in another medley with the excellent Apocalypse/The Fourth Dimension, and then finally got the surprise of the night, the killer Killing Art. The Hypocrites took care of the romantic love ballad with Let the Knife Do the Talking from the album Virus, went back to 2009 and A Taste of Extreme Divinity with Weed Out the Weak, served up the indispensable classics Fire in the Sky and The Final Chapter, and said goodbye rather quickly, after barely an hour and twenty minutes, with one of Hypocrisy’s best creations, Warpath, and the anthem Roswell 47. Hypocrisy played the Graz show rather routinely and at times without much feeling; the one truly alive on stage was bassist Mikael Hedlund, along with the phenomenal giant, the “immortal” drummer Reidar “Horgh” Horghagen, while Tägtren, sadly, is obviously enjoying the role of Pain frontman more and more, as he occasionally seemed almost bored. Considering that the opening act dropped out and that this was the band’s return after four years, I would have liked a slightly longer setlist, and since the fans got to pick five songs, a few more goodies – with a few exceptions, we got an almost identical picture to the live record Hypocrisy Destroys Wacken. But bottom line, it was a good, very good show, though sadly, at least by all accounts, this is again the last European tour for a while. After Europe, Hypocrisy are heading off on a North American tour and will play a few festival shows in the summer, after which Peter is supposed to turn his attention to Pain again. Too bad!
Photos: Nina Grad
Setlist
1. Valley Of The Damned
2. Hang Him High
3. Fractured Millenium
4. Adjusting The Sun
5. Eraser
6. Pleasure Of Molestation/Osculum Obscenum/Penetralia (Medley)
7. Apocalypse/The Fourth Dimension (Medley)
8. Killing Art
9. A Coming Race
10. Let The Knife Do The Talking
11. Weed Out The Weak
12. Fire In The Sky
13. The Final Chapter
14. Warpath
15. Roswell 47
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