Hypocrisy - A Taste Of Extreme Divinity

Pete Tagtren is one hell of an all rounder. The dude has played some absolute devastating death metal music with Hypocrisy and Bloodbath. And if that doesn't stand as an ode to his talents, then he's also the guy behind legendary Abyss Studios, where numerous big extreme metal acts such as Immortal, Dark Funeral and Celtic Frost to name a few have produced their albums with brilliant sound quality. And now after a 4 years hiatus, Tagtren has set the wheels in motion for Hypocrisy again with their eleventh album A Taste Of Extreme Divinity(produced at Abyss of course). And needless to say Hypocrisy hasn't lost any steam over the years and picks right up from where Virus left off.

The songs vary from fast blastbeat driven to mid tempo ones with amazing riffs catching your riffs right from the very first seconds of Valley of Damned. The songs on the albums are far away from the radio friendly melo death metal of the Arrival era and really aggressive without loosing a sense of melody. Hypocrisy are a very musical band and instead of making a any attempts at technical aspects of their music, they are very much implied about their song's harmonious nature and unlike the rest they don't rub it into your face. The content in the album is balanced perfectly, pitching intense against calm and atmospheric against chaotic nature. Like the title tack which has a very doomy start to it before the extreme blastbeats take hold of the song's mood.

If the blastbeats in the album reminds you of black metal, then don't be mistaken as the band's drummer Horgh after plays for Immortal too. And even after all these years, Tagtren's growls still manages to leave your spine chilled when you hear them, as they are still ear-piercing and monstrous in nature. High pitched too! And thats maybe to stay in touch with his alien theme. Some of the best tracks of the album are Quest and Tamed(Filled With Fear) where the former has a more groove to it whereas the latter is more in molds of melodic thrash. Sy Is Falling Down is another outstanding track with some sick guitar pickings.

Even though Hypocrisy are not as inexorable as they sounded before, their output has remained strong no matter what. With an excellent sound production and classic Hypocrisy lyrical theme of aliens and violence, there's not a single thing to point your finger out to this album. And needless to say, A Taste Of Extreme Divinity is one of the band's best releases with solid edge quality. Now so that you dont have to wait for another 5 years to wait for the next Hypocrisy album, check this one out - Taste of Extreme Divinity.