A first glance at the cover & album title gives you the idea of the theme of this album. "The Gathering" opens this disc with a scene from a "landing site of a U.F.O.". Then when the first song kicks in, "Roswell 47", you'd almost think this was Carcass's Heartwork, which I didn't think was duplicable. Another corner is turned, however, on the next song "Killing Act", where a more traditional death metal stance is taken, replete with mandatory blasting double bass. By the next track, you start wondering if this is maybe just really a compilation of different bands-and that feeling continues throughout. Not sitting in a rut rotting from unoriginality, Hypocrisy attempts innovation in incorporating more of the dark, flowing melodies & atmospheric passages found on The Fourth Dimension. Yet this time it's more in keeping with the topics at hand, those being U.F.O. abduction, conspiratorial murder & ritual magic. Recorded in Peter Tagtgren's (v,g,keys) own studio, the production is not simply excellent, it is even impressive when at times you notice how the drums pound with heavy & loud clarity & the guitars don't chug & crunch any better than this (other than the fact that they are, at times, reminiscent of Heartwork, which you can crank past 10 with no distortion!). Witness "When The Cradle Fades", Peter & Mikael's (b) guitars are huge! The last three songs show the most Pink Floyd influence, taking you to the realms where Tiamat lives. These Swedes pump new life into ever evolving death metal.
