Is there a point in introducing Hypocrisy? This modern metal phenomenon lead by musical mastermind and “Godfather of Gothenburg” - Peter Tägtgren is well-known to all death metal maniacs worldwide, gaining huge acclaim and respect with each of its releases. “Penetralia”, Hypocrisy’s stunning debut album, takes us back to the band’s beginnings, when Tägtgren was still fascinated with old-school American death metal…
Hypocrisy was originally formed in 1990, after Peter Tägtgren returned to Sweden from America (specifically Florida), where he was briefly a member of Malevolent Creation and became heavily influenced by the American death metal scene. In the very beginning, Hypocrisy was Peter’s solo project, at that time bearing the name Seditious. Tägtgren managed to record the first 3-track demo “Rest in Pain” entirely on his own, later to re-record it with Masse Bromberg handling vocal duties (Peter was very unsatisfied with his signing at that time). The re-recording, entitled “Rest in Pain ‘92”, contained two additional songs and soon became a ticket to fame, catching the attention of the highly acclaimed metal label Nuclear Blast. A song from that demo called “To Escape Is To Die” landed on NB’s Sample 4-way Split, along with tracks by three other bands – Afflicted, Resurrection and Sinister. Then the label offered Tägtgren to record a full-length debut of what was by that time called Hypocrisy…“Penetralia” was released on October 5th, 1992 and immediately gained a handful of positive comments from both fans and critics. The album was recorded with Jonas Ostenberg (guitar), Lars Szöke (drums), Mikael Hedlund (bass) and Masse Bromberg (vocals), while Tägtgren himself took up the lead guitarist duties. This collaboration brought the most brutal and straightforward LP in the band’s entire career. Dazzling guitar work, intense bass performance (hard to believe that when the album was released, Hedlund was only 16 years old!), crushingly heavy drumming and Bromberg’s brutal vocals made up for a truly apocalyptic death metal experience. Tracks such as the opening “Impotent God”, “Suffering Souls” and “To Escape Is To Die” (with the intro to this bearing a strange resemblance to Slayer’s “Raining Blood”) are solid representatives of the genre, while “God is a Lie” and “Left to Rot” became the fans’ all-time favorites, to this day played on each of Hypocrisy’s shows. But the true highlight and masterpiece of this album is the closing title track, an over 6-minute epic juggernaut, starting with a atmospheric guitar and keyboard intro (at that time a novelty in death metal) and transforming into a thrash/death metal monstrosity. This was the only track with Peter on vocals and his performance here is considered a truly disturbing one – his vocals range from raw to tortured, ideally depicting “Penetralia’s” content. The song was later re-recorded and released on the “Ten Years of Chaos and Confusion” compilation in 2001. In 1993 Hypocrisy recorded their second LP, “Osculum Obscenum”, after which vocalist Masse Bromberg left the band to join Dark Funeral, where under the name Emperor Magus Caligula he took up an entirely different vocal style. Tägtgren’s formation continued to record albums until 1997, when the LP “The Final Chapter” was released and rumored to be the band’s last offering. Fortunately, Hypocrisy returned in 1999 with their self-titled album and from that moment they keep storming the metal scene with new thrilling releases. During all these years Peter Tägtgren has opened his own recording studio – Abyss – where he produced legendary albums for bands such as Dimmu Borgir, Children of Bodom, Dark Funeral, Immortal, Therion and Rotting Christ. He also formed his own electro-industrial project Pain and was a member of such groups as Lock Up, Marduk and Bloodbath.
“Penetralia” is one of Hypocrisy’s heaviest albums and a true birthmark of a metal legend. This is an essential release for death metal fans, bringing a huge dose of aggression backed by Tägtgren’s musical genius and skill, which helped him write some of the heaviest metal material in the history of the genre – an album that will penetrate every corner of your fragile mind!
