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spotlight! 'Virus' infects world of death metal
By Geoff Page
gpage2@mscd.edu

Hypocrisy Virus (Nuclear Blast Records, 2006)

Groundbreaking, genre-defying bands are often the most imitated. Hypocrisy is one of those bands, and a lot of their music has been copied by less tasteful emo bands.

Virus is Hypocrisy’s 17th release in as many years, Peter Tägtgren having founded the band in 1990 in Sweden. Fans of any of Hypocrisy’s old albums – or any of the albums Tägtgren has produced at The Abyss Studios in Sweden – should know what to expect: true, melodic death metal.

The album’s lyrics are about topics such as depression, drug abuse, suicide and murder. They are about real-life misery straight from the mind of Tägtgren.

The song “Let the Knife do the Talking” could turn a choir boy into a serial killer, with the chilling chant of “kill” resounding over and over again throughout. “A Thousand Lies” is a sad song with provocative lyrics about heroin addiction. Songs such as “Scrutinized” and “Compulsive Psychosis” are intelligent, professionally written songs that follow the verse-chorus-verse formula without sounding remotely pop.

Before the MTV pop-punk kids realized it was cool to play melodic metal riffs, there were bands like At the Gates, In Flames, Dark Tranquility and Hypocrisy. Listeners of melodic death metal should support the real stuff, not the American-core bands looking for their 15 minutes of fame.

Hypocrisy are not phonies when it comes to this kind of music. They were one of its founders. They will never get the fame or glory many other melodic metal bands will receive, but as far as songwriting, lyrics and vocals, Virus is anything but a con.