Reflections of Darkness - Music Magazine - Hypocrisy

Details: Written by: Ricarda Menn; Published: 12 February 2010

Colos-Saal, Aschaffenburg, Germany
10th February 2010
Hypocrisy & Survivors Zero

On a cold winter’s evening, only few people dared to wait in front of the Colos-Saal too early before the doors would open. It was not until half past seven, roughly forty minutes after the doors opened, that the venue started to get more crowded. Places in the front row could comfortably be secured as well as T-Shirts or drinks picked up before the first band started. In the meanwhile, the Colos-Saal “entertained” the audience with their advertisement for future gigs, unfortunately many of them somehow not fitting the general taste in music. Nevertheless, punctually at eight o’ clock SURVIVORS ZERO entered the stage.

Survivors Zero

After years of having worked for other bands, producer Sami Jämsén decided it was time to start a band himself and founded SURVIVORS ZERO. Being the sole member in its beginnings, the further progress of the initial ideas required a real line-up. The demo ‘Extinction’ was released in 2008, quickly after this a record deal followed and the works on ‘CMXCIX’ began. SURVIVORS ZERO is Tommi Virranta (vocals), Sami Jämsén (guitar), Jani Luttinen (guitar), Tapio Wilska (bass) and Seppo Tarvainen (drums). http://www.survivorszero.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/survivorszero

Music & Performance
After a few moments of hesitation, the Finns convinced the audience of their qualities, serving straight-forward death metal. Having read some reviews of previous concerts, I was sceptically awaiting the singer’s behaviour, which has been described as really bossy and unfriendly. Yet, on this evening, the bassist did most of the announcements, so there is nothing bad to be said about this band. Unfortunately, the light was pretty monotonous, so the photographers complained about not getting good pictures. Still, the first moving heads could be seen and the band really worked well as an opening act. After thirty five minutes, their set was finished and the alteration break started.

Setlist
01. Armageddon Cult
02. Thorns of Rapture
03. Scavengers of Christ
04. Embrace the Inferno
05. I Bury them Deeper
06. I’m the Gun
07. People of the Lie (Kreator Cover)
08. Reclaim My Heritage

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 7
Sound: 7
Light: 5
Total: 7.1 / 10

Hypocrisy

In 1990, Peter Tägtgren founded the Swedish death metal band HYPOCRISY and released their debut record ‘Penetralia’ in 1992. Until 1994, Masse Bromberg (who is nowadays singing in DARK FUNERAL) was responsible for the vocals, since his departure, Peter has been doing the vocals himself. It was in 1997, were Peter almost decided to dismantle HYPOCRISY in favour of his new band, PAIN, which veered more into the industrial direction. Over the time, lots of albums were released, such as ‘Hypocrisy’ (1999), Catch 22 (2002, also re-recorded in 2008) and ‘Virus’ (2005). After the last studio album in 2005, Peter decided to concentrate more on PAIN, which meant a break for HYPOCRISY.

In 2009, they released their most recent album, ‘A Taste of Extreme Divinity’, which they now have been supporting during their ‘Long Time, No Death’ Tour. Hypocrisy is Peter Tägtgren (vocals, guitar), Mikael Hedlung (bass), Horgh (drums) and as a live guitarist Tomas Elofsson (normally playing in the Swedish band SANTIFICATION). http://www.hypocrisy.tv/ / www.myspace.com/hypocrisy

Music & Performance
Finally, a few minutes before nine o’clock, HYPOCRISY entered the stage after almost five years of absence on European club stages. Therefore, the title for this tour, ‘Long Time… No Death’ was suitably chosen. Actually I would have expected the audience to react more cheerfully, and also the space in the front remained pretty comfortable during the whole gig.

Horgh was enthroned behind a huge drum kit with the typical HYPOCRISY crosses on both sides and the artwork of ‘A Taste of Extreme Divinity’ as a decoration for the drums. Throughout their set of 80-85 minutes, HYPOCRISY really served an amazing extract from their whole discography, starting with songs from the newest record, only leaving out the ‘Catch 22’ album, which is known to twist the sentiments. The crowd pretty soon got warmed up, and the time passed really quickly. During the song, Peter made few announcements, the most remarkable one probably introducing ‘Let the Knife Do the Talking’ as a love song. Furthermore it is definitely mentionable that Tomas really did a good job on the guitar and added a great sound to the whole gig. Finishing off with ‘The Final Chapter’, few minutes before half past ten I realised that once again, the time had passed too quickly. I am really looking forward to see HYPOCRISY once again.

Setlist
01. Intro
02. Valley of the Damned
03. Hang Him High
04. Fractured Millennium
05. Adjusting the Sun
06. Eraser
07. Medley (Pleasure of Molestation / Osculum Obscenum / Penetralia)
08. Medley (Apocalypse / The Fourth Dimension)
09. Killing Art
10. A Coming Race
11. Let the Knife Do the Talking
12. Weed out the Weak
13. Fire in the Sky
---
14. Intro (The Gathering)
15. Roswell 47
16. Warpath
17. The Final Chapter

Rating
Music: 10
Performance: 9
Sound: 9
Light: 10
Total: 9.6 / 10