Hypocrisy - Penetralia/Osculum Obscenum (2013)

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Hypocrisy - Penetralia/Osculum Obscenum (2013)

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The Swedish death metal band HYPOCRISY was formed by Peter Tägtgren in 1990 upon his return to Sweden from Florida, where he had been inspired by the state's flourishing death metal scene (bands like Morbid Angel, Deicide, Death, and Obituary). In 1992 the band signed its first contract with Nuclear Blast Records and released its monumental debut “Penetralia”. It marks the only time that the band functioned as a five-piece. This album displays a strong influence from American Death Metal. The follow-up “Osculum Obscenum” (1993) marked another milestone in the history of crushing extreme death metal. This album is evil and dark Black/Death Metal the way it should be. When compared to other Death Metal albums of the same period, this absolutely kills nearly everything. Eerie guitar work, Hellish screams, epic riffs. Over the course of the release of HYPOCRISY’s overwhelmingly acclaimed new album “End Of Disclosure” on the 22th of March 2013, the decision was made to re-release these classic albums, remastered and enriched with extensive bonus material, as a Limited 2CD BOX

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Hypocrisy - Penetralia/Osculum Obscenum (2013)

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Before Peter Tatgren was underground metal's "it" thing, Hypocrisy played relentless old school death metal. Hypocrisy themselves downplay the significance of Penetralia and Obsculem Obscenum, writing both records off as shameless Florida death worship. Actually, Penetralia carries a rather unique sound, possibly due to Tatgren's trademark production (then in it's infancy). A healthy dose of 80s thrash and black metal influence seperates early Hypocrisy from their swedish contemporaries. Unfortunately, vocalist Masse Bromberg is wholly irritating, moreso than most cookie monster singers. His "gargling razors" wall of guttural noise drowns out alot of excellent riffage, and the "satan rahhhh i hate god" lyrics (later continued with Dark Funeral) are too childish to be taken seriously. This irk aside, Penetralia has some great songs… the title track for one, a blackened thrash classic (later rerecorded on Ten Years of Chaos and Confusion) that marks Tatgren's first foray into keyboard experimentation. "Nightmare" and "Impotent God" blend traditional death metal riffs with a unique production and a focus on single note picking. A few Destruction/Kreator influenced passages (bridge to Nightmare) pop up, a pretty pleasant surprise. Hardly essential but definitely worth owning for the early 90s death head… Hypocrisy's early works are usually overlooked, but hold their own.

~ Reviewed by www.metal-archives.com

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Hypocrisy - Penetralia/Osculum Obscenum (2013)

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Hypocrisy is a band I hold respect for. Not so much for their newer releases, Catch-22 and The Arrival, but for their older works such as Abducted and this release, Osculum Obscenum. Their style of harsh death paired with unholy black metal is simply too good to pass up.
The album consists of everything a fan of either genre would squeal with delight over: deep, growly vocals for the death fans; fierce blast beats for the black metal kid in you; hard, thrashy guitars for fans of either genre; and just an overall amped-up, heavy feeling the whole time. This is metal, right?
An interesting moment is their cover of Venom's "Black Metal". It's faster, harder and just more aggressive than Venom had made it; basically, it's how the song should be known as. It's one of the first times I actually enjoyed a cover more than the original.
But don't buy this album just for the cover; all the original material is great as well. Songs like "Inferior Devoties", "Necronomicon" and "Althotas" really stick out and give this album more strength to stand with. Everything else is wonderful, too, but those three are some of the more crushing songs, in my opinion.
Overall, it's a fantastic album. Fans of Hypocrisy, if you don't already have this, quickly scurry off to retrieve it. It's right up there with Abducted, believe me. A must-have.

~ Reviewed by www.metal-archives.com