Hypocrisy

It is not hypocritical to fall short of your personal standards, nor is it hypocritical to fall short of your espoused standards. But it is hypocritical to call someone on falling short of your standards while not meeting them yourself. (So the simple answer might be to stop spouting off your personal dogma.)

See also: rationalization, justification, excuse, The Diamond Age, double standard, exception, privilege, judgement, judgemental

A fundemental element of human personalities. Many boneheaded things are done by knee-jerk liberals in deep denial of their own hypocrisy.

The hypocrisy practiced by law and order conservatives: (As inferred from observing young conservatives in college.) You can do what you want, as long as you can keep it private. Once the authorities have to get involved, you're given one more chance to show that you have a handle on the situation, or yer screwed.

self-contradiction adds personality

A Swedish death metal band, considered by some to be legendary. In my opinion, it's one of the best metal bands ever, and The Man behind Hypocrisy, Peter Tägtgren is a natural talent. He composes, plays, mixes and produces his own albums and has a studio of his own. Other bands he has been involved with include Pain and Abyss. Hypocrisy's Roswell 47 (on Abducted) was the song that introduced me to heavier metal music, and has been one of my favorite albums since that.

The Final Chapter was supposed to be Hypocrisy's last album (as the name implies), and is considered by many fans (and magazines) to be Hypocrisy's best. But since then, they have already released 3 CDs, which I think was a mistake. The new albums are ok, but not nearly as good as the previous ones.

Line-up

• Peter Tägtgren: vocals & guitars
• Mikael Hedlund: bass
• Lars Szöke: drums

Discography

• 1992: Penetralia
• 1993: Osculum Obscenum
• 1994: Inferior Devoties
• 1994: The Fourth Dimension
• 1996: Abducted
• 1996: Maximum Abduction
• 1997: The Final Chapter
• 1999: Hypocrisy Destroys Wacken 1998
• 1999: Hypocrisy
• 2000: Live and Plugged
• 2000: Into the Abyss
• 2001: 10 Years Of Chaos and Confusion
• 2002: Catch 22

Introduction

The lineup

Discography

• 1992-PenetraliaTheir first album is pretty much a rather unoriginal standard piece of death metal, if a very good one. Hard and agressive are the keywords. Perhaps a tad more melodic than normal. Lyrics are also pretty standard, lots of Jesus-bashing. Good, but nothing really special. Personally, I'm not too impressed with the vocals. Hypocrisy doesn't have its typical style here yet.
• 1993-Pleasures of Molestation A short release, with 4 tracks. They were re-recorded for the Osculum Obscenum CD, although the digipack version includes the original recordings.
• 1993-Osculum ObscenumThis album starts with a very long gentle, instrumental intro. Then, a sudden explosion of metal violence crushes the gentleness. They do this on many of their albums. This album is a lot like Penetralia. It's a bit faster, and a bit more rhythmic though. The whole atmosphere is pretty colored by black metal influences. Peter Tägtgren appears to do some vocals as well. The album contains one cover, Black Metal, originally by Venom.
• 1994-Inferior Devoties The first release in their three-man lineup: Peter Tägtgren, Michael Hedlund and Lars Szöke. Peter starts showing off his remarkable singing talent here: both high, piercing screams, and deep, guttural grunts. The generally, it's more melodic, relaxed, and not so extremely agressive. Depending on your taste, this may or may not be a good thing. If your preference is bad, bad, baaad underground death metal, then this band's later work will not interest you as much as the earlier three albums.
• 1994-The Fourth Dimension This album is an exceptional blend between their earlier, death metalish-style and their later, more melodic work. The first song starts slowly. I like this: a sequence of songs on an album that's well thought-out makes it more than the sum of its parts. The digipack version has the Kiss-cover Strange Ways added. Here, Peter demonstrates his ability to sing clear vocals. I'm very fond of this album, if you want to buy one album to sample them, I think this offers the richest variety of songs.
• 1996-Abducted On this album, Peter's abductions by aliens are the main theme. Roswell 47, on this album, might be their most well-known song. Their individual, unique style is displayed well here: very melodic, bombastic at times, alien abductions, fast, agressive songs and slow, melodic ones, all on one album. Their guitars also have a very artifical sound, which really conveys the atmosphere associated with high-tech aliens well. Cool, but definitely not run-off-the-mill death metal. Personally, I like this: standard death metal tends to be an unending stream of agressiveness, obscenities, and sheer hatred. Nothing wrong with that, but I like it more dosed. Peter also uses his excellent clear vocals on the last two songs of this album, which are dripping with sadness.
• 1996-Carved up A single. The title song is on the Abducted album, the other song is not. I don't have this CD, so can't judge it.
• 1997-The Final Chapter Their supposed goodbye album became a huge success. A lot more agressive than Abducted or even The Fourth Dimension, and pretty fast. Very good death metal. My one complaint is that Peter's singing takes growling to the extreme here. This is very cool for the fast agressive songs, but not as appropriate for the slower melodic songs, where vocals that are a tad cleaner would fit better.
• 1998-Hypocrisy destroys Wacken Hypocrisy performing live at the huge German Wacken festival. I don't have this CD, as I'm generally not that much into live recordings. Apparently, the sound quality is very good, and the selection of songs looks promising.
• 1999-Hypocrisy Their self-titled album is roughly in the style of Abducted, but with an even more electronic, sometimes almost technoish sound. The first track Fractured Millennium, starts with a long, bombastic keyboard piece, to be ripped to shreds with a 13-second scream by Peter. Best opening on a CD I've ever heard. Again that mix of slow, melodic pieces, with a gothic/doom-like sound, and hard, fast agressive death metal. Much variation in the singing, some vocals are clean, some screaming. I consider this a true masterpiece, not in the least because of the excellent production-which Peter does himself. However, many purists consider the use of keyboards in death metal a cardinal sin. The songs on this title have very odd titles which seem to have nothing to do with their content.
• 2000-The Abyss Many bands try to reproduce the sound they had in their beginning, that raw eagerness of youth. This usually results in an abysmal failure. Not so here. Almost all songs are classic, fast, agressive, grunting, screaming death metal, at least as good as they made them when they just started. Forget the clever keyboard gimmicks, and gloomy doomy tracks on Abducted and Hypocrisy, this is pure rage. Fire in the Sky, after Peter's favorite movie, and Deathrow are the exceptions, and really complete the album well.
• 2001-Ten Years of Chaos and Confusion A "Best off..." track, including some re-recordings of their older work. I don't have this one.
• 2002-Catch-22 The album's title refers to the choice a band faces: Either make the same music over and over, risking to bore the fans, or experiment, and risk alienating them. This album chose the last approach-and with results many of the original fans really disliked. You see, there are some mild nu-metal influences, and that is quite enough to be unceremonially puked out by the underground scene. Still, people who look at their whole body of work shouldn't be surprised by this move, as Hypocrisy is constantly altering its style. The nuish stuff is concentrated at the beginning of the CD. I find it difficult to classify the music on this CD, as it's a really very varied. It does have a certain pop-like sound to it, and this may make this the best album for people who like their music a bit hard, but not extremely so. The use of electronic music again isn't shunned, overall, it's pretty speedy. It does have little to do with death metal.
• 2004-The Arrival This one had the metal community waiting in great anticipation: Will the deathly taint of nu-metal be banished from Hypocrisy? The answer is a resounding yes. It's a neat mix of Abducted, Hypocrisy and The Fourth Dimension, with as guest stars our friendly gray-skinned aliens, which also are on the cover. The cover art of this CD is VERY cool, it's a blue sphere, lighting up three aliens in bluish purple hue. Most fitting for the album. Very warped vocals in much of the album, and very appropriate use of the keyboard. Much mid-tempo stuff. I find it pretty easy to listen to, given the rather uniform tempo and general atmosphere, which again is not so uniform it gets boring. Come think of it, it is a bit pop-like, like Catch-22. I haven't seen a reviewer pick up on that. Once again a clear example of their unique style of death metal.

Their style

Having said that, their style is rooted in death metal, with mainly melodic and gothic influences.

Recommended listening

Summary

Sources:

• http://www.hypocrisy.tv
• http://www.espudd.com/articles/music/hypocrisy.php?cat=mus
• http://nestor.minsk.by/emn/reviews/hypocrisy.html
• http://www.evilmusic.com/reviews/hypocrisy/49.html
• http://www.anus.com
• http://www.metal-archives.com
• http://www.ssmt-reviews.com/db/searchrev.php?artistID=234&showReview=truet
• http://www.metal-observer.com
• http://www.zenial.nl
• http://www.epinions.com/musc_mu-321653/display_~reviews

Hy*poc"ri*sy (hi*pok"ri*s&ybreve;), n.; pl. Hypocrisies (- siz). [OE. hypocrisie, ypocrisie, OF. hypocrisie, ypocrisie, F. hypocrisie, L. hypocrisis, fr. Gr. "ypo`krisis the playing a part on the stage, simulation, outward show, fr. "ypokr`nesqai to answer on the stage, to play a part; "ypo` under + kri`nein to decide; in the middle voice, to dispute, contend. See Hypo-, and Critic.]

The act or practice of a hypocrite; a feigning to be what one is not, or to feel what one does not feel; a dissimulation, or a concealment of one's real character, disposition, or motives; especially, the assuming of false appearance of virtue or religion; a simulation of goodness.

Hypocrisy is the necessary burden of villainy.
Rambler.

Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.
La Rochefoucauld (Trans. ).

© Webster 1913