A rainy Sunday close to its end and what a better end than a nice gig!!! The time was almost 8:30 pm and the Hypocrisy gig was going to start in like -probably- 30 minutes. First impression while walking inside Rodon - damn it's EMPTY! There shouldn't have been more than 500 people inside at that time and it wouldn't get any bigger after all.
Around 9:15 pm the Greek support band entered the stage. The name was Obsecration and they were playing some kind of Black and Noisy Metal. Well to be honest they didn't let us figure out what they were actually playing because they sounded pretty bad; or they can blame it on the sound. Long songs, really tiring music which in fact made lots of people -except from some guys in the front rows familiar with the songs of the band- to grow more wary of Hypocrisy. Well I can give 100 € to a guy inside the concert that actually didn't know the band and really understood the title of one song when they were being introduced by the frontman.
[Note from Yiannis: Errrr. I tried hard not to bash a Greek band which is obviously trying hard. And that kind of music is really not my type. No obvious melody in it and vocals dangerously near the bluargh bluargh bleeeeergh zone a_k_a pointless grunts. Not to mention that I tried hard not to laugh my ass off (didn't work) every time the front man talked in regular voice and then introduced the song in bluuuaaarggghhh vocals that nobody understood. This is just my personal opinion and I am sure that people into this kind of music will appreciate them much more than me, but let's just say that 99.5% of the fans in Rodon were just staring, not moving at all, only to get a sip from their beers or chat about how cool Hypocrisy will be. My opinion is that they would find a much warmer welcome with another band, closer to their sound.]
About 40 minutes later, Hypocrisy entered the stage with the awesome opener Born Dead, Buried Alive from their latest album. Suddenly Rodon seemed like a familiar place with a couple of mosh pits and lots of head banging going on around. The set list was not a surprise with songs like Eraser, Slave to The Parasites and War Within from the latest album and known hits like Necronomicon, God is Lie, Fire In the Sky, Deathrow (No Regrets), Apocalypse, Roswell 47 and more. Peter was undeniably the heart of Hypocrisy, howling like crazy for 90 minutes, going up and down on stage, encouraging for absolute mayhem below the stage. Horgh which is the new drummer of the band and also a well known ex-member of Immortal really blasted the hell out of us. He is really blending into the band. Another new member of the band is the second guitarist Andreas Holma which did great in the show and personally I'm really looking forward for new studio material with both Holma and Horgh. Finally Mikael Hedlund was perfect as always in the bass part of the gig. Greatest moments in the show were the opener which really made the place shaking and the whole crowed screaming on Roswell 47. Weakest moment is probably the only one encore and the small duration of the show which was less than 90 minutes.
[Note from Yiannis: This live proved that you don't need 2000 people crammed in a small place to bring hell to the place. 500 were enough to spread disease, chaos and confusion. All the mosh pits, all the energy, everyone banging his head out (including both of us editors), it was just amazing. Needless to say Peter and co. brought hell on Earth and my only objection was the small duration of the live, less than one and a half hour. Then again I don't know how much longer it would take for the first crushed bones to appear so perhaps it was better this way (not). My favorite moment was of course, the Hypocrisy hymn to the unknown, Roswell 47.]
Nevertheless it was more than enjoyable watching Hypocrisy on the stage and remembering songs that actually made Swedish Death Metal what it is now! Metal on guys!
