Hypocrisy was formed in October, 1991 by Peter Tägtgren (originally a drummer and a guitar player since the mid-'80s) and Lars Szöke, both former Conquest members. Conquest had disbanded in 1988 because a couple of members did not wish to play really heavy music. The band was formed after Peter returned from a stay in the United States where he spent time in Meltdown and in Malevolent Creation. Joining the two were guitarist Österberg, bassist Hedlund and Satanist vocalist Masse Broberg. Broberg would actually be the replacement for the original singer of Entombed who would return to his original band just before recording with Peter. The band played its very first gig on June 6, 2002. The band had no trouble securing a deal with Germany's Nuclear Blast and soon issued its Satan-tinged debut, Penetralia. The song God Is A Lie was censored by Nuclear Blast and named God Is A... on this disc. The band would make sure that this is rectified on the upcoming Inferior Devotees MCD though. The band shot two videos and was soon featured on The Death Is Just The Beginning compilation. Österberg would leave the fold though and with Broberg becoming ill after Osculum Obscenum, ostensibly while on the road opening for Cannibal Corpse, the band would become a trio with Tägtgren taking over the microphone for the Inferior Devotees MCD. The band also put in an appearance for a Slayer tribute disc called Slatanic Slaughter Vol. 1. The band had supported Osculum... through a tour with label-mates Brutality.

The third full-length would see the band head in a more quiet direction. The Fourth Dimension would even be criticized by the band later on. Still, the band would tour on both sides of the Atlantic and be a part of Nuclear Blast's New Year's Festival. Tägtgren would fill in on guitars for Marduk as well. The man is also busying himself by this time with various side projects, like Pain and The Abyss, and work as a producer at his Abyss Studio. Abducted featured both metal and several rock songs probably inspired by Pink Floyd. A different version of this album featured band members switching instruments and was called Maximum Abduction.

The band seemed to be doing progressively more business when in 1997 Tägtgren announced that The Final Chapter would be the band's last release. The singer/guitarist had tired of his multi-fold duties and perceived lack of contribution by his teammates. Simultaneously, his more commercial side-project Pain was obtaining a major record deal in Europe. In the coming years, Tägtgren would delegate more work to his band-mates, but would keep up a heavy workload at the Abyss Studio and would even join the death metal project Lock Up.

Catch 22 was singled out by fans as having a trendier sound. The band would hire Pain guitarist Matthias Kamijo for live dates. The band would again tour as part of the No Mercy dates across Europe. The Arrival would continue the band's alien motif, but not before being remixed by a dissatisfied band. Surprisingly, at this time drummer Lars would quit Hypocrisy and be replaced by Pain/Immortal's Horgh. Apparently, the trio had had an inter-band discussion regarding members' commitment and contribution to Hypocrisy. The band would tour North America again and hit the European circuit as part of the No Mercy festivals once more. Virus would emerge at the tail end of the summer of 2005 and would officially feature touring guitarist Andreas Holma and drummer Horgh as part of the line-up. Guitarist Andreas Holma quit in September of 2006 and was temporarily replaced with Darkane's Klas Ideberg. The group reported in late 2007 that it was rerecording the vocals and some of the drums for its 2002 album Catch 22. The new version was to be out later in 2008 through Nuclear Blast Records. A new album was further delayed. After a period of protracted silence, the band has announced A Taste Of Extreme Divinity as the title for its next album, which was due on October 23rd, 2009 through Nuclear Blast Records. The band was touring the USA with Ensiferum in November. Hypocrisy enlisted the help of Children Of Bodom guitarist/frontman Alexi Laiho for its upcoming North American tour. Alexi agreed to temporarily fill the vacant guitarist spot on the tour with Ensiferum, Ex Deo, Blackguard and Swashbuckle. Hypocrisy was next delayed by US visa rules. Ex Deo was also hit with visa problems. In the end, Hypocrisy was also forced to pull out of the tour after one member failed to receive a visa. Blackguard opened the tour.

HYPOCRISY - THE ARRIVAL - NUCLEAR BLAST
Two years after the oft-derided Catch 22 album comes the new Hypocrisy album, The Arrival. The album marks a new beginning for the band member-wise, but musically sees the band stick to the tried and true sound first established on 1996's Abducted. The band uses melody, fast parts slow parts and mostly the trademarked Hypocrisy mid-pace to screech its point home. Peter's voice is in fine shape. His screams are accompanied by a fair number of forbidding growls. Songs like The Departure, Eraser and Dead Sky Dawning are exactly what fans expect from the band. A weaker songs is track five, New World, which seems to represent the band's attempt at something different. The band has also included a new version of the song The Abyss here for those who have not heard this older track. The album would have been even better had Peter and the boys deleted the background synthesizer track in favour of a rhythm guitar or bass of sorts, but that frankly is a minor quibble in the grand scheme of things. The Arrival is a good, no-frills and solid album. - Ali "The Metallian"

The voice at the other end of the telephone line is polite, well-spoken and remarkably interested. This despite it being midnight in Sweden, the band's ninth album and umpteenth interview.
The voice belongs to Mikael Hedlund of Swedish metal juggernaut Hypocrisy. The band, completed by singer and guitarist Peter Tagtgren and new drummer Horgh (replacing long-time skinbasher Lars Szoke) and guitarist Andreas Holma, has just issued the well-received The Arrival album and is fitting in a bunch of interviews with the media before hitting the road again. Read on as Ali "The Metallian" crisscrosses Hypocrisy's career with interview partner Mikael - 04.02.2004

METALLIAN: Mikael, will you begin the conversation by describing The Arrival in your own words? Why would a metal fan pick up this album and not one of the many others on the market?
MIKAEL: I agree with many people who are saying that we have gone back to our roots with this album to the Abducted and Hypocrisy albums. The music we do has melodic stuff, more heavy stuff and mid-tempo songs. It is also more atmospheric this time. When I say 'atmospheric' I mean the album has a kind of feeling, it is something special.
All the albums we have done, OK the last four we have done, mix fast songs with more heavy stuff, but we still want to have the catchy stuff in there too. The listener will hear the chorus and recognize the song. I think that's typical Hypocrisy. On the last album, Catch 22, we tried to work more on the melodies of the vocals, but it seems that people didn't like it that much. I don't know why. I love that album. Of course you have to listen to what the fans are thinking. We did that and said that we should go back and do what we do best. We also wanted to do it and go back too.

METALLIAN: It is a good thing that you brought up the previous album. Were you trying to go towards the mallcore sound?
MIKAEL: It wasn't like we wanted to follow that trend, you know. That was not the reason. We listen to it. We all listen to Slipknot and you can hear it in a couple of songs of ours. We must be influenced by it. You can't hear it on The Arrival though.
Of course we noticed the reactions to Catch 22. To be honest it is very easy to say that we do what we want and we don't care what people think as long as we are satisfied. The truth is that we listen to what people say and the reaction. We try to do it fifty-fifty. We don't do anything that we do not want to do, but at the same time we listen to what people say. I am honest. You have to listen to the fans. They are a part of Hypocrisy too.

METALLIAN: The first four songs on the album are cool Hypocrisy bruisers. New World though seems to be of a different breed.
MIKAEL: I don't know! It is a fast songs and has heavy parts. I like that song very much.

METALLIAN: Listening to the song one comes across two specific segments where the drums sound suspiciously mechanical. Does Hypocrisy ever mix real drums with drums machines in the studio?
MIKAEL: No, absolutely not. No, no, that's totally wrong. We can leave that question.

METALLIAN: That sounds like a categorical answer. Let us discuss Peter's vocals. Given the many vocal layers, the question that comes to mind is how much work goes into that at the studio.
MIKAEL: No, he doesn't take that long. Of course we use two or three channels at the same time for the vocals. It makes it more powerful and it is great. We try to do it as soon as possible. As long as it sounds good.

METALLIAN: The Arrival features a re-recorded version of the song The Abyss. What is the reason for it?
MIKAEL: Hmmmm many people were asking for it. We could see on our website that people were wondering where they can hear it. I think it is a very very good song. It is one of the best that we have done. We thought to re-record the song with a much better production and put it on the album.
It was OK the first time around. I mean it was back in 1994. We could do it better though ten years later. It was merely a bonus song on The Fourth Dimension album. You can hardly find it because we did it later for that album. It has a different sound this time around. It was recorded at another studio too. We had recorded it in Stockholm at another studio at that time instead of at Abyss Studio.
People might say it is a cheap thing to do, but it is good for us.

METALLIAN: How do you explain Hypocrisy's affinity for the word 'abyss?' It has become your answer to Dio's use of the word 'rainbow.' The word appears as a song title, album title, side project and studio name!
MIKAEL: That's a good question. That is a very good question. Actually, I don't know why. I don't know if I have answer. It's like it follows us.

METALLIAN: If that is the case, let me ask you another question about one other song. An enjoyable song on the new album is Dead Sky Dawning.
MIKAEL: It is a mid-tempo song with a lot of melody. It is a catchy song. The first time you hear it you remember it. It is a very good song. It is one of my favourites.

METALLIAN: An odd point about the new album is how it is titled The Arrival, yet features a song called The Departure. Furthermore, shouldn't The Arrival have been your first album's title?
MIKAEL: I have nothing to do with the title of the album. Dan Swano from Edge Of Sanity wrote five of the lyrics on the new album. He wrote The Departure without knowing the eventual title of the album. That is interesting (laughs). I had not thought about this!
And no, we are not going backwards! Perhaps it is a boring answer, but we came up with this title a year ago when we got the cover artwork. The title is connected to the cover. It is the same with all our albums. It is backwards. Everything is backwards (laughs again). We are going backwards all the time.

METALLIAN: So would you be able to affirm that all the lyrics are science fiction?
MIKAEL: All except The Abyss. The days when we write lyrics about God or religion are over. From the beginning it was a case of having Masse as a singer. He was our first vocalist and he was into the Satanic thing. He used to write the lyrics. Then Peter took over and he is into the aliens type of a thing. He is the alien freak. Therefore, it is quite natural that he wants to write about that. I am also into the topic. I am not into it as much as Peter.
We are not talking about the X-files or stuff like that. We are talking about abductions. You never know, maybe one day you are abducted!

METALLIAN: Are you being serious or are you joking?
MIKAEL: No, you never know! I believe in that stuff. That is the thing that makes it so interesting. You never know what is going on around us on the planet. Maybe we will find out one day what is going on.

METALLIAN: Does Peter take a fantasy point-of-view or is he expressing personal experience?
MIKAEL: There is no concept on the album. Each song has its own ideas. Again, a song like Dead Sky Dawning was written by Dan Swano. It is one of the fives written by Dan.

METALLIAN: In a surprising move, there was a change of personnel in Hypocrisy. What was the reason for the departure of Lars?
MIKAEL: We have been touring for the last two years and he was tired of it. If you have a band then you have to be one-hundred percent into it otherwise it does not work. We had to make a decision what to do. Were we going to stay home and not tour that much or are we going to move ahead as we had planned? That is why we had to do something about it.
We had a meeting and we came up with the final decision of Lars' departure together.

METALLIAN: Are you fully onboard? There have been times in the past years when you seemingly have been less than active in the band's affairs yourself.
MIKAEL: Yeah, absolutely I am there. We all agreed after The Final Chapter album that we would all have to be more involved. Peter had to take care of everything before that. After that everything changed. Of course, people want to talk to Peter all the time because he has the studio and the band Pain and so on. People ask questions about things other than Hypocrisy too. Now things have changed and we all have to participate. For example, Peter and I wrote the whole album musically together. It is team work. Peter doesn't have to do everything. He wants to have a band feeling.
If I had a magazine I would have liked to talk to the other members of a band and not always to the main person all the time.

METALLIAN: Going back to the drummer question, how did Horgh get the vacated position?
MIKAEL: He has been a good friend of ours for a long time. We did a European tour with Immortal two years ago. After that he drummed for Peter on the Pain album. Peter has recorded three times with Immortal. We know him well. He is a good drummer. We called him up and asked him if he can join Hypocrisy now. He was totally into it. He is very dedicated to doing it. He is the guy we were looking for, you know. He was our first choice and we are lucky. Next week will be our first show with him. We will be in the USA with him.
We are never home, but I like it. This is my life. I don't complain. I am not married and that helps. I have a girlfriend. It is difficult, but she understands.

METALLIAN: The drumming style of Lars and Horgh are very different. Will Hypocrisy's drumming now undergone a big change?
MIKAEL: Our new drummer will drum Hypocrisy style. Of course, he will do it his way. It is not like he is going to play blastbeats. Hypocrisy is not going to change drastically. It s going to be Hypocrisy.

METALLIAN: Will the logistics be an issue his being in Norway and you guys being in Sweden?
MIKAEL: It is not a problem. We only rehearse when we go on tour, and sometimes in-between, but not that often as a band. We come up with riffs at home when we want to record an album. Then we go into the studio and record them together. It is not going to be difficult now. He doesn't need to move to Sweden.

METALLIAN: What is going on with the second guitarist situation?
MIKAEL: Right before Hypocrisy I was in a band called Scattred Corpses. We didn't record any demos. We had several good songs though. Andreas Holma who was our live second guitarist played with me in Scattred Corpses. He is now an official member. He is not a session player anymore. He and I grew up together. We played together before Hypocrisy and we live in the same area too. He became an official member a month ago.

METALLIAN: The band has shot a video for the new album. One assumes it is unlike the band's earliest efforts because Peter is on record as claiming that the videos for Left To Rot and Impotent God were detrimental to Hypocrisy's image.
MIKAEL: We started two weeks ago shooting a video for the song Eraser. It follows the alien concept. I haven't seen the result yet. We appear in the video along two naked ladies who are painted in black. I don't know what they do though. I am very curious to see the result.
We were talking earlier about videos and Peter, all of us, agreed that the first one was the best. I am not sure what he was saying about those videos because he was saying the first one was the best too. We were standing in the ruins. It was shot in an old theatre here in our area. It was a famous theatre that was burnt down. It was good timing and we asked if we can shoot a video there. I think it is a cool video. I think that is the best one we have done except for the sound. We had to take the song from the demo at the time. At the time, we were just signed and were asked to do a video before we had finished the album!

Hypocrisy is on the move with a new album on Nuclear Blast Records, new members, new video and is currently touring on both sides of the Atlantic. Fans and hacks alike are invited to check out the band's website at www.hypocrisy.tv.