You’ll never know what you get, when Peter Tägtgren and Hypocrisy releases a new album. In some way or another they’ll incorporate the greatness from their glorious past, that is for sure. But the good or the bad part, the brutal or the softer... The questions are many...

With “The Arrival” we are getting the full load. Here are elements from the hard and brutal albums and from the newer and more atmospheric releases. The album spreads out and shows us all the facets of Hypocrisy. That is quite good, a great summary of what Hypocrisy was and has become.

All the tracks are delivered very convincing and finally again, with a great deal of enthusiasm. Tägtgren seems very fit and ignited, and delivers great guitarplay and a very good, varied and brutal vocal performance.

The compositions are great too. Some as ‘Born Dead Buried Alive’ thunders away and buries the listeners alive. Others as the bombastic ‘The Departure’ offers a huge atmospheric set up and great keyboards. And then we have a track like ‘War Within’, which offers all of the above.

Overall do the tracks offer brutality gently wrapped with atmosphere, Hypocrisy as we know them, even though the band is more aggressive and fit, than it has been the latest years.

Besides that is the album wrapped in a great production. It’s of course Tägtgren who has handled the production, and who knows better than him, how Hypocrisy should sound.

None of Hypocrisy’s fans will become disappointed with this album, others should might take a listen to it first.

[This review was first published on the now defunct scandinavianmetal.info webzine]