Catch 22

Hypocrisy is easily one of the best extreme metal bands in the world right now, its founder/main songwriter/vocalist/guitar and keyboard player Peter Tägtgren being on of the most talented individuals in the metal scene today. Most Hypocrisy albums are almost unanimously considered excellent, if one was to judge by reviews present both on Metal-Archives and on other websites, but Catch 22 (and, to a considerably lesser extent, The Arrival) is considered by many to be a mediocre-at-best album and certainly the band’s weakest. While Catch 22 is the band’s worst album, it’s still a good and quite underrated effort.

Catch 22 suffers from the same major flaw which brings In Flames’ widely despised yet underrated seventh album, Soundtrack To Your Escape, down: the opening track, Don’t Judge Me, like F(r)iend for In Flames’ album, is the worst track on the album. The vocals are just decent but, when coupled with some generic riffs and especially that horrible trashcan drumming (new Metallica, anyone?) really turns this into one of Hypocrisy’s saddest moments, right there with their cover of Kiss’ Strange Ways, which isn’t as bad since it’s a lame song by an even lamer band, but this abortion of a song called Don’t Judge Me is completely Hypocrisy’s fault. This is probably the only song which reminds me of the oft-mentioned Shitknot…I’m sorry, Slipknot, influence this album seems to have.

The rest of the album is fortunately much stronger. The second track is Destroyed, which is an incredible Hypocrisy song, right up there with their best compositions. It’s quite fast-paced, and in this respect it resembles Don’t Judge Me but is much better. It’s also one of the songs which got me into metal and the first extreme metal song I liked, so I must admit that I have a certain bias while reviewing it. On The Edge Of Madness is a slower, more melodic piece, featuring a very catchy chorus, in line with many melodic death metal songs. Once again Peter Tägtgren manages to deliver an excellent vocal performance as well as a strong series of riffs. Most subsequent songs follow this example of having catchy choruses and solid instrumental work to support them, although there are some remaining weak tracks, notably A Public Puppet and, to a lesser extent, Uncontrolled. Turn The Page and Another Dead End (For Another Dead Man) are the undeniable highlights of the latter half of the album. Most Hypocrisy albums also contain a slower, near-ballad type song. Catch 22’s slow song is All Turns Black, a depressive song featuring Peter’s clean vocals and lyrics which deal with deep psychological problems, as they do on the rest of the album.

Catch 22 is an overall good album, although it has some obvious flaws which drag it down to being the band’s worst effort. These flaws, however, are just a few songs which can be easily skipped, allowing the excellent ones to be appreciated again and again. I recommend this album to all Hypocrisy and melodic death metal fans: don’t be scared by the high number of negative reviews here. Catch 22 is a good album, but I suggest getting something else to those who aren’t familiar with the band: probably Abducted, the s/t or Virus.