The Final Chapter

There is a rather uninteresting story associated with this release. Well, according to the title, it was supposed to be Hypocrisy's last lp! After the release of "The Final Chapter", Peter Tägtgren planned to focus on new projects and jump into other, non-death metal style (such as Pain). That he was deceiving up is a known matter (and a marketing trick), but to be honest...with such a termination of activity, the Swedes could only be left with even greater disgust. Because as for the supposedly "final chapter", this cd is clearly weaker than its predecessors. Well, "The Final Chapter" is one of the first albums to seriously brought down Hypocrisy's discography level.

The clichéd conclusion from this, "The Final Chapter" is simply not worthy of being "the last one". Stylistically, everything is too much like "Abducted" style. The band continues to put more and more melodies into the death metal core, and at the same time does not offer anything spectacular that could fit into this "finality". Okay, it would be possible to turn that the music had the same positive impressions as before. Exactly, but...the "Abducted" level is also absent out from "The Final Chapter".

The fifth album of Hypocrisy is primarily: a lot of patterns (sometimes quite good, other times quite predictable), frequent breaking faster tracks with slower and playing generally aimed at an increasing number of listeners who cannot stand without any melodies. Somewhere death vocals have returned, but this time this element only serves as an addition - to such an extent as not to accuse the band of betraying their standards. I am glad that the Swedes from time to time (e.g. in "Request Denied", "Lies" or in the title track) were able to make more sensible (i.e. without enormous pretentiousness) use of "pure" playing or keyboard parts, but it's a pity that there was no similar sense with the heaviness or general atmosphere. On "The Final Chapter" - contrary to the title - it feels as if the band just wanted to recreate the ideas from "Abducted", and in this less ambitious formula. The only thing left to do is to rejoice that the final chapter did not happen quickly for Hypocrisy; the group still managed to release some nice albums under this name.

Originally on: https://subiektywnymetal.blogspot.com/2020/07/hypocrisy-final-chapter-1997.html