Hypocrisy - Abducted
Nuclear Blast
Melodic Death Metal
13 songs (47'13'')
Release year: 1996
Hypocrisy, Nuclear Blast
Reviewed by Jared
Archive review

This month I’ve been on a big Hypocrisy high and for good reason. At the end of the month the latest installment, End of Disclosure, will unleash upon us. I thought to myself and decided what better way than to get ready for this event and to review one of my favorite Hypocrisy albums of all time. To be honest, it is really difficult for me to decide on my favorite. The Final Chapter was a clear winner for me when I first heard it, but Abducted had so much going on for it in terms of being unique and worthwhile. I guess I could almost argue that this should be a classic on the site. Actually I’d fear that I would go off the deep end and label the entire discography a classic. It’s not difficult to get hooked on this band. For a band that’s been around since the early 90s, they still release top quality and masterful music.

Abducted achieved a different sound than previous records. Also the band went for a unique image for the album. The title pretty much gives it away, but a setting based around extraterrestrial and abduction themes highlight much of the lyrics and music. The opening is sounds of com chatter discussing the appearance of extraterrestrial life and then explodes into one of my favorite Hypocrisy tracks, Roswell 47. When I first started to play guitar and do a little self-teaching, this song brings back a lot of memory for me (especially my first exposure to low B tuning on guitar). It had deep powerful chords, a catchy lead, and just a clear recipe for pure metal greatness. Hypocrisy achieves well and beyond my expectations when they play dark and simple riffs. I notice with a lot of their albums, especially with Abducted and The Final Chapter, they jump from songs with some seriously fast paced moments and then follow with slow and dark melodic songs that rarely disappoint. It’s a formula I hope they repeat in End of Disclosure. As the days go by I am ever eager to review and listen to this much anticipated album.

Slippin’ Away and Drained, probably the most dissimilar songs on the record, took me by surprise the first time I got all the way through the album. For an album that had so much intensity and vigor in every song, these last two songs slow down the mood of the album immensely. They still are fantastic songs and give you a chance to cool down after all the high energy moments throughout the entire album. Slow clean guitar licks accompanied by Peter’s clean singing voice are the name of the game once you reach the album’s end. It’s done beautifully, a word I rarely would describe in metal, but Hypocrisy shows how versatile they are in their music and can achieve pretty much any sound with flawless precision.

Hypocrisy is a huge inspiration to me musically. Every time I sit down and start to come up and record guitar riffs and ideas with my amateur studio set up, I’d like to say the most influence in my music comes from this band. They have achieved so much success and respect that I would have to say they are one of the most ideal metal bands of our time. After the band decided The Final Chapter would be their last record, many fans were upset to see this act abruptly end. Luckily the fan response was so huge that Hypocrisy has remained with us for over 23 years now and I’ll be damned if it is going to stop anytime soon. Abducted strays from the old death metal roots to something a bit more melodic and is truly a definitive Hypocrisy album.

Killing Songs :
Roswell 47, Killing Art, The Arrival of Demons (Part 2), Paradox, When the Candle Fades, Slippin’ Away
Jared quoted 92 / 100
Other albums by Hypocrisy that we have reviewed:
Hypocrisy - Virus reviewed by Jared and quoted 85 / 100
Hypocrisy - The Fourth Dimension reviewed by Jared and quoted 80 / 100
Hypocrisy - Hypocrisy reviewed by Jared and quoted 85 / 100
Hypocrisy - End of Disclosure reviewed by Jared and quoted 90 / 100
Hypocrisy - Catch 22 reviewed by Jared and quoted 91 / 100
To see all 11 reviews click here
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