Live Review: Hypocrisy - Academy 2, Manchester
7th October 2022
Support: SepticFlesh, The Agonist, Horizon ignoited
Words: Dan Barnes
Photos: Rich Price
Heavy traffic into town tonight means I arrive too late for either The Agonist or Horizon Ignited, and a queue in the foyer sees me cutting it close for Septicflesh’s performance. But the crew are still dressing the stage as I enter the old Mandela Debating Hall, the Athenians being afforded the kind of stage set-up usually reserved for headlining acts.
In front of a full backdrop and flanked by two large frames, Septicflesh hit the stage with the attitude of the top billed act, combining their symphonic death metal with some serious grooving on both Portrait of a Headless Man and Pyramid God, which sees drummer, Kerim Lechner smashing out huge slabs of pulverising percussion.
The first newbie of the night comes in the form of Neuromancer, a doomy, weighty stomp that sets out to bludgeon from the get-go. The Vampire of Nazareth’s melo-death is greeted like an old friend, as is Communion’s title track and Anubis.
Septicflesh build their sound on the atmospheric, rather than the aggressive and there’s a finesse to the Greek’s performance, underscored by choral vocals and the feel of a horror movie soundtrack. The band concentrate their set on the albums post-2008, omitting any tracks from 2014’s Titan; but with the quality and artistry on show they could have played for another hour and the crowd would still have lapped it up. However, all good things must come to an end and, with Peter Tägtgren and co waiting in the wings, it leaves just Dark Art to bring the curtain down on a rich banquet of subtle aggression.
We’re three songs into Hypocrisy’s set before Peter Tägtgren addresses the crowd, telling us that every night is a Friday night when you’re on tour and the small but enthusiastic audience respond by sending over the first crowd surfer of the set during Eraser. This results in Tägtgren chastising the security for not doing their jobs properly when one surfer appears to hit his head as he goes over.
Where Septicflesh purveyed a certain elegance, Hypocrisy is out to do nothing other than mess Manchester up. Tomorrow the band are off to France, so this last sojourn on British soil – for this tour, at least – sees the Swedes intent on giving Blighty a rousing, pugnacious send-off.
Every one of Hypocrisy’s thirteen studio albums is represented in the set tonight, with the main focus being on three tracks from last year’s Worship record. That release’s title-track opens the show under cold blue lights and demonstrates the band’s intent to deliver an abrasive and uncompromising masterclass of the Death Metal Arts. The floor is vibrating from the drums alone as Fire in the Sky and Mind Corruption set the scene early on.
Hypocrisy vary the tempos throughout the performance, playing driving, abrasive songs like Weed Out the Weak and War-Path, interspersed by the less aggressive Children of the Gray or the spaced-out, trippy The Final Chapter. This serves to keep the set fresh and stops it from being merely a barrage of impenetrable noise.
It is a brave move to revisit all your back-catalogue, especially when you have one as extensive as Hypocrisy, but hearing Inferior Devoties alongside End of Disclosure serves to remind us of the sheer consistency of the band over thirty-years. The four-song encore goes back to before the turn of the century with Fracture Millennium, Impotent God and Adjusting the Sun, closing with Roswell 47.
It’s rare to see Hypocrisy on these shores and even more rare that they venture this far north, which is a shame as the quality of their work and the passion shared between band and fans is something special. It would have been nice for a few more people to be there, but those of us who did attend were treated to an exceptional evening of unbridled ferocity.
Photo credits: Rich Price Photography
