Remember when the authorities made it official that UFOs existed?
Probably because they landed in Sweden in Peters backyard in Ludvika and told him to get off his ass and record a new Hypocrisy album. It’s been eight years after all, 12 years if you count good albums. Nevertheless, the timing is interesting.
It’s well a fact that Peter & co. had given us excellent records, from the straight to the jugular records like Osculum Obscenum to addictive space madness of Abducted and the self titled album. All that and many more.
But with many bands after a dozen records a certain formula occurs where the album tries to satisfy majority of the bands fans while stretching incredibly thin.
The same situation is with Worship, with in a way is most reminiscent to The Arrival, with a lot of mid-tempo songs, catchy melody with some kickers fitted in between.
It has some cool moments like the title track, “Chemical Whore”, “Children of the Gray” and “Gods of the Underworld”, but all that sounds very familiar. It is fun to listen but after every enjoyable moment you get the feeling that you heard it before and probably in a better fashion like in Virus, A Taste of Extreme Divinity or hell, even The Arrival had a bit of the novelty back in 2004.
You can definitely hear that Worship is trying to condense the last several albums into this package trying to please the majority of the fans by half-measure. It lacks coherence and some deeper reflection in it. You miss the wow effect and the willingness to approach the subject differently, even within the well-known style. It is your predictable Hypocrisy songwriting 101 and after eight years of silence you would think that better record would be in a making. This feels like a thrown out record with not much many thought of expanding its sound.
It’s like watching a good looking movie with some cool scenes, but half-way there you already know how it’s going to wrap up and within a few days you pretty much forget that you even watched it.
Sounds harsh, I’m well aware of that, but this is fucking Hypocrisy and it’s been eight years. This should have been a monster with aggression and more hooks than Pinhead has in its closet; not an inferior younger cousin of The Arrival who is being bullied by Penetralia.
The truth is still out there, or better to say a more memorable Hypocrisy album.
Score: 66 / 100
Release date: November 26th, 2021
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