It felt like ages since we were at KB in Malmö last, and an even longer eternity since we saw Hypocrisy there. This night, those eternities were bound together, and we could look forward to a spectacle of seldom seen proportions!

“Hello Malmö! It’s good to be here. Oh yeah, I’m not gonna talk so much shit, it’s better to play music, right? And have a sip… (burps audibly)”
- Peter Tägtgren (vocals/guitar)

With Hypocrisy on this tour were two other Swedish acts, Offerblod and The Unguided, both of which did what they could with a less than half filled room, and a crowd not completely ready to let their hair down, as it were.
As soon as AC/DC’s Rock ‘N’ Roll Train started blasting through the speakers and the lights went down, it was as if another switch had been flicked. The room suddenly felt crowded, and people were shouting on their own accord.
Now, Peter Tägtgren had a solid thought on how to keep the momentum going, or maybe he just didn’t feel like ramblin. Either way, the result was that after his short introductory comment, he didn’t say a word more until we were halfway through the encore section. Between those comments, it was, as he said, music all the way.

Hypocrisy started out with Worship, and through their 17 songs long setlist, they impressively managed to hit a minimum of one song from each and every one of their full-length releases! That’s not often seen, so hat’s off, boys.
Several of said tracks are more or less live staples, so the setlist wasn’t as big of a surprise as the former statement might have led you to believe though, but there’s nothing wrong with the classics.
Hypocrisy managed, as far as I could tell from the front of the room, to have a very good sound going for them. Something I’d noticed during The Unguided’s set, was that there was next to no lead vocal in the mix which was odd, but there was no such hiccup for Hypocrisy.

The band had newly made outfits on, but the stage setup was the same as they’ve had for a while. Nothing wrong with that, the whole metal mesh and the rest looks great, but on a small stage like KB’s, it doesn’t leave the band much room. Also, the drums go way up high, so it was quite hard even seeing Henrik Axelsson playing.
The rest of the guys did an alright job of it however, moving about and headbanging pretty much all the time. Nothing out of the ordinary; well, except for that one time Tägtgren for inexplicable reasons tried to crawl into Tomas Elofsson’s armpit…

“Time to get drunk! Nah, we have a few more songs left.”
- Tägtgren (vocals/guitar)

The crowd was definitely on the band’s side through all of this, headbanging, cheering, and moshing to the aggressive tunes. It thinned out a little towards the end, but that’s pretty much standard around these parts (though I’ll never understand why?), but those who stayed through it all, also showed their appreciation through it all, and they were rewarded with setlists, drumsticks, and guitar picks at the end.
I was a bit surprised to hear Deathrow (No Regrets) used as an outro instead of being part of the actual set, but at least we got to hear it. I do miss it being played live though. The clear highlight for me this evening came with Until The End. Sure, it’s on the calmer end of the scale, but it brought a palpable mood, as well as being a song fun to sing along to.
All in all, the show could easily be perceived as a rather standard one for this band. I missed a bit more talking and interaction with the crowd, but even with that, we had a hell of a good time! What a way to update our memories of this band in this place.

Setlist:

Rock ‘N’ Roll Train (AC/DC song)
Worship
Fire In The Sky
Mind Corruption
Eraser
Inferior Devoties
Chemical Whore
Until The End
Don’t Judge Me
End Of Disclosure
Weed Out The Weak
Children Of The Gray
War-Path
The Final Chapter
Fractured Millennium
Impotent God
Adjusting The Sun
The Gathering
Roswell 47
Deathrow (No Regrets)