They may not have headlined the day, but you know that when it comes to Hypocrisy it is always a big deal for us. If you haven’t figured that out by now, you simply haven’t read our site enough!

“How are you doing motherfuckers?!”
- Peter Tägtgren (vocals/guitar)

It wasn’t just for us it was a big deal either, that much was apparent from the huge crowd, the largest one this day, that had met up in good time before the show and was expectantly looking at the main stage, on which the abyss would soon open.
Loud cheers supplemented the prolonged intro for End Of Disclosure that marked the beginning of the Swedish death icons concert at Metaldays, cheers that markedly grew in intensity as the musicians took the stage. Obviously, they opened with End Of Disclosure, but after this it was a veritable thrill-ride of songs from all over the place – sure enough it was pretty much the same as the one they had played on their spring tour, with only two songs cut out, but as this was also a pretty kick-ass setlist, I wasn’t about to complain about that.
Another worthy point of praise was the sound. Hypocrisy haven’t always exactly been known for a good live sound, but apart from the fact that the sound of Tägtgren’s guitar was missing in the very beginning, they had actually managed to pull together a great mix that complemented the melodic nature of the music whilst still pertaining the much needed aggression and depth that is death metal. So far, so good, definitely.

But what about the performance?
To my mind, yet another win. The band didn’t really move out of their comfort zone at any point, but they were present, engaging and entertaining, and that’s good enough for this reporter!
Tägtgren apologized at one point for missing out on the announced signing session earlier in the day, citing a vague “problems” as the reason. Knowing a bit about the band, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to guess that these problems might have had something to do with the very tasty Laško beer that was being served at the festival (this is pure speculation though). Either way, some problems still lingered, causing Tägtgren to mess up the lyrics so badly in The Eye that the band decided to stop and start over...
They didn’t need to worry about the fans forgiveness for this though, Metaldays and Slovenia had already proved their deep devotion for Hypocrisy. Already during the second song, Tales Of Thy Spineless, there came a crowd surfer in an inflatable boat sailing by, and the madness didn’t stop there, the bands favourite was probably the many topless female crowd surfers. Even so, Hypocrisy didn’t see the wildest crowd of the festival. In addition to the numerous crowd surfers, there were also some mosh pits around the place, but most people seemed to be content in fixing their eyes on the stage, taking it all in with a bit of headbanging and shouting to spice things up.

As you have probably guessed by now, this show was pure enjoyment. Guilty pleasure says some, but I don’t know what’s guilty about it. I just liked it, and so did so many, many others around me.

Setlist:

End Of Disclosure
Tales Of Thy Spineless
Fractured Millennium
Left To Rot
The Eye
Fire In The Sky
Necronomicon
Buried
44 Double Zero
Elastic Inverted Visions
War-path
Roswell 47
Adjusting The Sun
Eraser