Abducted

Review Score: (10/10)
The release of Hypocrisy's classic "Abducted", in my mind, was the last turning point between the old school and new school Swedish Death Metal sounds. It is my favorite all time release from Sweden because it transceded the boundaries of Death Metal (and metal for that matter), and ventured into Black Metal sounds (check out "Killing Art"), Doom sounding material ("Arrival of the Demons, pt. 2"), and most importantly, became very emotionally involving on the second half of the disc. "Abducted" took the extreme heaviness achieved on the band's previous effort, "The Fourth Dimension," to another level by adding higher-pitched vocals in some of the songs, bringing Peter Tagtgren's (vocals, guitars) alien conspiracy theories to true life. (As much as you don't want to admit it, you would probably scream too if you were being abducted by aliens.) The production is also flawless, thanks to Tagtgren's other genius for recording. As mentioned before, however, the band's versatility is really demonstrated on the second half of the disc, when they added emotional elements to their music; slowing down and using clean guitars and vocals, particularly on the last couple of tracks. Any other band would not have been able to pull it off AND make it sound good, but this is HYPOCRISY; and if their name wasn't Hypocrisy and they weren't from the nether reaches of Sweden, "Slippin Away," one of the last songs on the album, might have hit the Billboard singles chart. Ok, maybe it's not quite that commercially appealing, but it's still a great song, and the album deserves a listen from ANYONE with an open mind for metal. Hypocrisy has, throughout their career, always continued to evolve and experiment with new elements and sounds, but the great thing about them is that they continue to stay true to their sound and most importantly, true to themselves, (unlike, say, Metallica). My favorite tracks from "Abducted" are: "Roswell 47," "Arrival of the Demons, pt. 2," "Paradox," "When the Candle Fades," and "Slippin Away;" but they're all amazing if you ask me.

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