Interview by Brian McLean
The Arrival of a New Metal God
There’s a metal god lurking in the underworld. Every now and then he surfaces for an extended amount of time for touring. When the tour has concluded, he then goes back to the Abyss, a place he calls his own.
Abyss is a legendary place in Sweden and can be considered Mecca. All metal heads should make the pilgrimage to this most unholy site of metal but it is easier said than done. It’s really not open to the public much anymore.
But this metal god that oversees the Mecca is not Rob Halford. And unlike Halford legacy’s, this lord of metal’s legacy has just begun in the last several years.
For Scandinavian death metal fans and metal in general, he is held in highest regards, more like royalty. He is younger, more intense, a highly respected top producer and creator of aggressive death metal with melodic touches.
Some consider him to be metal’s busiest man. His name is Peter Tagtgren, vocalist and guitarist for Hypocrisy, one of Sweden’s pride and joys of the death metal world.
Death in the Swamps
There was a time in the early 90’s when Tagtgren spent several years in Florida. It was a time when death metal began surface. At the time he was 17 or 18 years old but he watched, played in a few bands, hung out and learned from experience. He then stored everything in his long-term memory for future reference.
After several years Tagtgren returned home to Sweden where he would once again reference his Floridian experiences by forming Hypocrisy. Tagtgren recorded some songs and began sending out demo tapes to labels. One such label, Nuclear Blast Records quickly took notice and signed Hypocrisy.
Hypocrisy has released 14 titles over all and has earned a reputation for being one of the premier metal outfits hailing from Sweden. The debut, ‘Pentetralia’ was released in 1992.
Some of Hypocrisy’s earlier releases such as ‘Pentetralia’, ‘Osculum Obscenum’ and ‘The Fourth Dimension’ touched on subject matter such as aliens and unexplained extraterrestrial events and earned the band a dedicated following in the European underground.
But as time progressed Hypocrisy departed slightly from that mindset and Tagtgren was reaching a point where he wanted to put more time and effort into his “electrometal” project called Pain.
What was supposed to be Hypocrisy’s final release titled ‘The Final Chapter’ in 1997 actually became their most successful release to date at that time. The album was more of an experimental release but exposed Hypocrisy to listeners that wouldn’t normally consider the thought of listening to death metal.
With the promising exposure and recognition, specifically with the track “Fractured Millennium”, Hypocrisy forged onward.
Hypocrisy’s Arrival
Seven years later, Hypocrisy’s latest effort, ‘Arrival’ has the band touching on those extraterrestrial elements once again. As Tagtgren says, ‘Arrival’ reaches back to the roots of Hypocrisy. “In the 90’s, we went on up from ‘The Fourth Dimension’ to the self titled album to find our style. With ‘Into the Abyss’ and ‘Catch 22’, we went a little different way.”
According to Tagtgren, Hypocrisy’s back to find their own sound again with ‘Arrival’ and that some people think it’s more heavier and darker, a little more of the typical Hypocrisy style.
When Tagtgren received the advanced / promotional copy of ‘Arrival’, he wasn’t pleased with results and rightfully so. As a producer who has produced some of the higher end solid metal releases of the last several years such as Immortal, Destruction, Dimmu Borgir and Grimfist, he took charge and remastered ‘Arrival’ upon his return from the fall tour with Dimmu Borgir.
“When I received the promo CD, I wasn’t really happy with the sound. It got messed up in the remastering process, the sound was really squeezed together. I went back and remastered it and was present at the remastering. I wasn’t missing out on anything which was very important.”
When Tagtgren touches, there is a definite difference and fans listen. People know when Tagtgren produces. His presence is felt through the speakers.
The tracks were laid at his studio called Abyss where he handled the production duties during the recording process and prior to the remastering.
When Hypocrisy toured with Century Media family and label mates, Dimmu Borgir, Children of Bodom and Nevermore, ‘Arrival’ was not available. Their inclusion of the tour was way to get a buzz going in America prior to the release of ‘Arrival’ according to Tagtgren.
And it worked.
Arrival in America
Within weeks of the tour’s end and the remastering of ‘Arrival’ completed, Hypocrisy was tapped as direct support for Cannibal Corpse along with Exhumed and Vile, a tour which kicked off in Houston the week of Valentine’s.
Tagtgren says the soundman for Dimmu Borgir and Cannibal Corpse are the same. “I was always telling him we got to go out with them and since Hypocrisy and Cannibal Corpse toured together in 1993, we already knew them. It’s great that they wanted us back.”
If Hypocrisy was not invited to be part of the tour, Tagtgren says they would have just looked for another tour.
But according to Tagtgren, “This one was just so killer.”
As direct support, Hypocrisy would be looking at roughly a nine-song set. Tagtgren turned to the fans for their input as to what they wanted to hear. This was accomplished with an open forum on the Hypocrisy’s website that allowed the fans to pick. The fans chose three songs from ‘Arrival’ that were available on the Internet and six others from previous releases. From ‘Arrival’ fans selected “Born Dead” which was the opener along with “Eraser” and “War Within”.
Tagtgren wants to see Hypocrisy come back to the states later in the year but he doesn’t know exactly when it would be. Either the beginning of the summer or fall whether as main support or if ‘Arrival’ does well, a headlining tour. He just doesn’t know yet.
In the meantime, Hypocrisy will be playing five festivals on the European festival circuit including the German grand daddy of all, Wacken pronounced Vacken.
Tagtgren like many musicians feel the Internet and official band sites are important tools when it comes to getting band news out to the fans as well as media outlets. Hypocrisy’s fan base is very dedicated and it’s only fair to them to provide with the latest band info.
If there has been a gap time wise between updates, it’s usually because the band is either on tour or just busy. “We definitely try to update” Tagtgren says.
According to Tagtgren, the Hypocrisy informative bits are sent to the web mistress via e-mail from the band and then she puts up the messages and then delivers them to the appropriate resources. Tagtgren says there are no plans for Hypocrisy to send updates while on the road.
Horghpocrisy
One such important Hypocrisy update was the announcement that Horgh, former Immortal and current Grimfist drummer would join the ranks of Hypocrisy. The news sent shockwaves of excitement and shouts of “F**k Yea !” throughout the world wide metal community
Tagtgren and Horgh have had a previous musical based relationship. Not only has Tagtgren worked with Immortal and Grimfist as a producer, Horgh has spent time in Tagtgren’s project Pain.
Tagtgren knows how dedicated Horgh is as a musician and how great his personality is and to Tagtgren that matters a lot.
He says, “Horgh was the only man that came to mind when things weren’t holding up with Lars Szoke.”
As for the prepping for the tour with Horgh, there were no special gigs. The only live situations played with him were basically the rehearsals underneath the roof of Abyss. For Horgh, Houston was the first live show with Hypocrisy.
With Andreas Holma on guitar, Mikael Hedlund on bass along with Horgh and Tagtgren, Hypocrisy is officially a four piece now, which puts more finesse into the band according to Tagtgren.
Back to the Abyss
Tagtgren’s services as a producer are in high demand but he has decided to scale back. Tagtgren says, “I might do two bands every year instead of 15. It’s not going to be so massive as it was several years ago. I am going to be very selective.”
He continues, “I was very lucky to work so many good bands. It’s really hard to say who I should do and not do. It’s more or less when do I have the time and I have to consider the circumstances at the time with what’s going to be happening.”
As for the chosen bands that will have Tagtgren behind the production board, it will be an honor.
To Tagtgren, Hypocrisy and Pain have top priority but that won’t keep him from taking part in other projects such as the recently announced and updated line up of Bloodbath, a Swedish Death Metal supergroup if there ever was one.
Bloodbath will feature members from Katatonia, Diabolical, Nightingale and Witchery. Tagtgren has replaced Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth who recently departed the project.
With a full plate of Hypocrisy, Pain, selected production duties at the Abyss and Bloodbath, Tagtgren indeed is the busiest man in metal.