Peter Tagtgren è sicuramente un personaggio nell'ambito del metal estremo, possiamo definirlo irrequieto, poliedrico ma la parola che secondo me meglio lo caratterizza è "workaholic", cioè un uomo che con il proprio lavoro/impiego ha creato una forma intensa di dipendenza psicotropa: questo maniaco insonne riesce tranquillamente a divincolarsi tra la gestione dei suoi celeberrimi "Abyss Studios", il ruolo di producer dietro la consolle per grossi calibri metal (Dimmu Borgir, Celtic Frost, etc..etc..), nonché padre padrone dei Pain e, of course, dei nostri cari Hypocrisy.

Creatura ormai mitologica nel campo del death metal di scuola svedese, vuoi per la lunga appartenenza, vuoi per una serie di album molto apprezzati dal pubblico e dalla critica (vedasi "Abducted" , "The fourth dimension" e l'omonimo Lp), gli Hypocrisy decisero con il precedente "Catch22" di darsi una rinfrescata di idee, una matrice di originalità che permettesse loro di non soffocare nella (ottima) routine. Fu così che l'album in questione risentì di qualche influenze abbastanza nu/metalcore a stelle e strisce, diciamo, Slipknot "Iowa" era in primis, quindi roba feroce e dissennata, ed infatti l'album ebbe comunque un forte responso positivo dalla critica (sui dati di vendita non sono aggiornato), che apprezzò la ricerca di originalità, il tentativo di non far sempre leva su di uno stile sì vincente ma anche oltremodo esplorato e conosciuto.

Ecco, con "The Arrival" si torna completamente indietro, dimenticatevi influenze di qualsiasi genere e sorta, qui tutto sa di ritorno casa, gli Hypocrisy si sono risvegliati nel loro mondo fatto di swedish death metal abbastanza melodico, mai veloce, molto groovy, addirittura chorus facilmente riconoscibili e (se il buon Tagtgren non possedesse un'ugola al vetriolo) quasi canticchiabili, come per esempio in "Dead sky dawning" o "New world".

Insomma siamo di fronte ad un ottimo lavoro, magnificamente prodotto (suoni davvero potenti e cristallini) ed eseguito, ma, di contro, edulcorato o se preferite, semplicemente un album nel quale la furia, la rabbia, la tensione tipica del genere non trovano applicazione: solo l'opener (meravigliosa ed evocativa) "Born dead buried alive" e "Stillborn" e la già citata e thrashy "New World" portano con se il germe dell'impeto e dell'impatto sonoro, che altrimenti, nell'arco di durata dell'intero Lp, circa 40 minuti, soccombe in favore di atmosfere lente e drammatiche che ad ogni modo risultano assai gradevoli, come nel singolo e video "Eraser"(il riff, ehmm diciamo del ritornello è fantastico) o nella conclusiva ed evocativa "War within".

"The arrival" è in definitiva un album di gran classe, raffinato e coinvolgente, ma potrebbe non attecchire in tutti coloro che avevano apprezzato la vitalità esplosiva del precedente lavoro od anche la dirompente potenza del successivo "Virus": insomma un lavoro apprezzabilissimo per fluidità d'ascolto e pathos ma forse un po' interlocutorio, che lascia interdetti sul quale sia la direzione stilistica intrapresa da Tatgtgren e soci.

Ad ogni modo ne consiglio l'ascolto, quanto meno per farsene un'idea propria.

Elenco tracce testi samples e video

01   Born Dead Buried Alive (04:21)

02   Eraser (04:26)

Here it comes again the terror you forgot
No memories from the past
The unexplainable starts to appear
As your sub-consciousness begins to come back again

Reality fades away
You try to find a solution
Here it's coming now, indecision
You're free but you can't see through the confusion

[Chorus]
There is no time
No time to regret
The eraser's coming for your life
You got to run
Stay away from the light
The eraser's here to twist your mind

Feel your soul connected to the universe
The solstice is complete
They controlled your thoughts
You will remember now, what it's all about

Twist the end around, violation
It's burning deep and twisting under your skin
It scares you forever
The proof you will find in your dreams

[Chorus]

03   Stillborn (03:24)

I'm standing in the circle of humans
What have we become?
I see the circles clean
I am unable to flee

I slowly arised in the sky
This is the way it feels to die
I have to search, the rest will follow
There's nothing left but my soul so hollow

[Chorus]
I'm floating in the air
Slowly fading away from the earth
I'm guessing to the never when on my way to my empty birth

I've got to stay awake
But my eyelids feels lifeless
I feel like a parasite!

What will happen to us?
Will we ever see the universe?
Will we ever return?

Do we survive?
It's a human curse!

Final destination unknown
Humanity on the go
This is the end
Another beginning

I feel so alone
Like a part of me has died
I feel so weak
I'm falling apart inside

[Chorus 2x]
I'm floating in the air
Slowly fading away from the earth
I'm guessing to the never when on my way to my empty birth

How can you decide?

I'll decide something up

They have come to haunt me now
I swallow my pride, and the tears I've cried
Will never tell the answers why!
Tell me why!

[Chorus 2x]
I'm floating in the air
Slowly fading away from the earth
I'm guessing to the never when on my way to my empty birth

04   Slave to the Parasites (04:57)

A pain worse than anything else
or maybe I'm dead, both trapped in a cage
Alone in my body now a shell deserted or is this the end of my age
Crushed into the bitter end
Is the thing�s I cannot avoid
Drowning in a circle of hell
They won't let me exist on my own

[Chorus]
Slave to the parasites
I can't get away
They won't leave me be
Slave to the parasites
Here they come again
There is nowhere to hide

Seeing my life crushed
I'm all alone
digging into my life
deadly thoughts

The night is fallen
I know they are comming around the bend
They use me as an experiment
which I don't understand

Crashed into the bitter end
Is the thing�s I cannot avoid
drowning in a circle of hell..
They won't let me exist on my own

[Chorus]

They won't get me this time
I can hear them coming closer
I'm not afraid to die
But I'd rather die than someone control my mind

[Chorus]

05   New World (04:09)

Can't you see them coming?
Cannot see the sense of me
All of them decide
Deciding our ups, downs, and misery

Addicted to fleshly skin
Enough for me to swallow and take in
Two worlds collide
One with all the:one with all!

This is the way we serve
It's deadly when it's being wiped away
Both too precious to behold
and praise the new...

[Chorus]
The new world is here to wipe out our lives
The new world we can't survive
The new world left God in everything and everyone
The new world does not include us

Everyone will feel a need to pleasure
To wicked the future race
There will be no more beliefs
All religion will be known
All religious ways
Losing their ability
They'll erase all our memories

No more scriptures
No more lies
No more fucking lies!

This is the way we serve
It's deadly when it's being wiped away
Both too precious to behold
and praise the new...

[Chorus]
The new world is here to wipe out our lives
The new world we can't survive
The new world left God in everything and everyone
The new world does not include us

God, in decay, just making all the rules
Earth, finally, forgot the tombs
Hell Is where I'll be
After my eyes can see
Preceding our, we are the misery!

Hate throughout the end of genocide
Smell of burning flesh inside all, everyone!
Death is coming down, now when we will survive
We're gonna die!
[Chorus 2x]
The new world is here to wipe out our lives
The new world we can't survive
The new world left God in everything and everyone
The new world does not include us

06   The Abyss (04:29)

Butchered infants
For my belief
That will take me to hell
One step closer to death
I release my (anger/ego) to be free

[Monk-style chanting:] (Feel alone again)

I feel no guilt for the lost ones
I'll stab and suffocate
[more chanting]
I look around and see all the pain gone

(Feel alone again)

07   Dead Sky Dawning (04:27)

08   The Departure (05:18)

I came back to life
Naked and tied to the floor
In the corner of my eyes
I saw them coming through the door

All is black
All is white
I open my eyes and face the airport lights

[Chorus]
I stare into the eyes of eternity
I've seen what no man's ever seen
I stare into the eyes of eternity
I've been where no man's ever been

..
..
..
as I look around
I realize I'm all alone
..
..Chills me to the bone

Suddenly rising up in the air
My mind was burning
:I said farewell to the bodies their stealing

All is black
All is white
I open my eyes and face the airport lights

[Chorus]

:
I'll fit right back into the dream
But something here just keeps me awake
And I'm cut wide open
Maybe they search for my soul
This is more than a human can take

And don't tell me I'm dreaming
I know what I saw
I'll feel alive like never before

[Chorus]

09   War Within (04:50)

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