Hypocrisy

Abandoning Catch 22’s uninspiring direction, Hypocrisy’s latest offering revives the spirit of their late ’90s output. It’s a welcome shift, but like a spirit, The Arrival is a little light in material substance. Slightly watered down, echoing a past approach without the original enthusiasm and attitude, the album suffers from that nagging feeling that something’s missing. There are plenty of good songs here — "Eraser” and "Dead Sky Dreaming” are energetic, abrasive and catchy; "The Abyss” and "The Departure” are cloaked in luscious gloom and doom; and "War Within” is ecstatically evil. Compared to the work of lesser bands The Arrival is a good, even great, album, but it’s just a few notches down from Hypocrisy’s best.