HYPOCRISY mainman Peter Tägtgren has opened up about why the Swedish death metal band leaves years between studio albums, pointing to a growing selectiveness in his songwriting rather than any lack of material.
Speaking about the eight-year gap between 2013's "End Of Disclosure" and 2021's "Worship," Tägtgren said age and experience have made him far harder to satisfy creatively. "You become a little bit more selective and you become more picky of what you write. Nothing is ever good enough," he explained, adding that the same instinct shapes how much material actually survives into a finished album: "Nowadays you write 20 riffs and none of them will make it to the album, so it's a little bit different."
Tägtgren said he could easily churn out albums on a faster schedule but has chosen not to, wary of repeating himself. "I can just shit out album after album, but it's just gonna sound like you repeat yourself," he said.
"Worship" was recorded and mixed at Tägtgren's own Abyss Studio in Sweden, mastered by Svante Forsbäck at Chartmakers Audio Mastering, with artwork by Blake Armstrong.
HYPOCRISY has released 12 albums over more than 30 years, with a lineup that now includes Tägtgren on vocals and guitar, bassist Mikael Hedlund — a member since 1991 — session guitarist Thomas Elofsson since 2013 and session drummer Henrik Axelsson since 2022.
The band will head out on its "Mass Hallucination" North American tour from August 10 to 23, playing a mix of headline dates and support slots alongside DIMMU BORGIR.
Formed in Sweden in 1990, HYPOCRISY is regarded as one of the country's foundational death metal exports, and Tägtgren's parallel work as a producer — via Abyss Studio — has shaped the sound of countless other Scandinavian metal records. He also fronts industrial metal project PAIN, which he has continued to run alongside HYPOCRISY's more sporadic album cycle.