Peter T"agtgren is tired. Tired of producing faceless death and black metalgroups pining for a hint of recognition. Tired of breaking up and reforminghis personal musical projects. And if you believed the rumors surrounding thenew album from his highest profile outfit, Hypocrisy, he’s even grown triedof playing death metal altogether.

Where the Swedish trio’s pervious pair of releases explored a back to basics—ifnot slightly uninspired—death metal/black metal assault, Hypocrisy’seighth studio LP, Catch 22, makes earnest attempts to modernize theirmetal with some seriously rump-shaking n"u metal influences. From the rapidlystrummed guitar intro to its groove-laden mid-section breakdown everything about“Turn the Page” simply screams Slipknot, while both “Hatred”and “A Public Puppet” furnish the mainstream mook metal minions witha bevy of bouncy riffs—all of which would be perfectly acceptable if notfor the record’s insipid lyrical slant. “Sick and tired of peopletelling me/ who I am/ what to be,” T"agtgren whines on “Don’tJudge Me.” In fact, there’s so much hating on him throughout “Destroyed”(“Get outta my life and leave me alone”) and “Turn the Page”(“Why don’t you stop picking on my bones?”) you’re leftwondering just when he’ll start rapping about his parents’ divorce.

Despite such shifts, some of Catch 22 doesn’t deviate much fromthe band’s past few endeavors. Both “Edge of Madness” and “AllTurns Black” are vintage Hypocrisy, melding traditional metal melodiesand pounding rhythms with an astuteness that eluded Slipknot on last year’sIowa. But that likely won’t be enough to uncover them amidst the currentn"u metal deluge—something many of us, unlike Peter, are growing prettytired of.