Death is June - Looking Back in Anger at Hypocrisy 's "the Fourth Dimension"

As I sort through albums for the top 50 death metal albums of all time list , we are going back to take a listen at some album highly regarded to hear if they really belong there, This refresher course has offereed some eye opening facts about how well certain albums have stood the test of time. Here we find this band has  slowed things down and focused on the songs. This 1994 same year as At the Gates most popular album. Both bands are from Sweden.These guys have sung vocals in places, none of the good cop bad cop dynamic. It is just about whatever fit where it should fit. The doom paced opener borders on what we might call death doom today. The pace picks up on the second song going more into death metal. The vocals hold more purpose than your average growling. "Reborn" holds more groove.

The guitar parts on thsi album are very nuanced. "Black Forest " rages full speed ahead in a more deliberate fashion. "Never to Return" is more straight forward though it does have a slight swing to it. The solo section is more rock n roll , but everything else is very stompy mid paced death metal.
"Slaughtered" goes beyond just being a mean riff . Yes the rule here is ...cool riffs alone does not a good song make, yet the way they ride this riff is what makes it. "Orgy in Blood" is more typical for Swedish death metal in terms of the tightly coiled thrash influence in the riff. But will they stay mired in this sort of death metal ? The opening rif to " the North Wind" suggests otherwise, and even despite the more straight forward gallop, they give a little more groove to things. "T.E.M.P.T" is alos pretty groove heavy though not as compelling since it pretty much focuses on just speed.

Thankfully the title track backs off on some of the speed and focuses more on the dark mood we found earlier in the album. Overall this is a solid album, it does stick to death metal conventions more than I remembered , but has held up over time so I will give it a 9. Does that mean it is to be numbered among the top 50 death metal albums of all time? Not likely.