The good thing about the internet is that it allows music fans to dig deeper into the obscure with relative ease. Back in those dark, lawless days, to discover a band like Pagan Altar, you’d pretty much have to wait for it to find you.After all, it’s not like Pagan Altar have been much of a household name since their inception back in the ‘70s. For starters, this is only their second album (Volume 1, their debut, surfaced in 1998). According to the liner notes, the songs themselves were written between 1978 and 1983. And while Lords of Hypocrisy is a re-recording (all but one track were recorded in the early ‘80s), the music is very much a product from that era, both stylistically and production-wise.What that means is Pagan Altar is classic metal. Sure, with a name like Pagan Altar and with song titles like “Satan’s Henchmen” and “March of the Dead,” there are going to be shades of doom, but Lords of Hypocrisy is NWOBHM. “Armageddon” is a good example of the Pagan Altar sound. It’s like a more devil-inclined version of early Judas Priest, with duelling guitar solos and dramatic breakdowns. It’s the longest of the tracks, but they keep it interesting by keeping it unabashedly epic.This also means they’re going to be some unabashedly goofy moments, with intonations and quasi-Manowar instances where “epic” becomes “vaudeville.” But that’s part of that period, when metal was still new. If you’ve got any appreciation for the classics of the genre, you’ll find it impossible to dislike Lords of Hypocrisy.