761. HammerFall / (r)Evolution. 2014. 2.5/5

Over the years the evolving nature of HammerFall's music has slowly taken shape, from the speed driven power metal of their early albums to the more mid-range tempo selection of writing almost in deference to contemporary heavy metal in recent times. One may even suggest that their music has "matured" over the years, from the brash young speed based band that began during the 1990's to the better produced, planned and involved writing and recording that is prominent throughout (r)Evolution. Indeed, the music has evolved light years since those first albums to what has been presented here. Whether it also involved a revolution is of course open to interpretation.
I admit that I have had some problems with HammerFall's recent albums. Well, let's face it, after Renegade I could pretty much have given every album a miss. But I keep coming back, as I do with other bands of this ilk, in the hope that they will surprise and produce another album that will sit comfortably up there with their best. You know, Glory to the Brave on speed with modern production. Surely that's not too much to ask, is it? But you aren't going to get that, because they have moved into this aforementioned mid-tempo music, which can work at its best here, but isn't what lured me into HammerFall in the first place.

There are some good tunes here. I have been putting this album on and letting it play through about a dozen times now, and it hasn't annoyed me to the point that I have to stop it or skip along songs. However, nor have I found anything on here so outstanding that I replay a song three or four times because it is so enjoyable. I enjoy the opening track "Hector's Hymn", and parts of "Live Life Loud". "Ex Inferis" is just so slow, a plodding track that just isn't heavy or imposing enough to carry the way it is played. The tempo feels so wrong when it still wants to sound like a power metal song. Two styles that don't mix, without a hook to make it impressive. "Winter is Coming" wants to be a ballad and therefore stabs at my heart with a dagger. On the plus side are the faster paced "We Won't Back Down" and "Origins" which come closer to their older work than most songs on this album do.

The musicianship is polished, clean and continues to improve as it morphs into this same-but-different direction. Joacim Cans vocals continue to impress. He is still the shining light of this band, and no matter what the song may be like, his vocals improve it. Unfortunately, the writing partnership between himself and guitarist Oscar Dronjak has again failed to find enough hooks and catches to make this album stand out significantly from their past five albums. The positive I guess is that this is more listenable than those recent albums, but after 15 years of waiting for their next big effort, I do believe that it is time to accept that this is the best we can expect from the modern HammerFall, and to either accept that fact or move on.

Rating:  We're haunted by fire, our spirit is now set to burn  2.5/5

694. HammerFall / Legacy of Kings. 1998. 3/5

On the back of their generally heralded debut album “Glory to the Brave”, Hammerfall had toured Europe as support act for many of the continent’s best power metal acts. During this process they had been exposed to many more fans and been spoken of in high terms by those that attended these tours. The story of how the band came together as a side project for musicians from several bands for a music competition and then grew can be found on the episode in Season 3 of this podcast. As the majority of those musicians returned to their full time gigs, Hammerfall led by guitarist Oscar Dronjak and lead vocalist Joacim Cans moved forward with Hammerfall as their number one gig. The success of the album and the tour meant they went into the writing and recording process for the follow up with momentum and positive vibes. Jesper Strömblad, who had been the band’s drummer before he returned to his band In Flames, had co-written most of that first album with both Oscar and Joacim. When it came time to start the follow-up, he returned to do the same job as co-writer for what eventually became “Legacy of Kings”. The thought process behind this was to keep a symmetry between the songs of the two albums, to encourage the fans that they would be following a similar path musically with their sophomore album.
When it came to the band’s debut album, there had been some background criticism of the professionalism of the music as it was played and recorded. Some critics felt it was not played clean enough, that it could have been rehearsed and played better. Others believed that there was not enough diversity in the tracks as written. Whatever the critiquing that had occurred, the band went into their second album with a determination to give the fans what they wanted rather than try and appease the band’s critics in the world music media.

This album tends to cop a lot of flak online both from music listeners and critics alike. Actually, I guess the band itself tends to receive a brunt of criticism. One of the strangest things to me has always been the pile on over the vocals of Joacim Cans, with so many people describing them as weak, and one dimensional, and that he doesn’t have the range required to make the songs varied enough from each other. This has always surprised me, because I’ve always felt that it is Cans’s vocals that have been the leading light of the band, that his singing is what gives HammerFall the power and energy to drive through. Rather than being weak, I feel it is the strength of what he is able to hold in his voice that is the signature of the band’s music. Not everyone can sing with a range in the power metal genre like Michael Kiske or Hansi Kursch. So I am on the other side of the fence from those critics.
This will usually get followed up by the fact that his vocals are unable to differentiate the songs because all the songs have the same beat, the same tempo, the same rhythm, and are drawn from a similar template. Again, that is not so obviously true here on “Legacy of Kings” as perhaps could be argued happens elsewhere. You can hear the band’s influence from the late 1980’s power metal in their songs here, mostly in the solos from Elmgren and Dronjak. But given that I like how they sound that really isn’t a problem for me.
The opening gallop of “Heeding the Call” starts the album off with a bang in the best power metal fashion, followed by “Legacy of Kings” which increases the power of the track with great guitars and terrific vocals. “Let the Hammer Fall” is the chugging, chanting singalong song that power metal has a habit of highlighting and is joined in this respect with “At the End of the Rainbow”, where the slower tempo of the song also draws the choral voices for the chorus. At the other end of the spectrum is the light and airy “Dreamland” that does the same in a brighter and faster tempo. The cover version of the Pretty Maids song “Back to Back” showcases the band’s love of their music, and is followed by the return of the power in tracks such as “Stronger Than All” and “Warriors of Faith”
The power ballads are, as always, where my major problems lie in a euro metal album such as this. “Remember Yesterday” at least tries to retain a little of the power in the song and I am able to forgive it for the most part, but the piano base of “The Fallen One”, which concludes the album, makes it ever so much more difficult. Power ballads are terrible creatures at the best of times, but as the final song on the album, when it should be finding the perfect hard way to conclude so as to draw the listener back in for another listen is, for me, unforgivable.
If you want to be a critic, you can take this album apart song by song and find those parts that you don’t like. Yes, there is a similarity in the template of each track. Sure, Joacim’s vocals, if compared to some of the greats of the genre, don't have the same range or definition. And yes, power metal can be a drag if it isn’t done well. Here on “Legacy of Kings” though, I don’t believe any of those things are accurate. To me, the album is very much on the high side of the line when it comes to albums of this genre.

I was drawn into power metal at about the time that HammerFall started their recording career, and they were one of the bands that started my real journey into this medium of the late 1990’s. Their debut album resonated with me hard – still does actually – and this album followed that same path, which as you have discovered is somewhat how the band wanted it to go. I got all three of their initial albums at around the same time, and it feels as this one may have gotten lost for me amongst the other albums I was discovering at that time. In essence, I had “Glory to the Brave”, and that was my dominant HammerFall listening, along with a bootleg live album from 2001. I enjoyed the album, but I certainly didn’t overplay it.
Come the past month or so where I have pulled it out again for this podcast, and “Legacy of Kings” has been the album that really drew my attention on my playlist of albums I have been listening to in that time. And it’s easy to hear why, because it is perky and upbeat and bright and breezy and fun! It is a quintessential power metal album, maybe not one that is laden with over-the-top vocals or massively fast and intricate guitar solos and amazing drumming time changes, but instead just a really fun and uplifting album to listen to. And we all need music like that, don’t we? Have I been surprised how much I have enjoyed t again? Absolutely. And it again makes me wonder about those that have tried to bring it down. I don’t have a problem with those that don’t enjoy HammerFall or this album because they aren’t fond of the power metal genre, that’s fair enough. But trying to suggest it is poor musicianship or average vocals? Please. Perhaps try again.
It’s interesting how enjoyable I think this album is, and the backlash that it has received in some quarters, considering that I feel as though some of the band’s work in recent years doesn’t reach this same standard. Do people not enjoy this album because they don’t enjoy modern day power metal? Or am I just completely out of whack, and on a different plane from everyone else? There is little doubt that I could well be on the wrong side of the argument. In the long run, who cares as long as you enjoy it. And as for HammerFall’s “Legacy of Kings”, I do certainly still enjoy it.

441. HammerFall / Glory to the Brave. 1997. 4.5/5

HammerFall went through an interesting stage of development in its early years, quite apart from way most bands come together. From its inception on the idea of guitarist Oscar Dronjak, all five original members of the band were using it as their side-project, a band they were in that was separate from their main band. They had only a few originals and generally played cover songs, and most of their gigs were in a local music contest. One of the band’s biggest breaks was when they made the semi-finals of this contest in 1996 and their lead vocalist, Mikael Stanne who was from Dark Tranquility, couldn’t perform on that night. The band found Joacim cans who filled in for the gig. The judges disqualified the band despite the success of the night, but HammerFall had found their permanent lead singer, something that continues to be their crowning glory.
A record contract was soon signed, which meant the commitment of the members had to be to Hammerfall, resulting in changes once again as drummer Jesper Strömblad and guitarist Glenn Ljungström were still committed to In Flames. Stefan Elmgren came in on lead guitar and Patrik Räfling on drums and Magnus Rosén on bass. Alongside Dronjak and Cans, Hammerfall had their line-up to push forward with their debut album. Despite leaving the band, Stromblad co-wrote the majority of the songs that appeared on the album with Dronjak and Cans, and though he is credited on the album as having played the drums (which he did despite being a guitarist in In Flames), it was actually Rafling who played on the album itself. Ljungstrom played guitars on the album before relinquishing his position to Elmgren for the tour that followed to promote the album.

The hallmark of this album is the way most of the songs have the hook coming very early, the ones that drag you in from the start and keep you going throughout. And although Hammerfall does not have the melodic ‘happy guitars’ that made Helloween so famous, it is the upbeat tempo of the guitars that actually bring about a similar type o feeling within their music. “The Dragon Lies Bleeding” does this from the start, a great opening riff that is parlayed throughout the song, and gives you the first taste of Joacim Cans vocal abilities, soaring throughout the ceiling. This moves into the equally enjoyable “The Metal Age” and then the eponymous “HammerFall”, both which show a great continuation of easy listening and infectious riffing of the opening track.
“Child of the Damned” is a cover of an old Warlord song from their 1983 EP “Deliver Us”. Cans was a long time admirer of the band and it was he who pushed including the song on the album. He later went on to be the lead singer of that band during a short-lived reunion in the early 2000’s such was his love for their music.
“Steel Meets Steel” was composed by Oscar prior to Hammerfall even coming into existence, and yet it survived to the point that it warranted inclusion here on their debut album. This is followed by the equally upbeat “Stone Cold” and “Unchained”. All of these songs utilise a speed and tempo that would not be regarded as speed metal but does head more in that direction than other bands at the time were necessarily integrating into their music. It is the tempo of the majority of the songs on this album that produces the most pleasing endorphins in the body.
There are two power ballads on the album, as is the way with every power metal album ever released. Now those of you who have listened to any of my episodes in the past will understand that I am no fan of the power ballad. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t any that I like, but in general, because they tend to be so generic in their output I just cannot get on board with them. So it probably won’t surprise you that the two power ballads here, “I Believe” and the title track and closing track to the album “Glory to the Brave” are not my favourite songs on the album. I don’t think they are poor tracks but for me they just drag the album back slightly. “Glory to the Brave” is also the attempt at the grandiose epic track to finish off the album, and while it may do that, I am still of the opinion that a different style of song would have done that better.

At different stages in my life, I have come to a stage where I go out and buy half a dozen albums from bands I have never heard, just to see what they are like. Many of them ended up being duds, that now collect dust on my shelves. On one of these trips about two decades ago I happened to pick up this album – and I never looked back. From the very beginning, it was exactly what I was looking for at the time. I had grown up with Helloween and Gamma Ray, and I was looking for more bands that played music like that. Blind Guardian had been the first step, and then came HammerFall, which eventually led to others such as Stratovarius and Sonata Arctica and Edguy.
It was the faster and brighter guitars I was looking for rather than the grunting and grunging that was happening elsewhere. Not that I didn’t like that kind of metal, but there was something about power metal that I wanted at that time of my life. And “Glory to the Brave” provided that in spades. There have been the usual naysayers both at the time and over the years about HammerFall - ‘the songs here tend to have repeatable, and repeating, choruses’, ‘the guitars aren’t precision like Metallica’, ‘why are the lyrics so cheesy, they should be writing harder core stuff’. And as individual likes and dislikes that’s fine, I don’t have a problem with those opinions. But sometimes I don’t want to put on an album that is full of political takes, or hard core lyrics about mass murderers or world disasters or things like that. I just want to put on an album that makes me feel less depressed or aggressive. I just want to listen to an album that lifts my mood, through fast guitar riffs and great melodic vocals through the songs that makes it a pleasure to listen to. And that happens every single time I put this album on. I found it at the right time of my life, and it is the medicine I need whenever it hits my stereo.
And this is the crux of the matter. Power metal is not for everyone, just like death metal isn’t for everyone, or doom or thrash metal isn’t for everyone. And don’t get me wrong, because I don’t love all power metal, nor do I love every HammerFall album. But this one is an album that I have loved from the moment I first heard it, and if you have anything in you that leans a little towards this genre of metal, then I think you’ll enjoy it too.

192. Hammerfall / Crimson Thunder. 2002. 2.5/5

Maybe they've run their course as a band. Perhaps their style has just worn thin. I don't really know for sure. But one thing I do know is that this doesn't work they way previous albums do.

Note this however. It is not that their style has changed. Crimson Thunder is unashamedly a Hammerfall album. You could barely mistake it for anything else. And no doubt the band's biggest followers will enjoy this album too.
The thing about that is that I considered myself to be a big fan of the band, and this really didn't tickle anything in me. That has certainly been the case with other bands though, so maybe this is just their one aberration. Maybe...

One thing I must also make clear – Joacim Cans still holds his own as a vocalist. He lets no one down here once again.

Rating : Not quite up to the standard I would expect. 2.5/5