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