HAMMERFALL
Dominion NAPALM Polarising power metallers return to unifying form
THIS GOTHENBURG QUINTET’S 1997 debut, Glory To The Brave, landed like a studded leather asteroid on a metal world awash with short hair and baggy sportswear. Death and black metal’s bubbles had burst, and the underground fashion was for wildly diverse experimentation. So Hammerfall showed up at just the right time, embracing a superheroic strain of fantastical melodic speed metal that attracted equal degrees of scorn and adulation, boldly repudiating oppressive 90s notions of ‘cool’ and bringing tears of joy to the eyes of men (overwhelmingly men, let’s face it) who’d felt shamed into piping down about their love of 80s Helloween, Manowar and Accept.
After their first two LPs galvanised a newly ascendant power metal scene into heeding their call to arms, Hammerfall settled into a regular release schedule of hits, misses and maybes, guaranteeing a great time at Eurometal festivals but seldom rivalling the impact and fire of their early work, and often snootily damned as ‘too simple/too happy/too cheesy’. Dominion’s advance cut, (We Make) Sweden Rock, is all of these things, but it also rules, so there’s the magical paradox of Hammerfall right there.
On their 11th album cover, knightly band mascot Hector rises from Hell with dramatically increased armour-plating – seemingly a signpost to the increased weight and attack of the guitars, as well as a darker lyrical approach in songs like Dead By Dawn (not a Deicide cover, alas), marauding Vietnamthemed opener, Never Forgive, Never Forget, and the brooding occult title track.
Hammerfall’s founding inspirations remain firm, but there are discreet touches of Mercyful Fate and Motörhead in among the gleaming Priestly chops and call-and-response gang chants, as well as a wide-eyed enthusiasm and dizzying vigour that belies these
Swedish bandmates’ valorous march into middle age, and should surely raise the fist of the hardest-hearted cynic.
FOR FANS OF: Judas Priest, Dio, Helloween