Thirty years into their career and following a successful two-year world tour with fellow Power Metal veterans Helloween, HammerFall are feeling as vital and confident as ever. “Everything is like it’s always been,” HammerFall’s founder and guitarist Oscar Dronjak says with pride. “When I started HammerFall more than thirty years ago it was because no one played the music that I grew up with and was a huge fan of. If no one did it, it was up to me to do it and that’s how it is still to this day.”
Avenge The Fallen is the band’s thirteenth album and it is full of the potent amalgamation of heavy metal and power metal that has made HammerFall such a popular act over the last three decades. Opening their album - which is based around the themes of spirit, character and freedom - with the mid-tempo title track, the quintet display their understanding how to build grandeur without the need for histrionics at every turn. When HammerFall do increase their speed, they do so with fiery control, as shown by second track The End Justifies. Changing from the more traditional heavy metal approach of the title track, The End Justifies – employing the classic HammerFall sound - retains enough heft to drive the melodic power metal more powerfully than bands who adopt a glossier approach to the genre. With an electrifying, rapid guitar solo and a quieter, piano led segment, there is a variety within the track, which aids the faster sections in becoming even more dramatic. Joacim Can’s voice sounds as vibrant and engaging as it ever has and he tackles the different embellishments within the track with ease. Freedom combines elements of the two opening tracks and further highlights the inherent musicianship that is a constant presence throughout the music of HammerFall.
With the way the band write their music having changed during recent years, and the current line-up having been together for ten years - and several members having helped forge the band’s reputation from the earliest days - there is a feeling of camaraderie throughout Avenge The Fallen. “We are in a fortunate position where we nowadays actually can compose while being on tour,” Dronjak explains. “That’s something that would have been impossible just ten years ago. In many ways I even think this album benefited from getting off stage somewhere in Germany and then heading straight to the tour bus, where we had a small studio set up in the back lounge. By doing so we were still oozing adrenaline when the new material was crafted.” First single from the album, Hail To The King, was one such track and revisiting slightly slower tempos, HammerFall craft a track of opulent regality that builds in pomp and anthemic atmospheres as it progresses.
Hero To All, Burn It All Down and Rise Of Evil all help to maintain the pace throughout the album and it can be said that without doubt, HammerFall certainly think carefully about the structure of and track placement within their albums. Vocalist Joacim Cans is also keen to point that out that while some tracks inevitably have to be selected as singles, the band always consider the whole album and aim to maintain the quality throughout. “Do we want to be a band who releases new music just for the sole reason of getting out on the road again or do we want to keep pushing and challenging ourselves? In times where people have less and less attention span, we still think in the form of full-length albums. A few good songs don’t make a strong album. A strong album comes from an album full of great songs and that’s what we’re delivering with Avenge The Fallen.” In an increasingly disposable and immediate world, it is heart-warming to hear bands talk about their music in this way and while no band sets out to produce sub-standard material, as a listener who always listens to albums in their entirety, it can be confirmed that HammerFall have certainly managed to maintain quality and interest levels throughout Avenge The Fallen.
In contrast to the recent compositions developed on the tour bus, the initial ideas behind Hope Springs Eternal stem from twenty years ago. Continuing to inspire each other, the members of the band take the kernel of those ideas and work together to bring it fruition. In the case of Hope Springs Eternal, HammerFall showcase another side to their music, with a slow-paced power ballad. Joacim Cans handles the change of pace, mood and necessary emotion effortlessly. With a radiant, venerability, guitarists Oscar Dronjak and Pontus Norgren work in tandem to wring each drop of pathos from the song, without ever descending into the trite. In contrast, Capture The Dream accelerates with an Iron Maiden-esque gallop as layers of vocal harmonies ramp up the feeling of unity and brotherhood.
Final track and longest song on the album, Time Immemorial is an exuberant jaunt that employs a range of dynamics and tempos, summing up all that has come before. Alternating between vivacious, animated verses and more measured, lofty choruses, Time Immemorial ends Avenge The Fallen with some resounding drumming from David Wallin who, along with his rhythm partner bassist Fredrik Larsson, is consistently excellent throughout. Commanding and purposeful, the track ends the album with a stately dignity and a band completely at home with their own, not insignificant, abilities.
Avenge The Fallen is another strong entry in HammerFall’s discography and it is one that the band seem particularly pleased with. Cans states, “I have been working tirelessly together with Oscar for the better part of a year creating the songs that would become Avenge The Fallen and thanks to that plus being on the road as much as we’ve been these past years, has really helped keep both me and my voice in great shape and the result I feel is one of my best performances on an album ever.”
With perfectly placed variety, the range of tracks on Avenge The Fallen makes for an album that plays all its cards at the right moment. With a running time of a little over forty-five minutes, the songwriting is taut and well considered – no individual track or indeed the album itself, is in any danger of outstaying its welcome. Some may point out that there is not anything particularly new here; however, needless experimentation for its own sake does not always lead to the best results. Oscar Dronjak is in no doubt that HammerFall are being true to themselves. “The music I write is the music that I love and believe in, heavy metal can’t be faked and that’s a fact!” With muscly but never glossy production from Jay Ruston, a band playing to its strengths and high-quality songwriting, he will find many listeners that agree with him. Join the quest….
Avenge The Fallen is released on 9th August 2024.
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