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Leading a mid/late-90s European power metal revolution, alongside the likes of Rhapsody, Firewind, Primal Fear and Nightwish, Hammerfall were the most visible of this triumphant cohort, emerging just as the leading lights of 80s classic metal were fading to a low wattage. Back then, one-time trailblazers like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Manowar, Dio and Accept were floundering in increasingly shallow pools, unsure how to react to the decade’s hostile environment, when the fashion police were coming for our leather trousers, gatefold vinyl and patched denim.
In those draconian times, when even Germany’s Rock Hard magazine was declaring heavy metal dead, the release of Hammerfall’s giddily thrilling Glory To The Brave debut felt not unlike the arrival of a saviour king on a rescue mission. The mission: to inject some youthful energy and defiant pride into the embattled and scattershot trad metal landscape, and secure a glorious future for studded leather, heroic high notes and songs about slaying dragons.
Their mission was a far greater success than many dared to hope. Fast-forward to 2024, and Hammerfall have long since settled in as a Swedish metal institution, surviving their own challenges, misfires and near-death experiences to remain unbent, unbowed and unbroken after nearly 30 years, maintaining a restless work rate that feels as Teutonic as their choppy, martial guitar tones. However, in a year when Priest, Saxon, Accept and many more pensionable legacy legends have returned with beautifully crafted new records to command live stages well into their 60s and 70s, are the saviour kings of 1997 still relevant, still necessary, still worthy of our love and respect?
2022’s Hammer Of Dawn saw this quintet reaffirm their bonds and shake off the Covid-induced lethargy – a context that lent it a more profound emotional pull than usual. Avenge The Fallen can, unsurprisingly, be dubbed ‘more of the same’, but every album stands or falls on the strength of its songs, and this 13th full-length maintains a rock-solid standard throughout, with closing mini-epic Time Immemorial proving to be one of Hammerfall’s most subtly elaborate and stirring compositions.
These Gothenburgers always majored in pretty basic, riff-driven, meat’n’potatoes HM to get heads banging, feet tapping and fingers twiddling along invisible frets. There’s plenty of that, of course – speed metal singalong The End Justifies (‘Heavy metal in our hearts / Hard to tear apart’); the sprightly staccato stomp of Rise Of Evil; galloping sky-puncher Burn It Down – but there’s also evidence that their ability to tug at the heartstrings keeps getting sharper and craftier. Hope Springs Eternal might be Hammerfall’s best ballad, Joacim Cans digging ever deeper to find new levels of emotive nuance and dynamic involvement in his voice, and Oscar Dronjak’s guitar ringing with a fragile elegance you might never have associated with these no-frills rivet-heads. Meanwhile, rhythmic Wacken-baiting call-and-response anthem Hail To The King is one of the sturdiest earworms that Hammerfall have unleashed for many a year, helping hoist the LP to the top end of their latter-day average.