HammerFall – Hammer Of Dawn

HammerFall – Hammer Of Dawn
Napalm Records
Release Date: 25/02/22
Running Time: 45:50
Review by Simon Black
8/10

“Hammer of Dawn” makes clear from its cover and song titles that this is classic HammerFall fare – so lots of references to hammers, myths and legends, the odd bit of medieval warfare, their ubiquitous mascot Hector, Templars and of course medieval mythical hammers wielded in war by Hector the Templar all at the same time… I wouldn’t want it any other way, as to be fair, I can only think of one bum album from these guys in all this time, which was the one time they deviated from their standard template (sorry “Infected”). The songs on here drip with the Melodic Metal refrains and Power Metal tropes that we love them for, although I remain consistently sad that this is an act that have really failed to make much of an impact here in the UK compared to the rest of the world. A word about this if you will indulge me. 

HammerFall are like many acts in their genre who are huge on the continent, tour constantly both as headliners at good size arenas and are regular fixtures on the festival circuit. Consequently they have a huge fan base over there. But not here in the UK. Here we are lucky to get one show per album cycle, usually in London, at somewhere tiny without the big productions and on a crappy mid-week slot that requires days off of work and ridiculous travel expenditure. In fact the only upcoming show they have over here is supporting Helloween later this year at the Brixton Academy and we’re only getting that because they are part of a full tour package.

The root of this problem lies with the way the small number of booking agencies that dominate the market work. The money they ask for is way above what the financial structures of the UK will support, so consequently bands never get to put in the touring work in the early days here that you need to become credible; consequently the festivals don’t book them because they aren’t a big enough draw (or will consume a disproportionate amount of the budget for the event). That’s a shame, because they deserve to be bigger here than they are.

There is an argument that once you have heard one HammerFall album, you’ve heard them all but personally I refute that. Certainly the Swedish five piece have been pretty damn consistent in both the style and tone of their many albums since they first appears in the early 1990’s at a time when retro traditional Heavy Metal was far from fashionable. Yet here they stubbornly remain in all their studded leather defiance and still it seems delivering the goods. They also managed the rare feat of becoming more successful with their second vocalist than their first, and let’s face it Joacim Cans distinctive and powerfully high vocals are one of the trademarks of this band’s sound. With him and band progenitor Oscar Dronjak being the sole survivors from the early days it shows what a hold these guys have over the sound to sustain such consistency over twelve studio albums and 29 years. Damn good song-writing goes a long way too…

A top drawer HammerFall record is normally bristling with anthemic floor-fillers of the kind that an audience in a festival crowd can yell along to without actually knowing the lyrics, but interspersed by strong melodic pieces that benefit from multiple listens. That song-writing strength to appeal to both the short term and long term listener is one hell of a feat, but in this instance we have an album that has more of the latter than the former. Much as I like having the time to develop the love for these, I also know that those heart thumping life-affirming hits are what HammerFall do best and it’s a shame that some of those more immediate punches aren’t immediately obvious from the first song or two. That said, I’m three spins in and this is growing on me somewhat. Normally HammerFall can pull off a really strong power ballad as well, but to be brutally honest ‘Not Today’ is actually the weakest song on here, despite Cans spectacular vocal range, so I will be sticking to the belters this time out.

The production sound is slightly different, with an interestingly echoey effect on Cans’ vocals, but actually it works quite well. ‘Venerate Me’ is classic anthemic HammerFall and ‘Reveries’ as well feels like it might make its way to my playlists, but fundamentally I’m nit picking. Is it and round classic like “Built To Last” or “No Sacrifice, No Victory”? No, not quite, but it’s pretty damn close and if I was coming to this as a new listener it’s certainly strong enough for me to get hooked in and keep going. Robust and strong, even though the ballad flops, but fundamentally there’s certainly nothing to else to complain about here…

‘Brotherhood’ Official Video

TRACKLISTING:
01. Brotherhood
02. Hammer Of Dawn
03. No Son Of Odin
04. Venerate Me
05. Reveries
06. Too Old To Die Young
07. Not Today
08. Live Free Or Die
09. State Of The W.I.L.D.
10. No Mercy

LINE-UP:
Oscar Dronjak – Guitars, Backing Vocals
Joacim Cans – Lead Vocals 
Fredrik Larsson – Bass
Pontus Norgren – Guitars, Backing Vocals
David Wallin – Drums

LINKS:

Hammerfall Promo Pic

Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Simon Black and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.

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