HammerShiny Realistic Plastic Sword…CHECK
Painted Wooden Shield….CHECK
Denim Jacket with patches and the sleeves cut off…CHECK
Tight Leather Trousers…CH…Nope…hang on…damn things must have shrunk somehow…hnnnnnggg…CH….E…CK
24 Bottles of Lager…CHECK (…and there goes the top button on the trousers….)
Martina Navratilova…CZECH (Harrgh, Harrgh…Oooh good, the Lager’s working already!)
And now I feel, it’s time. I am ready to review the new Hammerfall.

Poke fun all you want (and plenty do…), but are many more bands in 2014 that just scream Heavy Metal than Hammerfall? Everything that’s been before, everything that is around them now – Hammerfall are Hammerfall and are Heavy Metal…and Power Metal of course. Lyrically and musically, you know what you are going to get with a new Hammerfall release, and that is a high proportion of their appeal! They’re not dicking about trying to win over a wider audience – basically, do you like Heavy Metal with a great production and cheesy lyrics? Then here’s the new Hammerfall! Don’t analyse, don’t judge, don’t expect something different, if you are 8 or 80 – just Enjoy!

I bought Hammerfall’s welcome debut back in 1997, and some rather cruel types would say I’ve been buying the same album with different lyrics every other year since, but in truth we all know it’s not true. You pick a band that are synonymous with a genre or style and you can raise that argument – Motorhead, Obituary, Destruction, Dimmu Borgir, Gamma Ray, Dream Theater – it’s all just the same shit different title if you are feeling that way out, but every time these bands release an album and you are a fan, it is an EVENT. It’s something to look forward to. As Metal fans we get so much shit from other quarters that sometimes it’s easy to forget that we are all under the same banner. You like Metal? Fine, you have your favourites, both genres and bands, but sometimes…just sometimes it’s nice to turn up the volume and play something that upset the neighbours in exactly the same way 20 years ago…pure, no nonsense Heavy Metal. Ladies and Gentlemen – The new Hammerfall!

And It’s got everything a Hammerfall album should have; Double-kick driven galloping European Power Metal (‘Wildfire’ – Hammerfall at their best, ‘Hector’s Hymn’, ‘Origins’, ‘We Won’t Back Down’), Judas Priest inspired Heavy Metal (‘Bushido’, Live Life Loud’, ‘Tainted Metal’), Manowar-emulating Warrior Metal (‘Ex Inferis’, the title track) and pounding Anthemic Metal (‘Winter Is Coming’). All thrown at you in Hammerfall’s tried and tested inimitable style, with fists aloft and horns flicking! Every Hammerfall fan should be delighted – they are on top form with a crisp, rafter-shaking production that manages to bring every instrument to the fore at the same time…and yet still leave plenty of room for Joacim Cans’ soaring trademark vocals.

If you are in a cynical mood, then Hammerfall are an easy target – but then so is Metal in general. Hammerfall do what they do and many people love them for it. Hammerfall aren’t for everyone, but I put it to you Mr and Mrs Reader, that there will be a time (for many it has already happened but it’s a secret guilty pleasure!), that, possibly in varying states of inebriation, Hammerfall will just hit that spot. They will make you smile. They might even make you cry if you are drunk enough, but putting aside misconceptions, cynicism and dare I say a little musical snobbery, sometimes it’s just nice to hear a slab of uncomplicated, feel-good Heavy Metal. The world be a duller, more miserable place without Hammerfall.

(7.5/10 Andy Barker)

https://www.facebook.com/hammerfall