Review by Rick Eaglestone for MPM
Sweden’s servers of the studious Hammerfall return with their thirteenth album – Avenge The Fallen
The album immediately thunders in with title track Avenge The Fallen, which with festival season fast approach will surely be a live favourite whilst The End Justifies well, pun intended really hammers home the true spirit of fist raising heavy metal with the formidable power and theatrics
A lot of this album was created and crafted on the road but manages to somehow have a natural flow it to it, for example the dominant basslines and chants of Freedom is nothing short of anthemic and is a perfect example of the creativeness of Oscar and Joacim
Hail To The King slows the pace right down with a narrative feel which is rich with atmospherics, and wave of wave of solos and progresses naturally into the album’s crowning glory – Hero To All
“_Everything is like it’s always been_”, HAMMERFALL’s founder and guitarist Oscar Dronjak says with pride. He continues: “When I started HAMMERFALL more than 30 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. The music I write is the music that I love and believe in, heavy metal can’t be faked and that’s a fact!”
One straight from the archives is theis the track based upon ideas spawned as far back as two decades is the ballad Hope Springs Eternal which is something that has been in the Hammerfall arsenal for some time at yet again it delivers on all fronts, alongside other stand out tracks this is certainly one that really is the band in a bottle.
Moving into Burn It Down really forms the aesthetic of the album effortlessly with Capture The Dream following to become an undeniable earworm and it really has a tinge of Edguy to it too, penultimate offering really takes it foot of the pedal to fire through with a sharp focus to leave the album’s closer Time Immemorial to use its time as the longest track to really emphasise previous elements and further build on those soundscapes to make sure that Hammerfall firmly stay true kings of metal
Avenge The Fallen listing.
1. Avenge The Fallen
2. The End Justifies
3. Freedom
4. Hail To The King
5. Hero To All
6. Hope Springs Eternal
7. Burn It Down
8. Capture The Dream
9. Rise Of Evil
10. Time Immemorial
Line-up:
Joacim Cans – Vocals
Oscar Dronjak – Guitar
Pontus Norgren – Guitar
Fredrik Larsson – Bass
David Wallin – Drums
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7/10
