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I'm simply astonished.
Expect from their successive, amazing
and I dare to say refreshing for the
genre and for heavy metal in general,
debut album "Glory to the Brave"
back in 1997, this is the second time
I enjoy so much a Hammerfall offering.
I'm not implying that all the intermediate
releases are bad, on the contrary
I believe a heavy metal devotee will,
beyond doubt, be stuck on them, but
for some reason they leave me indifferent.
I really can't say why, maybe because
I didn't witness at that time any
sign of evolution in them, or just
because I had something better to
listen to, or maybe I was too blind
to see. I must defend myself though
by saying that I thought of every
album as a dull repetition and more
important is that I found every next
album to be worst than the previous
one. Again don't misunderstand me
here, I am judging with the standards
I set for Hammerfall.
And suddenly a hammer
hit, a mighty blow woke me up from
my coma. The hammer fell with such
force that almost smashed my brain
and splashed it on the wall. I don't
know where to start here. The band
is more mature than ever before and
as I foretold this is purely my personal
opinion. From the very start of the
spin I was excited with the commanding
and together pleasant-sounding and
catchy riffs, the pounding rhythms
and the firm play of the band. Joacim
Cans seems to be in perfect form and
without any extra push, he manages
to make the songs throb with energy,
smoothly flowing from the speakers.
But the best thing is that except
from the usual European power metal
and Judas Priest influences, I've
also noticed an effort to Americanize
their sound. Well, maybe it's only
me who sees this, but I don't care.
To my ears it sounds much like this
and it's fine by me, since I am devoted
to American power metal. Now that
I think of it, I suppose this is why
I find "Chapter V..." amazing.
Just listen to the impressive "Blood
Bound" (I believe the best song
of the album and also their first
single), "Fury of the wild",
"Born to Rule", "The
Templar Flame", "Take the
Black" and the epic 12 minutes
long "Knights of the 21st Century"
(with Cronos from Venom featuring
on the evil vocals) and draw your
own conclusions.
I hope you get the
picture. Hammerfall, as real defenders
of heavy metal, (I won't say "true
metal" because I don't exactly
understand its meaning, please somebody
show me what "true metal"
is? Am I listening to false one all
these years?) are once again swinging
their hammers ready to punish any
nonbelievers, such as myself. I was
going to rate it with 8 but since
I believe I misjudged them in the
past, I'll give them a rightfully
deserved 9, hoping to save myself
and to be found innocent on all charges.
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