Saturday 9th July

Hammerfall - Monster Stage (3/5)

I was never a big Hammerfall fan. I am still not. In fact when they broke through I thought they were ridiculous and sounded like a poor man’s Iron Maiden or something like that. But what I didn’t realise is that they probably are the Iron Maiden for the kids who grew up in the 90’s, just as important as Iron Maiden was for me and my friends when we grew up.

Anyway, while I still think that Hammerfall’s earlier albums sounds dorky, something has happened with the band in the last few years. The albums started to sound better and their approach seems a bit more serious now. Their two latest albums are actually pretty good and while I remember seeing the band at Sweden Rock years ago, I left after a couple of songs, but this time was different altogether.

The sound was huge and thick like a brick wall and the band were really tight with singer Joacim Cans’ vocals  sounding really good. The opening with ”Patient Zero” from their new album Infected was really strong and even though a song like ”Bang Your Head” is a bit too cliché for comfort it kinda works live for some reason. ”Renegade” might not be a favourite of mine, but the fans love it and with brilliant tracks like ”Any Means Necessary” and ”Bloodbound” this concert really couldn’t go wrong. Hammerfall has become really professional and are, no matter what you think of their songs, a very good live act.

As performers they are really worth a four star review, but unfortunately too many of their songs don’t hold up. Still, they’re a band worth checking out if metal is your  
 
Check them out :
http://www.hammerfall.net

Review : Jon Wilmenius
Photos : Tallee Savage
www.savagebeauty.se

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