Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Graz / Orpheum Teater / Austria
Concert date: 02.02.2017
Attendance: 800
Ticket price: €31.50
There used to be a line on the back of one of HammerFall’s official merch shirts: »Metal heart is hard to tear apart!«. The more seasoned part of the metal crowd may chuckle at that today, but still. The name of the new tour, »Built to Tour«, comes from the message of the band’s current studio album, »Built To Last«. It’s safe to say that HammerFall have passed every test of defiance, durability, endurance and sheer stubbornness. That’s twenty years, no less, since their debut studio album »Glory to the Brave« totally unexpectedly kicked off a metal revival in 1997 and put the spotlight back on the genre’s classic ingredients. So the Swedes from Göteborg have lion hearts, no doubt about it!
These days you’re not exactly »the man« unless you swagger around in front of your peers boasting that you listen to the most extreme variations of metal (let’s be honest, the genre has branched out and blossomed like crazy over the last twenty years), so this jam-packed Orpheum Teater in Graz was a first-class surprise. Nobody in 2017 really expected that kind of heavy metal crowd turning out for a band playing fossilized power metal (in other words, the “soft” variety of the genre), even though two years ago the much smaller club PPC, just a stone’s throw from Oprheum, burst at the seams when HammerFall came to town. And HammerFall? No deviation from the musical vision they’ve laid out. Not by an inch. They stick dutifully to the tried-and-tested power metal recipe.
That this show could be crammed to the rafters was hinted at by the daily updates of photo galleries from the band’s current European tour, which they post regularly on their website. The shows across Germany, in halls that hold a few thousand people, were all either packed or completely sold out. So. Walking into this HammerFall show in Graz, the feeling was almost identical to the one the author of this report had exactly fifteen years ago at the very same venue, on 2.2.2002, when HammerFall were on the »Renegade« tour together with Freedom Call and Virgin Steele.
Fans had gathered from all over. Austria, Croatia, Slovenia. The atmosphere was fantastic. You could feel it in the energy and the upbeat mood at half past seven in the evening, when Lancer took the stage, the Swedish power metallers who, as the opening act on this tour, presented their third studio album, »Mastery«. The quintet didn’t serve up anything new or unheard-of. They play their own brand of power metal. And they’re outstanding at it. Their stage show was very well rehearsed. Communication between the band members, dynamic use of the stage. Band members running back and forth. Tricks borrowed from the stage kinetics of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. A confident performance, nicely tight. Full force at the riffs! Most of the attention went to the exceptional vocals, which combined in one person the best qualities of singers like Michael Kiske (Helloween), Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden), Geoff Tate (Queensryche) and Tobias Sammet (Edguy) – the latter only back when he was still in vocal shape. A good half hour of top-notch ultra-melodic, ultrasonic power metal shots. A cliché is a cliché. But it always ignites when you play it from the heart. And in that spirit, Lancer thoroughly convinced on the Graz stage.
Gloryhammer are a sort of parody and a power metal outfit that, given its sheer bizarreness, needs to be taken with a grain of salt. This Scottish-Swiss alliance of five guys, with Alestorm’s frontman Christopher Bowes, the leader of those pirate drunkards, on keyboards, has two albums under its belt: »Tales From The Kingdom Of Fire« (2012) and »Space 1992: Rise of the Chaos Wizards« (2015). The band got a three-quarter-hour slot and, through a stage party of “kitsch and glitz” theater, completely delighted the crowd, who had come to this show primarily for them. So it was no surprise that the crowd knew every verse. The front rows were seriously fired up by every single move the band made on stage, even when they bordered on the absurd. The crowd knew all the band’s tricks. From the bassist chugging a bottle of cider, which he repeated at the end of the show with a glass of a big beer, to the kneeling bow at the end of the set. In short, the band’s whole rehearsed stage design, with knight costumes on stage and vocalist Thomas Winkler defeating an evil troll and stealing his magic hammer mid-show. Musically, Gloryhammer are rather uninteresting, without any special ideas. Even the solos and riffs are far less interesting than the blisteringly fast, precise and polished compositions of Lancer. But Gloryhammer of course make up for these “holes” in musical talent with a slick stage shtick that fires up the kids wholeheartedly. In that sense Gloryhammer are well on their way to gradually winning over an even broader fan base, the way a Powerwolf, say, managed to do quite easily. However you slice it, Gloryhammer are at bottom one big metal childishness that has found just the right recipe, and the youngsters fall for it hook, line and sinker.
HammerFall took the stage at ten in the evening. The hall was stuffed to the last corner. It was just about to sell out. The album »Built To Last« has caught on brilliantly since the start of last November, and the crowd had the new songs in the HammerFall repertoire down too. Still, the winning moments went to the classics that have become household anthems, headed by the excellent march Crimson Thunder and the epic, bombastic opener Riders Of The Storm. Let The Hammer Fall rang out, the must-have Renegade was there, and so was the excellent ballad Glory to the Brave. All the classics named sent the hall through the roof. From the first row to the last. Every fist pointed at the ceiling! Singing along from the crowd. Non-stop. The front rows were also taken by all those who were fifteen years younger in 2000 and experienced every moment of the HammerFall get-together with extra nostalgia. The feeling was incredible. As if power metal was rising again. Standing back up. Returning to the focus of the masses.
HammerFall are, after all, an established guarantee of quality. Their shows are rehearsed down to the last detail. Every move. Every action. Every word Joacim Cans says when talking to the crowd. In his dealings with the audience, this charismatic and striking singer proves that he remains one of the best frontmen in power metal. Vocally, too, Cans handled everything well, more than competently. The stage set was, as expected, built around the fantasy cover of the new album. No Hector showed up this time, but Dronjak strapped on a custom-made electric guitar designed to look like Hector’s hammer. And it didn’t snow during the ballad Glory to the Brave either. In short. Everything has to be connected to the hammer somehow. Pontus Norgren, as expected, played the toughest solos and passages, since he once worked as a guitar tech for Yngwie J. Malmsteen. In terms of performance, HammerFall remain a well-oiled machine where nothing hitches during the show. They’ve been through and tasted too much in their career to this day. It was nice to once again spot Stefan Elmgren at the edge of the stage action every now and then, who, as a former member of the band, kept the band company this time as a guitar tech. The band also successfully introduced new drummer Johan Koleberg, while original bassist Fredrik Larsson was able to play with the band again (on the previous tour, because of family commitments, he was replaced on bass by none other than Stefan Elmgren).
The only less spectacular move of the show could be the very one with which HammerFall wanted to stage one of the highlights of the night. They put together a medley of songs from the album »Glory to the Brave«, taking the crowd through a series of five riffs from the debut’s five most striking songs in an instrumental fashion. In short Stone Cold, The Metal Age, HammerFall, Steel Meets Steel, Unchained, all the way to Where the Dragon Lies Bleeding, where Cans finally joined in on vocals. Totally needlessly, they decided to play the riffs “into thin air” (without vocals). So this number felt more like a public rehearsal than a part of a real concert performance. It would have been better to pick just one song out of the five in this “Medley to the Brave” and play it from start to finish.
Otherwise, there’s no point nitpicking. Excellent sound. Both guitars clearly audible, in harmonies and in solo spots alike. Great energy, the band in an exceptionally good mood and therefore always up for a good joke. Once again one of the highlights of the night came with the closer Hearts On Fire, which had the Orpheum Teater literally bursting at the seams. HammerFall remain a watertight, rustproof machine that keeps up an exceptionally convincing delivery and a kind of unique charm and charisma. Both in the compositions, which always came through with strong riffs, and in the stage presence itself. Next year the band enters its 25th anniversary year. Let’s hope they throw us some kind of special surprise. Until then, an American tour is up next, then summer European festivals and more.
Setlist
HAMMERFALL:
1. Hector’s Hymn (taped intro)
2. Riders of the Storm
3. Bring It!
4. Blood Bound
5. Any Means Necessary
6. Renegade
7. Dethrone and Defy
8. Crimson Thunder
9. Last Man Standing
10. Let the Hammer Fall
11. Built to Last
12. “Medley to the Brave” (main guitar phrases played from the songs: Stone Cold, Unchained, The Metal Age, HammerFall, Steel Meets Steel, The Dragon Lies Bleeding)
13. Glory to the Brave
14. Origins
15. Punish and Enslaved
—encore II—
16. Hammer High
17. Bushido
18. Hearts on Fire
GLORYHAMMER:
1. Infernus Ad Astra (taped intro)
2. Rise of the Chaos Wizards
3. Legend of the Astral Hammer
4. Hail to Crail
5. Questlords of Inverness, Ride to the Galactic Fortress!
6. The Hollywood Hootsman
7. Angus McFire
8. Universe on Fire
9. The Unicorn Invasion of Dundee
10. The National Anthem of Unst (taped outro)
LANCER:
1. Dead Raising Towers
2. Future Milennia
3. Purple Sky
4. Behind the Walls
5. Mastery
6. Masters and Crowns
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