Location: Graz / Orpheum Teater / Austria
Date: Thursday, 02.02.2017
Back in the day, the back of one of HammerFall’s official merch shirts read “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 fair to say that HammerFall, a full twenty years after their debut “Glory to the Brave” totally unexpectedly kicked off a revival in metal in 1997 and put the spotlight back on its classic elements, have passed every test of defiance, durability, endurance and unbendability. The Swedes from Gothenburg really do have the heart of a lion!
Considering that these days you’re not “cool” unless you swagger in front of your peers with the fact that you listen to the most extreme genre variations of metal (let’s be honest, the genre has branched out and flourished enormously over the last twenty years), the jam-packed Graz hall Orpheum Teater this time was a first-class surprise. Such a rush of heavy metal fans to a show by a band playing ossified power metal (that is, the “soft” variety of the metal genre) was something nobody really expected in 2017, even though two years ago the half-as-big club PPC, located a stone’s throw from Orpheum, was bursting at the seams for HammerFall’s visit. And HammerFall? No deviation from the charted musical vision. Not an inch. They dutifully stick to the proven power metal recipe.
The daily updates to the photo galleries from the band’s current European tour, which they regularly post on their website, hinted that this show could be packed to the rafters. The concerts across Germany, in halls that take a few thousand people, were all either jam-packed or completely sold out. So. When you arrived at 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 (that was 2.2.2002), when HammerFall played on the “Renegade” tour together with Freedom Call and Virgin Steele.
Fans had gathered from all over. Austria, Croatia, Slovenia. The atmosphere was fantastic. The energy and cheerful mood showed it too at half past seven in the evening, when Lancer took the stage, Swedish power metallers who, in the support slot on this tour, presented their third studio album “Mastery”. The quintet served up nothing new or unheard. They play their own take on power metal. And they’re outstanding at it. The stage performance was very well rehearsed. Communication between the five members, dynamic use of the stage. Band members running back and forth. Tricks borrowed from the stage kinetics of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. Confident playing, nice tightness. Full force at the riffs! Most of the attention was grabbed by an outstanding vocalist. In one person he combined the best traits of singers like Michael Kiske (Helloween), Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden), Geoff Tate (Queensryche) and Tobias Sammet (Edguy) – the latter when he was still in vocal shape, that is. A good half hour of superb ultra-melodic and ultrasonic power metal blast. A cliché is a cliché. But it always catches fire when you play it from the heart. And in that spirit, Lancer thoroughly convinced on the Graz stage.
Gloryhammer are a kind of parody and a power metal outfit that, thanks to its bizarreness, needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. The Scottish-Swiss alliance of five guys, with Christopher Bowes, leader of the pirate drunkards Alestorm, on keyboards, has two albums in its pocket, “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 satisfied the crowd of fans who had come to this show first and foremost for them. No wonder, then, that the audience had the verses down. The front rows were fired up over every move the band made on stage, even when it bordered on the absurd. The crowd knew all of the band’s tricks. From the bassist chugging a bottle of cider, which he repeated at the end of the set with a glass of big beer, to the kneeling bow at the end of the show. In short, the whole rehearsed scenography of a band that wears knight costumes on stage and where, during the set, vocalist Thomas Winkler defeats an evil troll and steals his magic hammer. Musically, Gloryhammer are rather uninteresting, with no special ideas. Even the solos and riffs are far less interesting than the extremely fast, precise and polished compositions of Lancer. But Gloryhammer make up for these “holes” in musical talent with a polished stage shtick theater that fires up the youngsters big time. In that sense Gloryhammer are well on their way to gradually winning over an even wider fan base, much like acts such as Powerwolf managed to do with very little effort. However you slice it, Gloryhammer are at their core a big metal childishness that has found the right recipe, and the kids swallow it whole.
HammerFall took the stage at ten in the evening. The hall filled up to the last corner. It was just about to sell out. Since the start of last November, and through the start of this February, the album “Built To Last” has caught on superbly, and the crowd knew the new tracks in the HammerFall repertoire too. Still, the winning moments went to the classics that have become “folk songs”, led by the superb march Crimson Thunder and the epic, bombastic opener Riders Of The Storm. Let The Hammer Fall rang out, the obligatory Renegade was there, and so was the superb ballad Glory to the Brave. All of those classics sent the hall through the roof. From the first row to the last. Every fist pointing skyward! The audience singing along. Non-stop. The front rows were also taken by all those who were fifteen years younger back in 2000 and lived every moment of the HammerFall get-together with extra nostalgia. The feeling was unbelievable. As if power metal had risen again. Stood up again. Come back into 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 how he deals with the audience, this charismatic, striking singer proves that he remains one of the better frontmen in power metal. Vocally, too, Cans pulled everything off well and more than competently. The stage sets were, as expected, built around the fantasy cover of the new album. We didn’t get Hector’s arrival this time, but Dronjak slung on a custom-made electric guitar whose look recalled Hector’s hammer. Likewise, it didn’t snow during the ballad Glory to the Brave. In short. Everything has to be tied to the hammer somehow. Pontus Norgren, as expected, played the toughest solos and passages, seeing as he once worked as guitar tech for Yngwie J. Malmsteen. Performance-wise, HammerFall remain a well-oiled machine where nothing snags during the show. They’ve experienced and tasted too much by this point in their career. Once again it was nice to spot Stefan Elmgren now and then at the edge of the stage action, keeping the band company this time as guitar tech, as a former member. 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 would have to be the very one with which HammerFall wanted to stage one of the highlights. They put together a medley of songs from the album “Glory to the Brave”, leading the crowd through a series of five riffs from the five most striking songs on the debut in instrumental fashion. That is, Stone Cold, The Metal Age, HammerFall, Steel Meets Steel, Unchained, and 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 the void” (without vocals). So this number was more reminiscent of a public rehearsal than an element of a real concert performance. It would have been better to pick a single song out of the five chosen for this “Medley to the Brave” and play it from start to finish.
Still, there’s no point grumbling. Excellent sound. Both guitars clearly audible, both in the harmonies and in the solo spots. 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 closing Hearts On Fire, during which Orpheum Teater literally burst at the seams. HammerFall remain, then, a waterproof, rustproof machine that keeps up an incredible level of performance conviction and a unique charm and charisma. Both in the compositions, which always delivered strong guitar phrases, and in the stage presence itself. Next year the band enters its first 25th anniversary. Let’s hope they throw us some special surprise. Until then, an American tour follows, then summer festival appearances in Europe and whatever else.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
HAMMERFALL:
1. Hector’s Hymn (recorded 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 (recorded 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 (recorded outro)
LANCER:
1. Dead Raising Towers
2. Future Milennia
3. Purple Sky
4. Behind the Walls
5. Mastery
6. Masters and Crowns
