Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Graz / PPC / Austria
Concert date: 09.02.2015
Attendance: 600
Ticket price: €27.30
HammerFall are back in full concert gallop! Since 1997, when the band was formed in Gothenburg, Sweden, almost two decades have flown by in a stormy, lightning-fast blur. They slowly grew into one of the central names of European and even world power metal after their legendary studio debut “Glory to the Brave” came out. When they first appeared, hardly anyone figured that a quintet whose musical vision was to once again play by the ossified rulebook of old-school classic heavy metal, dosed with heaps of melody, would get so popular. But their debut »Glory To The Brave« (1997) is considered one of the most important albums in bringing classic heavy metal back, and with it the power metal boom that put the genre in front of the masses. It brought some classic eighties bands back to life. Pushed to the fringes of the scene, they stepped into the center of metal again and started recording excellent albums once more, while a pile of new bands followed HammerFall’s success in their musical footsteps.
In the new millennium, heavy metal has branched out like crazy in all its subgenre variants, and the spotlight has fallen mostly on extreme forms of metal, where, besides loads of brutality, extreme playing speed and great technical polish lead the way. The line tracing power metal as a genre has become incredibly thin. But the bands belonging to it have survived and keep creating. So last August HammerFall released their new studio album »(r)Evolution« and set off on a new tour this winter. For the European leg of promoting their ninth studio album, HammerFall, who had previously wrapped up a successful Latin American tour with Gotthard and Edguy, invited Serious Black (a new formation of seasoned music veterans) and the battle-hardened German heavy metallers Orden Ogan, active since 1996, as support.
»For the Harry Potter fans,« Serious Black are fronted at the core by guitarist Roland Grapow (Masterplan, Roland Grapow – solo, ex-Helloween, ex-Rampage), drummer Tomen Stauch (Savage Circus, ex-Coldseed, ex-Blind Guardian, ex-Heavenward, ex-Iron Savior, ex-Stormrider, ex-Lucifer’s Heritage, ex-Stranded Guns), bassist Mario Lochert (Emergency Gate, ex-Visions of Atlantis), keyboardist Jan Vacik (D-Vision, ex-D-Lusion, ex-Dreamscape, ex-Persiflage, ex-Schnupn), Austrian guitarist Dominik Sebastian (Edenbridge, Shadows’ Grey, Thirdmoon) and the Swedish singer with the intriguing stage name Urban Breed (Project Arcadia, Trail of Murder, ex-Bloodbound, ex-Pyramaze, ex-Tad Morose, ex-Dark Empire).
At least two of those names are somehow co-responsible for popularizing power metal, which, with their help, boomed in the second half of the nineties. Those two are undoubtedly Roland Grapow and Tomen Stauch. Maybe the veteran years are starting to bite. Both had to bow out of the tour. Grapow has been complaining since the last Masterplan album sessions that tendonitis is giving him grief, so the battle-tested Firewind guitarist Bob Katsionis jumped into his shoes for this tour. Tomen Stauch, on the other hand, is stuck with back problems, as one of his spinal discs is acting up. Freedom Call drummer Rami Ali stepped in for him. The other names in the lineup are the same. Serious Black hit the stage a few minutes before eight in the evening. The central figure is definitely the Swedish singer Urban Breed. If you caught HammerFall in Maribor a few years back, you saw Urban Breed as the singer of the opening act back then, Bloodbound, who will play the same role in the middle of Ljubljana on 23.03.2015 (before Majesty). Urban Breed has put on a few pounds over the years, but his vocals are still phenomenal. Remarkably well preserved, strong, clean, highly melodic and explosive. And that goes not just for his performance but for the whole Serious Black set. An avalanche of power metal anthems passed by like a storm. In one of the extremely short breaks between songs, guitarist Dominik Sebastian of course didn’t forget to add how happy he was to finally play in Austria for a change. It was a jab at the fact that Sebastian is an Austrian citizen whom the crowd knows very well from Edenbridge. The stage was incredibly cramped, and the quintet still managed surprisingly well to deliver all the stage kinetics and movement. Sound-wise, Serious Black also had pretty good conditions in the little hall and delivered a confident, tightly chiseled performance, the fruit of routine and lots of experience. Serious Black presented songs from their debut studio album »As Daylight Breaks«, which came out in the middle of this January.
After a fifteen-minute break, Orden Ogan took the stage a little before nine. The quartet presented their new studio album »Ravenhead«, out this January on AFM Records. Orden Ogan got three quarters of an hour. The band, marked by a nice dose of orchestral arrangements and choir singing, used surprisingly few backing tracks, which is very commendable. Only occasionally. For vocal backing. The band played a mixed setlist from all five studio albums released to date. They had a polished, unified stage look and extremely noisy bass lines. You could barely make out the guitar solos while the riffs droned loud as doomsday. Luckily Seeb’s vocals pulled free of the “muddiness” in the sound picture. The band routinely fired up the crowd a few times, and the crowd cooperated properly and gave the band nice support. Interestingly, Serious Black got almost more adrenaline-fueled rush out of the audience than Orden Ogan did. The band, which can at times pull venomously toward Running Wild, delivered a professionally executed show. Seeb’s vocals don’t rank among the top power metal singers, but his raspy, guttural tone suits the band’s musical groove, adding a sheen of gloom and the occult!
Right on ten o’clock, HammerFall hit the stage. The band showed up in a refreshed form. After fifteen years together, drummer Anders Johansson bid HammerFall farewell, and David Wallin (Pain) took his place. Bassist Fredrik Larsson also had to skip the tour because of family commitments. Replacing him on bass was none other than Stefan Elmgren, who was part of the HammerFall crew from 1997 to 2008, when he played lead guitar for them. The opening went to the instrumental side of the crew, as Stefan Elmgren, Pontus Norgren, Oscar Dronjak and David Wallin charged into the intro Hector’s Hymn, followed by the excellent single from the album »No Sacrifice, No Victory« called Any Means Necessary. The place was completely sold out. And when Joakim Cans jumped in on the song’s first chorus, the whole hall came alive. The vast majority of the crowd had been impatiently waiting for HammerFall and came to PPC exclusively for them. Given that these aren’t exactly rosy times and concert attendance is dropping, individual shows focus on playing smaller halls or even clubs. PPC draws around 500 people, which means the hall wasn’t hard to sell out, and HammerFall last played Graz in early 2004 (the »Crimson Thunder« tour). The band put together an excellent setlist, naturally focusing on the new album »(r)Evolution«, but without overlooking a single studio album.
The quintet served up excellent sound and once again charmed with their strict professionalism. Cans was in great vocal form. Because of the smaller stage, the band couldn’t unleash the maximum stage activity we’re otherwise used to from HammerFall. But still. Oscar, Stefan and Pontus shoulder to shoulder in three-part harmonies, Cans’ well-rehearsed skits between songs that kept the crowd firmly in his hand, and an overall big sense of relaxedness dosed with theatrical showmanship, where Oscar swapped between a set of interestingly shaped guitars (the one shaped like Hector’s hammer stood out especially), and more, all satisfied a crowd that, surprisingly, sang along to the choruses with real feeling. The band also made a great gesture by giving Elmgren a solo spot on electric guitar. As his instrumental piece strung together a wreath of the leading phrases of Hero’s Return, Where Dragon Lies Bleeding and Riders on the Storm, Pontus (on bass!!!), Oscar and David came out to keep him company.
The band served up a few sweet extras, like the excellent Last Man Standing, and closed the regular set with an outstanding track from HammerFall’s studio debut (the epic Glory to the Brave didn’t miss out either), and the crew ended the show as expected. With the “everybody knows it” anthem Hearts on Fire. An hour and three quarters of HammerFall power metal, brilliantly executed by seasoned, charismatic Swedes who are never short on stage dynamite, made for a sweet concert experience that more than welcomely shook up this February’s otherwise sleepy gig calendar.
Setlist
SEROIUS BLACK:
1. Temple of the Sun
2. Akhenaton
3. Setting Fire to the Earth
4. High and Low
5. Older and Wiser
6. Sealing My Fate
7. I Seek No Other Life
ORDEN OGAN:
1. Orden Ogan
2. F.E.V.E.R.
3. To New Shores of Sadness
4. The Lords of the Flies
5. To the End
6. Ravenhead
7. We Are Pirates
8. Deaf Among the Blind
9. The Things We Believe In
HAMMERFALL:
1. Hector’s Hymn
2. Any Means Necessary
3. Renegade
4. B.Y.H.
5. Blood Bound
6. Heeding the Call
7. Let the Hammer Fall
8. Live Life Loud
9. 400 Meter Medley (a medley of excerpts from: Hero’s Return, Where Dragon Lies Bleeding, Riders on the Storm)
10. Threshold
11. Last Man Standing
12. Glory to the Brave
13. We Won’t Back Down
14. HammerFall
—encore—
15. Templars of Steel
16. Bushido
16. Hearts on Fire
17. Dreams Come True (taped outro)
Photo Gallery
