Location: Graz / PPC / Austria
Date: Monday, 09.02.2015
HammerFall are back at full concert gallop! Nearly two decades have flown by in a stormy, lightning-fast blur since 1997, when the band was formed in Gothenburg, Sweden, and after the landmark studio debut “Glory to the Brave” came out, they slowly grew into one of the central names of European and global power metal. When they first appeared, hardly anyone figured that a quintet whose musical vision was to once again play by the book of old-school, ossified classic heavy metal, dosed with a generous helping of melody, would get so popular. But their debut »Glory To The Brave« (1997) counts as one of the most important albums to bring classic heavy metal back, and with it the power metal boom that moved into the spotlight for the masses. It breathed new life into some classic eighties acts that, pushed to the fringes of the scene, stepped back into the center of metal and started recording excellent albums again, while a pile of new bands followed HammerFall’s success and took their cues from it.
In the new millennium, heavy metal has branched out like crazy across all its subgenres, and the spotlight has shifted mostly to extreme forms of metal, where, on top of plenty of brutality, extreme playing speed and a high degree of technical polish take the lead, so the line tracing the power metal genre has become incredibly thin. But the bands that belong to this genre have survived and keep creating. So last August HammerFall released their new studio album »(r)Evolution« and headed out on a new tour this winter. For the European leg of the promotion for their ninth studio album, HammerFall, who had already finished a successful tour of Latin America alongside Gotthard and Edguy, invited Serious Black (a new lineup of seasoned music veterans) and the battle-hardened German heavy metallers Orden Ogan, active since 1996, to play support.
The “Harry Potter lovers” of Serious Black were originally represented 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 somewhat co-responsible for popularizing power metal, which, with their help too, really took off in the second half of the nineties. Those two are undoubtedly Roland Grapow and Tomen Stauch. Maybe it’s the years of veteranhood starting to show their teeth. Both of them had to cancel their part in the tour. Grapow has been complaining since the last Masterplan album sessions that tennis elbow is giving him trouble, so seasoned Firewind guitarist Bob Katsionis stepped into his boots for this tour. Stauch, on the other hand, is stuck with back problems, since one of his spinal discs is acting up. Freedom Call drummer Rami Ali jumped in for him on the tour. 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 Swedish vocalist Urban Breed. If you caught HammerFall in Maribor years ago, you saw Urban Breed as the singer of that night’s opener Bloodbound, who will be playing the same role in the middle of Ljubljana on 23.03.2015 (ahead of Majesty). Urban Breed has put on a few pounds over the years, but his voice is still phenomenal. Incredibly well preserved, powerful, clean, highly melodic and explosive. And that’s what the whole performance was like, not just his, but the entire Serious Black set. An avalanche of power metal anthems rushed past like a thunderstorm. During one of the extremely short breaks between songs, guitarist Dominik Sebastian of course didn’t forget to add how happy he is to finally play in Austria for a change. The joke played on the fact that Sebastian is actually an Austrian citizen and that the crowd knows him very well from Edenbridge. The stage was cramped down to the bare minimum, and the quintet still managed to pull off all that stage kinetics and movement surprisingly well. Sound-wise, too, Serious Black got pretty decent conditions in the small hall and delivered a confident, tightly chiseled performance, the fruit of routine and plenty of experience. Serious Black presented songs from their studio debut »As Daylight Breaks«, which came out in the middle of this January.
After a fifteen-minute break, Orden Ogan climbed onto the stage a little before nine. The quartet presented their new studio album »Ravenhead«, released this January on AFM Records. Orden Ogan were given three quarters of an hour. The band, marked by a nice dose of orchestral arrangements and choir vocals, used surprisingly few backing tracks, which is highly commendable. Only occasionally. For vocal backing. The band played a mixed setlist covering all five studio albums released to date. Nicely unified stage look and extremely noisy bass lines. You could barely make out the guitar solos while the riffs droned as loud as doomsday. Luckily, Seeb’s vocals managed to break free of the “muddiness” within the sound picture. The band fired up the crowd a few times with plenty of routine, 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 off a venomous Running Wild vibe, delivered a professionally executed show. Seeb’s voice may not rank among the top power metal vocalists, but his sharp, guttural tone suits the band’s musical groove just right, adding a sheen of darkness and the occult!
At exactly ten in the evening, HammerFall hit the stage. The band showed up with a refreshed look. After fifteen years together, drummer Anders Johansson parted ways with HammerFall, and David Wallin (Pain) is the new man behind the kit. Bassist Fredrik Larsson also had to skip the tour because of family commitments. Taking his place on bass was none other than Stefan Elmgren, who was part of HammerFall between 1997 and 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 opening Hector’s Hymn, followed by the album’s excellent single »No Sacrifice, No Victory« called Any Means Necessary. The venue was completely sold out. And when Joakim Cans jumped into the first chorus of the song, the whole hall came alive. The vast majority of the crowd had been impatiently waiting for HammerFall and came to PPC exclusively for them. Considering that these aren’t exactly rosy times and concert attendance is dropping, individual shows are focusing on smaller halls or even clubs. PPC holds about 500 people, which means the place 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, with the emphasis, of course, on presenting songs from the new album »(r)Evolution«, but they didn’t overlook a single studio album either.
The quintet served up excellent sound and once again charmed with their strict professionalism. Cans held up superbly on vocals, and the band couldn’t quite develop the maximum stage activity we’re otherwise used to from HammerFall, because of the smaller stage. Still, they pulled it off. Shoulder to shoulder in the three-part harmonies of Oscar, Stefan and Pontus, Cans’ rehearsed skits in the breaks between songs, with which he kept the crowd firmly in his grip, and an overall great feeling of ease dosed with theatrical showmanship, where Oscar swapped between a set of interestingly shaped guitars, the one shaped like Hector’s hammer standing out in particular, and more, all kept the crowd happy, and they surprisingly got into the singing of the choruses. The band made an exceptional gesture too, offering Elmgren a solo spot on electric guitar, and as the instrumental piece strung together a medley of leading phrases from Hero’s Return, Where Dragon Lies Bleeding and Riders on the Storm, Pontus (on bass guitar!!!), Oscar and David came out to keep him company.
The band served up a few sweet treats, like the excellent Last Man Standing, and as the regular set wrapped up, an outstanding song from HammerFall’s studio debut (the epic Glory to the Brave didn’t miss out either), and the crew ended the show just as expected. With the “folk-hero” anthem Hearts on Fire. An hour and three quarters of HammerFall power metal in the brilliant execution of the experienced, charismatic Swedes, who are never short on stage dynamite, delivered a sweet concert experience that was more than welcome in shaking up the otherwise quiet concert lull this February.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
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 (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)
