Artist: HammerFall
Label: Nuclear Blast
Release: 2011
Rating: 3/5
These guys hardly need an introduction. They kicked off the metal revival in the second half of the nineties and the few years of Euro power metal overload in every shape and form that followed. Album number eight. The band felt like shaking things up. A minimalist cover that leaves little creative impression. Mascot Hector has gone off on a well-earned break for a while, though that’s not entirely true, since he shows up on the cover of the already released new single, the ballad Send Me A Sign.
If we established that “No Sacrifice, No Victiory” was a great record, staying close to the HammerFall tradition of the band’s most prominent works from “Glory To The Brave” to “Crimson Thunder”, then “Infected” is an attempt to veer away from that direction. And in HammerFall’s case, that’s not exactly encouraging. The guys clearly wanted to get a more direct album out of their system, with a more stripped-down sound and arrangements. Atmospherically, the album is also darker than all its predecessors, which the cover alone already hints at. Songs bearing the flawless HammerFall metal trademark show up in only about half the tracklist this time.
The first track, Patient Zero, minus the annoying intro that runs almost two minutes, is a successful attempt by the band to carry their classic formula into new times and into distinctly dark waters while staying true to their tradition. The “Accept-style” lead guitar phrase holds that proper metal vibe, and the mid-song transition is classic HammerFall, the kind that’s plentiful on the debut too. At the same time, the dark atmospheric coating works well. Bang You rHead will surely make it into the live set of the new tour. The idea and inspiration for the song probably come from the band headlining one of the two days of the Bang Your Head festival last year. The lead phrase in the verse, as well as the layout of the chorus, owe a lot to Let The Hammer Fall. Further on, the marching numbers The Outlaw and Dia De Los Muertos work great and stand out as some of the album’s best songs. They’re joined by the ballad released as the album’s second single, Send Me A Sign, though that one should be taken with a grain of salt, since it isn’t an original but a cover of a song by the Hungarian heavy metal band Pokolgep. The closer Redemption, a mini epic suite, saves the day and will make fans of the band’s galloping rhythms and traditional bombastic pomp very happy.
The rest of the album comes off somewhat less successfully. In the dark mood, where the fairy-tale lyrics about seas of blood on battlefields and gleaming, white-hot knightly steel have now been swapped for apocalypse clichés, you can even feel a drift toward hard rock elements (I Refuse). The production touch may have had a hand in that too, as James Michael is known for previous work with Scorpions, Meat Loaf, Motley Crue,… The track 666 – The Enemy Within is likewise a weaker moment on the new album, with less fluidity in its arrangement solutions in the verse-chorus link, and the next one, Immortalized, doesn’t escape that syndrome either. The mood of settled expectations is also spoiled by One More Time, with its truly annoying habit of repeating the song title over and over, which stands in for an apology of a chorus. Let’s Get It On, with its promising rhythmic gallop and infectious riffing, likewise gets watered down by a trivial chorus.
“Infected” has given the band an album that drifts mildly away from what they do best. The funny thing is that it confirms the realization that HammerFall work best, and only really credibly, in fairy-tale themes, with the epic of the Templars at their focal point. That’s where the band’s knack for bombastic chorus melodies, their polished sense of melody and the infectious punch of their riffs come through best. I believe HammerFall will soon return to their classic themes with the very next album. “Infected” is by no means a bad product, but it could have been a lot better, since this time the guys didn’t reach the level of melodic flow, punch and epic seasoning that usually comes with power metal. Perhaps at the expense of the wish to keep up the dark mood. If you don’t know the band yet, it’s not advisable to start discovering them with “Infected”. It’s a record that will get worked through quickly after a few spins and from here on will only (conditionally) adorn your CD collection.
Lineup
Joacim Cans – vocals, backing vocals
Oscar Dronjak – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
Pontus Norgren – guitar, backing vocals
Fredrik Larsson – bass guitar, backing vocals
Anders Johansson – drums
Production
James MIchael, Oscar Dronjak & Ponuts Norgren
Tracklist
1. Patient Zero
2. Bang Your Head
3. One More Time
4. The Outlaw
5. Send Me a Sign
6. Dia De Los Muertos
7. I Refuse
8. 666 – The Enemy Within
9. Immortalized
10. Let’s Get It On
11. Redemption
