Artist: HammerFall
Label: Nuclear Blast
Released: 2008
Running time: 67:08
Rating: 4/5
Apparently, putting out compilations and “best of” albums is still lucrative today, now that the record industry as we know it is slowly saying goodbye. In the golden days of vinyl and CD, bands used them to make money even during stretches of studio silence. Hammerfall have released two such records in the last two years. In 2007 they came out with a greatest-hits collection titled Steel meets steel – Ten Years of glory, and last year they followed it with a set of covers pulled from all their albums so far, which they called Masterpieces. Of course, the band didn’t make this move purely for financial reasons but also because of the lineup troubles that have plagued them lately. After the album Treshold, bassist Magnus Rosen was the first to go, feeling he wouldn’t be able to realize all his musical potential in Hammerfall. Then, rather surprisingly, guitarist Stefan Elmgren bowed out too, having landed a job as a commercial pilot with some Swedish airline.
Masterpieces is, then, the second helping of filler, which Hammerfall have used to make sure their name stays in the media until the new studio album, due on February 20 of this year. But despite that charge, it’s a pretty likable and solid release that stands on its own two feet. Like Metallica some time ago and Def Leppard recently, Hammerfall have used this collection to pay a fitting tribute to their heroes. Alongside the well-known greats, those include a few lesser-known names from the 80s. Worth mentioning here are the Americans Warlord (Child of the damned), the Germans Stormwitch (Ravenlord), the Dutch Picture (Eternal dark) and the Danes Pretty Maids (Back to back). Hammerfall then hit us with the classic I want out, where former Helloween member Kai Hansen joins them on guitar, Man on the silver mountain from Rainbow’s debut, and Head over heels, which Accept recorded in 1983. It’s well known that the Teutonic obscurities had a huge influence on Hammerfall. As for why they put that cover on their album Renegade, credit goes to producer Michael Wagener, a good friend and neighbor of Wolf Hoffmann. Together the two had no trouble convincing Udo Dirkschneider to grab the mic once more and join Joachim Cans on vocals for Head over Heels. After the rather inventive We’re gonna make it (Twisted sister) comes the dismal Breaking the law (Judas priest), whose vocals are so awful that Halford might soon show up with a lawsuit. Then there’s the somewhat more promising Angel of mercy, which Chastain recorded years ago. The mood picks up again with Malmsteen’s Rising force, where Dronjak and Elmgren show off all their guitar mastery, the Kiss classic Detroit rock city, and the song Crazy nights. That one wasn’t written by Paul Stanley and the gang, though, but by the Japanese band Loudness, led by the cult figure Akira Takasaki. It’s one of the few hits that broke through from the East to America, and the album Thunder in the east (1985) was also the first Japanese metal album released under the wing of an American label. Among the more interesting picks is När vindarna viskar mitt namn, the only song on the record with non-English lyrics. Roger Pontare represented Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2000 with it and finished only seventh in front of the home crowd. Hammerfall put their own spin on it five years later and prophetically foretold the triumph of Lordi. A year later, Europe was already shaking to the ominous beats of Nordic metal. The album closes with the well-known Youth gone wild, with noticeably weaker group vocals than Skid row had on their version, which Hammerfall really shouldn’t have allowed themselves. The last track is John Norum’s moody instrumental Aphasia, whose original appears on Europe’s second record, Wings of tomorrow.
So Masterpieces isn’t just a calculated marketing move but also a humble thank-you from one of Europe’s hottest metal exports right now to all the bands that shaped its sound and ideology. The collection shows that the mindset of the recent past, and the music that goes with it, is still alive. It also shows that, with inspiration in short supply and everything stagnating, metal has to look back, at least in some respects, to the time when it ruled the world. There’s no reason to be ashamed of that legacy. Given all the good things that era brought to music, the smart move is to put them to proper use and fit them into new frameworks. The verses from Rebel inside, off Hammerfall’s latest studio album, probably sum up that formula best: “We have our hearts set in the past and eyes towards the future”.
Lineup
Joachim Cans – vocals
Oscar Dronjak – guitar
Stefan Elmgren – guitar
Fredrik Larsson – bass
Anders Johansson – drums
Tracklist
1.Child of the damned
2.Ravenlord
3.Eternal dark
4.Back to back
5.I want out
6.Man on the silver mountain
7.Head over heels
8.Run with the devil
9.We’re gonna make it
10.Breaking the law
11.Angel of mercy
12.Rising force
13.Detroit rock city
14.Crazy nights
15.Nar vindarna viskar mitt namn
16.Flight of the warrior
17.Youth gone wild
18.Aphasia
