The Hammer Rings Out in Maribor Too (2009)

Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik

Location: UŠC Leon Štukelj / Maribor / Slovenia
Concert date: April 7, 2009
Attendance: 500
Ticket price: €23.00 / €26.00

HammerFall! Thirteen years have flown by since their studio debut, and now, wiser and more seasoned with seven studio albums behind them, they’ve swung the hammer down on Slovenian soil too. They’re on a big new European tour with Sabaton, the increasingly beloved young guns of “war-storm metal”, and another Swedish band, Bloodbound, who haven’t been around all that long (though they’ve got three albums in their pocket) and who blow into a very similar genre horn.

The whole night kicked off earlier than concert habit usually dictates. The doors opened at 7:00 PM and Bloodbound, first on the bill, hit the stage at 7:30. Since they’re a lesser-known name in power metal, let me quickly toss out a few basic facts about the band. Bloodbound are Swedish melodic metallers who formed in the summer of 2004. They were founded by guitarist Thomas Ollson and keyboardist Fredrik Bergh, the latter known for his work in the excellent Swedish AOR rock outfit Street Talk. The band released their debut studio album “Nosferatu” in 2006, followed a year later by “The Book Of Dead”, on which lead vocals were provided by top-notch German hard rock singer Michael Bormann (ex-Jaded Heart). Today Bloodbound are Urban Breed (vocals, ex-Tad Morose), Tomas Olsson (lead and rhythm guitar), Fredrik Bergh (keyboards), Pelle Åkerlind (drums), Henrik Olsson (rhythm guitar) and Johan Sohlberg (bass). The band has just released a new studio album, “Tabula Rasa”. Sadly, you’ll have to put up with the fact that I practically let Bloodbound “slip through my fingers” this time, thanks to an unfortunate chain of circumstances (hunting for a decent parking spot, then walking to the venue after a mistaken detour past ŠKUC), so I only caught the closing part of Nosferatu. But that was enough to confirm an extremely tight, compact and well-rehearsed approach that positively surprised the small crowd slowly trickling into the hall and visibly delighted them, since they didn’t skimp on loud ovations at the end of the show. Bloodbound crammed just five songs into their half hour, and as the opening act they got a really great sound in the hall (judging by the last song). That met the basic conditions, which helps a band like this a lot in their badly needed push to establish and cement their name. These are seasoned tomcats with a wealth of musical experience, with an excellent, melodic and commanding vocalist front and center and a dynamic, swaggering stage presence.

 Sabaton got 40 minutes. Some 350 fans were already swarming below the stage, proving that the band’s name has firmly taken root in Slovenia. They first played here a little over two years ago as a real “mystery”, supporting Swedes Therion together with Grave Digger in January and February 2007. That tour was hugely successful for the band, thanks to the seductive style with which they deliver their metal sermon. Just a year after “Metalizer”, their third studio album “The Art Of War” (2008) came out, with the band polishing their war-metal tales even further.

The pompously spiced-up charges got people on their feet without a moment’s hesitation, and singer Joakim Broden especially shone, ruling the crowd below the stage with much more determination and upgraded confidence (compared to the band’s show in Ljubljana two years ago). His opening address alone, in a positive spirit, where Joakim made no secret of the band’s joy at playing in Slovenia again and their delight at how well their output has been received by the Slovenian crowd, further encouraged everyone to get properly rowdy.

And that wasn’t hard at all with the marching anthems that Sabaton know how to deliver with full conviction live, too. The initially somewhat crunchy sound of the two guitars was later polished and tamed. The band gave a “thick” presentation of the new album “The Art Of War” in the first part of the set, then added older (crowd-proven) winners in the second part, such as Attero Dominatus,  Price Of A Mile, Primo Victoria and the closing Metal Machine, and they completely bewitched the people, who were literally eating out of their hands. The sight was unreal: especially during Primo Victoria and the closing Metal Machine, Joakim got the entire hall jumping and clapping with hands in the air, including the two keenly swaying women at the official merch stand of the touring bands. Sabaton have grown yet another step higher judging by what they showed, and the sheer weight of the new album’s presentation proves how firmly the guys believe in their own goal and musical vision, and how proud they are of their new record. No complaints. Maximum, and impressive in every way.

HammerFall, whose success in 1996 flung the doors wide open for newcomers a la Sabaton, have by now become a thoroughly trustworthy fortress of metal. With their defiance on the metal scene they blew away long ago every nasty insinuation that they were a flash in the pan, one that, after two albums, nobody who could still get excited or curious about this kind of music would stay loyal to. HammerFall are an interesting phenomenon, embraced above all by freshly baked heavy metal zealots on their path of musical (and personal) growth through the magic of metal. So they’re a kind of stepping stone on that road of discovering everything heavy metal can offer a listener. It’s also worth noting that with the new album HammerFall have shown once again how masterfully they can turn a basic guitar phrase used a thousand times into the seductive compactness of their own songs, where even in 2009 the band’s famously venomous, infectious pomposity keeps roaring, delivered with a filigree sense for chasing the perfect melody.

The stage, especially deep, put Johansson’s drums up on an extra platform, with a front stage where the band members dynamically traded places during the show. The band seasoned the whole gig with water-curtain effects, thin, long streams falling like a waterfall, which intensified the mood especially during songs like Glory To The Brave, Blood Bound and Last Man Standing.

HammerFall appeared on the UŠC Leon Štukelj stage in a seriously refreshed lineup: bassist Fredrik Larsson returned to the band after the 1996 debut, and lead guitarist Stefan Elmgren was replaced by Pontus Norgren. When the latter came charging onto the stage with his bandmates, his looks briefly reminded me of Grave Digger guitarist Manni Schmidt with a dash of Obituary’s Ralph Santolla thrown in. More important than that is the fact that Pontus fit in with HammerFall brilliantly in a relatively short time, and not just in the studio but on stage too, which matters just as much, or even more, for full membership in the band. Pontus confidently fired off most of the solos, meshed beautifully in harmony with the first HammerFall mascot and (still) extremely lanky Oscar Dronjak, and moved in sync with the quintet’s polished stage choreography. Something For The Ages, the instrumental from the new album “No Sacrifice, No Victory”, gave the middle of the show a number that could convince the crowd they were watching an excellent guitarist from the classic Scandinavian school, with textbook finger-flying technique. HammerFall also stuck a short drum solo from Anders Johansson into that song.

HammerFall used to open their shows by having their mascot with the hammer and armor come charging out, swing a Styrofoam hammer with all their might and smash it against the stage. This time the band came equipped with special laser lighting effects that drew a kind of hologram in the air inside the hall, featuring, among other things, the famous hammer-wielding warrior, as well as snowflakes falling during Glory To The Brave (they used to drop white Styrofoam flakes onto the crowd during that song). I should also mention that the band has pyrotechnics planned in the show, but they weren’t activated for the Maribor gig.

HammerFall delivered a top-notch professional show, as expected, with only the sound playing a bit of a trick. At the start the overly noisy drums slightly distorted the picture, but later the guitars got equal sonic standing. This time the sound was best in the middle of the hall and, of course, at the back.

The crowd surprised everyone by taking all the new songs from “No Sacrifice, No Victory” so well, even handling the verses admirably. HammerFall mixed material from all their studio albums into the set, though one could miss another song or two from the debut besides Glory To The Brave. The highlights, besides the aforementioned Glory To The Brave, naturally included the older songs like Crimson Thunder, Renegade, Heeding The Call and the explosive closer Riders Of The Storm. During the latter especially, tiredness was already showing in Joacim Cans’s vocal cords, so he dodged the higher registers of the chorus and replaced them with improvisation and lower melodic ranges. Occasionally, in arena-style choruses such as Keep The Flame Burning, he also left individual verses to the crowd to sing.

The band split the encore in two. In the first part they blew the hall up again with the ironclad Let The Hammer Fall, and in the second they squeezed the last decibels out of everyone present by pulling the hit Hearts On Fire out of their sleeve, with its simple but ferociously punchy chorus. Definitely a show worth all the attention, proving that HammerFall bow to nobody on their path. They keep up the highly dynamic theater of their shows, with that familiar, well-defined positive vibe and charged energy. The great concert atmosphere was lifted even higher by an invested crowd, which this time brought mostly dewy-eyed twenty-somethings into the hall. Whatever HammerFall’s confidence, you can’t get around the fact that Sabaton, with their performance and popularity on this tour, are challenging them very successfully. Plenty of Austrian citizens made the trip to Maribor too, especially from the south and southeast of Austria, for whom Maribor is a closer outpost than Vienna, where HammerFall announced their show for April 14, 2009. It’ll be fascinating to compare the intensity of this thoroughly successful gathering with the band in Maribor, which once again ran beautifully under the watchful baton of promoter Sindian Underground, with the concert experience the power metal phalanx of the Swedish trio will conjure up in Zagreb the next day. So stay tuned!

photos: Aleš Podbrežnik

Setlist

BLOODBOUND: 1. Sweet Dreams 2. Metal Monster 3. Book Of The Dead 4. Take One 5. Nosferatu SABATON: 1. Introjavel 2. Ghost Division 3. The Art Of War 4. 40:1 5. Cliffs Of Gallipoli 6. Attero Dominatus 7. Price Of A Mile 8. Primo Victoria 9. Metal Machine 10. Outrodevil HAMMERFALL: 1. Punish And Enslave 2. Crimson Thunder 3. Legion 4. Blood Bound 5. Renegade 6. Hallowed Be My Name 7. The Abyss 8. Last Man Standing 9. Heeding The Call 10. Glory To The Brave 11. Something For The Ages 12. Any Means Necessary 13. Natural High 14. Keep The Flame Burning 15. Between Two Worlds 16. Riders Of The Storm —encore I.— 17. Lore of the Arcane 18. Trailblazers 19. Let The Hammer Fall —encore II.— 20. Hearts On Fire

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