Consistent, dedicated, uncompromising. You know what you're going to get from a HammerFall album, and studio outing number twelve delivers no surprises.
Sticking these Swedes in the power metal pigeonhole might seem somewhat limiting, but they unfailingly tick those stylistic boxes. Drop the needle anywhere on Hammer Of Dawn and you’ll find uplifting, bombastic, sweepingly epic metal delivered at varying speeds – though mostly at full gallop – driven by an amazing kick drum sound.
Reveries stands out from the rest with its varied pacing, and Not Today is a sedate and laid-back tune by HammerFall standards. Otherwise, the likes of Brotherhood, Live Free or Die, No Son of Odin and Venerate Me – with King Diamond lending his supernatural wail to the vocals – all sound thunderingly powerful and effortlessly tuneful, with plenty of rousing choruses and tastefully harmonic shredding solos.
HammerFall have hit the nail on the head again.
