HammerFall – "Avenge the Fallen"
No, it's not fucking power metal, and neither is Manowar.
Yeah, I'll get back to the subject matter of that headline. First things first: If you don't like HammerFall, you're not a metalhead. You might be one of those metalheads who claim that you don't like HammerFall, but you'd be a hypocrite, because you do like a lot of music that sounds extremely similar to HammerFall, or you wouldn't be a metalhead.
That said, if you haven't been following along with HammerFall's studio albums, you probably haven't been missing out on a lot. While I always enjoyed seeing them in concert, their MO when it comes to studio releases seems to be just following one tried-and-tested formula of pure, conservative heavy metal with lyrics about glory and battle and kings and... battle. And... glory. Last time they did it was two years ago, so apparently that means that now's the time for yet another helping of the exact same aforementioned heavy metal.
I gave their last album a mediocre rating because it was predictable and forgettable. And largely, so is this one. In fact, I was ready to give "Avenge the Fallen" a subpar rating. However, on my third spin, the songs actually started to somewhat transcend their otherwise quite homogenous sonic packaging, the 6/4 double-time riffarama of "Burn It Down" and the vintage gallop of "Capture the Dream", for example, being sturdy beer metal. Because, you know, you can drink beer to it. And after said three spins, the big fist-pumper "Hail To the King" will get stuck in your head.
However, just because heavy metal makes a decent musical backdrop for swilling fermented barley juice doesn't mean it's original or interesting by any stretch, and that's not the case here, either. The whole thing even starts kinda slow, the opening title track being predictable mid-tempo heavy metal with no remarkable gestures whatsoever. And apart from the fact that the different songs have different tempos and rhythmic feels, "predictable mid-tempo heavy metal" is largely descriptive of the album as a whole.
At least it's not that dumb, sterile, compressed jock core that's been passing for metal in this accursed century; it's just true, dumb heavy metal. And that's about it.
The biggest problem – AND the clearest indicator of aformentioned predictability and triteness – are the lyrics.
We're the H in "Heavy metal"
Solid F in "Fundamental"
All in all, we are HammerFall
Passion is our lord
Courage our sword
Heavy metal in our hearts
Hard to tear apart
You came to our side
Came to join our glory ride
And with force, no remorse
We were one to set the course
The road we paved is free
Free for all, for you and me
To the sound of metal, steel meets steel
The forge of our ideals
Yeah, they wrote that. And they deliberately used it as song lyrics all the way through writing, rehearsing, recording, and releasing the album. All the way giving but nary a shit that they're blatantly repurposing not only long-repurposed Manowar lyrics, but also their own long-repurposed lyrics. And there's more:
Rise up, unleash the fury
Redeem your inner glory
Brothers, fight or fall
Charge for the swords and charge for the guns
Follow the light, yes, follow the one
Curtains will fall, a hero to all
Brother, we honor your call
Yeah. And that same song contains such lines as "His eyes like fire, like oceans of desire" and "We ride, we fly, we touch the crimson sky". In ONE song. Just like mandatory ballad "Hope Springs Eternal" contains such ground-breakingly inspired original prose as, "No, I'm not immortal, I am just a man / Raised to live and do the best I can". Imagine writing that, thinking, "Yeah... I just CREATED something".
You wouldn't watch ONE movie, read ONE book, eat ONE dish, or go to ONE country over and over, so why settle for this level of repetition??
Anyway. At least it's not that dumb, sterile, compressed jock core that's been passing for metal in this accursed century; it's just true, dumb heavy metal. And that's about it. The amount of interesting things that can be said about this album is directly equivalent to the amount of interesting material on the album. So instead of trying altogether, I'll rather make use of this space to make the all-too necessary case that HammerFall – just like Manowar, incidentally – is not a power metal band, but a heavy metal band.
Power metal is something much more specific than it's been made out to be by genre newbies in this accursed century. Power metal is a synergy that encompasses several specific elements:
- It's often hella fast
- It's highly melodic and often in a major key rather than a minor key, which otherwise characterizes traditional heavy metal
- As opposed to traditional heavy metal, it often uses keyboards and symphonic elements, and it's often more complex than traditional heavy metal
- The expression is often lighter than traditional heavy metal, emphasizing melody and anthemic grandeur rather than aggression and crudity
- The lyrical subject matter is often fantasy-themed, just like the album covers often feature fantasy elements depicted in a comic-like graphic style
HammerFall, then, and especially on an album like this, is simply too all-round mid-tempo and classically minor-key riff-based to be considered full-out power metal. The exact same thing goes for Manowar. And both bands have even disavowed the power metal label, you fucking newbies.
Yes, I know both bands often use medieval fantasy imagery in a comic-y graphic style. But that says nothing about the objective qualities of the music. Yes, I know their lyrics tend to be about glory and kings and battle and glory and shit; that is still not the decisive element for any musical genre by far.
Yes, both HammerFall's and Manowar's music have distinct elements in common with power metal. And the exact same is the case for Judas Priest and Iron Maiden who pioneered heavy metal itself long before anyone thought of calling anything "power metal" – let alone "speed", "thrash", or anything else. I will gladly concede that HammerFall have made downright power metal songs – especially on their earlier albums. That doesn't mean they're a 100% power metal band; they're much closer to 50/50.
With that, and speaking of the early HammerFall albums, you should pretty much just go listen to those instead of this one. Not that this one is bad, but it doesn't do more than simply pass the threshold (see what I did there?) of acceptability.
Life's too damn short to just listen to the same regurgitated ideas over and over. You wouldn't watch ONE movie, read ONE book, eat ONE dish, or go to ONE country over and over, so why settle for this level of repetition?? If you want solid heavy metal, much better albums have long been released – many of them by the band itself.
Rating: 3 out of 6
Genre: Heavy metal with certain power metal elements. Not power metal just because it's melodic and has comic-y illustrations of knights and shit.
Release date: 9/8/2024
Label: Nuclear Blast
Producer: Jay Ruston, Fredrik Nordström et al.