HammerFall – "Hammer of Dawn"
One more time...
The last HammerFall album I got was 2009's "No Sacrifice, No Victory". A fine album. Better than its two predecessors, but not as good as the band's classics, and definitely nowhere near their masterpiece, "Crimson Thunder" (2002).
After that, they did that zombie album thingy. And then, they went on a sort of hiatus that turned out to not be much longer than the time I'm just gonna assume passes in between Metallica rehearsals. And then they released other albums that looked like HammerFall albums – and supposedly also sounded the part.
And I pretty much guess "Hammer of Dawn" is another one of those. You got Hector with that big ol' hammer of his on the front. And even before Joachim Cans' distinct vocals enter the picture, you can hear by Oscar Dronjak's riff that you're listening to a HammerFall opening song.
This is by no means a bad thing. I mean, if you don't like the classic HammerFall, you kinda suck at liking heavy metal. However, as it turns out, that doesn't mean this album's very interesting.
The interesting elements here generally take place on detail levels that all speak of the fact that this album was written rather than inspired.
On the contrary, most of this, HammerFall's 12th album, seems to adhere to the bordeline-idealistic concept of repurposing that Manowar started cultivating around that horrid time where classic heavy metal seemed to have reached the beginning of the end.
As time has shown, it fortunately didn't. (Cases in point being the blinding latest efforts from Maiden, Priest, and Saxon.) But in short, there's virtually nothing on "Hammer of Dawn" that makes me wanna come back again and again the way songs like "Heeding the Call" and "Riders of the Storm" did back in the day.
Granted, after almost 30 years in the business, HammerFall know their way around a heavy metal song. But the interesting elements here generally take place on detail levels. Like the riffing, the instrumentation, the tempos, and other factors that all speak of the fact that this album was written rather than inspired.
There's virtually nothing on "Hammer of Dawn" that makes me wanna come back again and again the way songs like "Heeding the Call" and "Riders of the Storm" did back in the day.
The title track kinda works. Curiously, it also kinda sounds like Sabaton. Curiously, because that's a band I've always found a bit boring. But I guess the two bands' mutual touring rubbed off on Cans and Dronjak, and if nothing else, that made for one kinda cool combination of darkly Soviet-sounding baritone choir voices combined with a heavy gallop rhythm. (Because HammerFall totally never did THAT before.)
You can hear the same hint of inspiration in the chorus of "Reveries" (which, by the way, is apparently also featuring King Diamond; not that I noticed it). And also, Joacim Cans' vocals are as strong as ever, which is impressive.
But all in all, "Hammer of Dawn" doesn't have much more merit than a just-slightly-cooler-than-room temperature cola on a just-slightly-warmer-than-average summer day:
It's okay. But in no way as refreshing and invigorating as it could've been.
Rating: 3 out of 6
Genre: Heavy metal (yes, and also a bit of power metal here and there)
Release date: 25/2/2022
Label: Napalm Records
Producer: Fredrik Nordström + Jacob Hansen