Hammerfall

Crimson Thunder (Nuclear Blast)
by Scott Hefflon

Hammerfall always makes me want to strut through a mall with my feathered hair, “long” in the back obscuring part of the Iron Maiden back patch on my jean jacket. Does that mean they’re goofy classic heavy metal like mid-tempo Helloween, Manowar, and newer bands like Stratovarious and, ya know, the rest? Damn straight! Some is really European metal’s logical extension to Slaughter (more fairly, Scorpions and Accept), some is Dungeons & Dragons “Follow the Sign/Seek the Path/Search the Heavens/Fly Eagle Free” puffy-haired falsetto fistbanging. And there are ballads. Like Nelson. Robbie Williams sings like this sometimes, but he doesn’t, ya know, wear leather’n’studs.

Part guilty pleasure, part just goofy-doofy heavy metal, there are moments here that swell the breast, some that make you strut like a bad-ass, and some, well, you can flick your lighter to the Metal Godz, if you’re so inclined… I can think of better, but I can think of worse.
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