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Tracklist
01. Threshold
02. The Fire Burns Forever
03. Rebel Inside
04. Natural High
05. Dark Wings, Dark Words
06. Howlin' With The 'Pac
07. Shadow Empire
08. Carved In Stone
09. Reign Of The Hammer
10. Genocide
11. Titan
12. Natural High (Videoclip)
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The power metal giants Hammerfall have once again unleashed a storm of fury and might with their latest album, 'Threshold' The Swedish quartet is back after only a year and a half since their previous release, Chapter V: Unbent, Unbound, Unbroken. These guys are a band that, over their almost decade-long career, has consistently produced material that, while not deviating from their original musical blueprint, hasn't dropped in quality. 'Threshold' successfully prolongs this trend, and although it's nothing spectacular from an objective standpoint, it contains a few tracks that will surely be remembered as some of Hammerfall's finest.
Songs like 'Natural High' and 'The Fire Burns Forever' are typical grade-A Hammerfall tracks, with catchy melodies, powerful choruses featuring lots of backing vocals, and a blazing solo or two courtesy of Stefan Elmgren and/or Oscar Dronjak. It's not surprising that Hammerfall picked these two tracks for their first two videos off of 'Threshold,' as they possess all the qualities a good Hammerfall song should. Others, like 'Rebel Inside' and 'Dark Wings, Dark Words,' slow things down a bit, allowing vocalist Joacim Cans to really show off the power and emotion he has in his voice. Joacim takes a step back during 'Reign of the Hammer,' a purely instrumental song where Stefan and Oscar really show off their guitar playing skills, with time kept nicely by Magnus Rosen and Anders Johansson.
The most impressive songs on the album, however, are 'Threshold and Genocide.' 'Threshold' actually surprisingly diverts a bit from Hammerfall's typical formula during its chorus. Instead of either a short chorus line where everyone in the band provides backing vocals or a sort of call-and-answer between Joacim and the rest of the band (that can be heard on 'Howlin' with the Pack'), 'Threshold' contains a fairly intricate vocal melody sung with backing vocals throughout. It is likely Hammerfall have done something of the sort in the past, but in failing to recall any specific instance, it would be fair to call this occurrence somewhat unique. Genocide, on the other hand, doesn't really divert drastically from Hammerfall's usual formula. It stands out purely because its lead melody is one of the most powerful Hammerfall has written in its career. The song's introduction sets a strong tone with an almost solo-like segment of melodic picking that later transforms itself into the song's main melody, which persists until its end. 'Genocide' joins other Hammerfall songs from such as 'Hero's Return,' 'Trailblazers,' and 'Take the Black,' which tend to turn up towards the end of their respective albums and take the listener by surprise, in a purely good fashion.
Although "Threshold" isn't particularly innovative when compared with other recent power metal albums, it is a very important album for Hammerfall. If a band is able to put out six albums of comparable quality without significantly changing their sound, they are worthy of great praise. Hammerfall did just enough in terms of new things to keep things interesting, while hanging on to a good chunk of their old sound to please all the old fans. 'Threshold' needs to be appreciated not only for its enjoyable songs but also for its symbolic representation of Hammerfall's impending longevity as a potent force in the metal world.
Review by: Andrew Sudano
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Comments
valheru - 2007-04-22 13:30:10
ýwant to see Hammerfall in turkey.why do you come for concert? |
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