Rockezine.com interview with Hammerfall on Oct 24, 2002

with Oscar Dronjak on Oct 24, 2002

The Swedish heavy metal crusaders HammerFall are back with a new album. Some five years ago the band took the metal scene by surprise when they unleashed their debut album “Glory To The Brave” and started a whole new heavy metal revolution. Guitarist Oscar Dronjak has a chat with REZ and tells us among other things about the new album, “Crimson Thunder” and the success of “Glory To The Brave”.
		Your fourth album “Crimson Thunder” is about to be released, how would you compare the album to your previous releases? It is production-wise as well as music-wise heavier than our previous albums. The songs are in general a bit slower, they are more mid-tempo than up-tempo. The whole album, and the songwriting in particular, is more mature than ever before. You can hear that we are a more experienced band now than on our previous releases.
		Now that you can look back on the whole writing and recording period, would you have done anything differently or are you guys totally satisfied with the end result? The new album is to my total satisfaction and I am certain that the others would agree! I have had that feeling about all our four albums and I would not want to change anything to anyone of them. They represent what HammerFall stood for at that certain point in time and we are proud of all our releases.
		This time you decided to use three different studios, was there a special reason for this? Our producer Charly Bauerfeind proposed the idea. At first I wasn’t much a fan of it but he said that we would enjoy ourselves more and that the result would be lots better. He was right though, we had a great time recording the album and the result is really lots better than it normally would have been, had we only used one studio!
		Furthermore the album features two instrumental songs, “Lore Of The Arcane” and “In Memoriam”, will this become a new tradition in the future? One instrumental, “In Memoriam” this time, is usually a good addition to the album, a break from the vocals. The other instrumental song is more of an intro to “Trailblazers”. We have the idea to use it during live shows at the beginning of the gig. It is only one and half minute and thus not too long that the audience gets bored before we finally appear. It heightens the excitement of the audience.
		Who is responsible for the songwriting in general, or is it a process that encompasses the whole band? No, it is not a band process, all the songs are written by Joacim Cans and myself. I write the melodies and riffs of the songs while Joacim writes the vocal melodies. I usually start with writing the chorus and only then the rest of the song. “In Memoriam” however has been totally written by Stefan Elmgren and he also performs all solos during the song. It is sort of his personal solo trip.
”It is very important to us that all the songs are of equal quality.”		What is your favorite song from the new “Crimson Thunder”? Basically all the songs, I don’t really want to choose. All the songs were written before we entered the studio and after spending two months, well one month on average, on them it is very difficult to say which song is your favorite. I am slightly more proud of the ballad, “Dreams Come True” because I completely wrote it myself but to call it better than the others, or my favorite song, not really. The most important thing for me is to make the songs sound professional, to make each and every song good, not an album that contains only one or two good songs. It is very important to us that all the songs are of equal quality.
		Your successful debut album “Glory To The Brave” basically started a new heavy metal revolution. How do you look back upon that album now and what do you think was the reason for its enormous success? Like I said before I am proud of all our albums and I would not have done anything different. No one in the band had any idea how the album would turn out when we started working on it but it turned out better than anyone of use could have expected. I have very good memories of that album and the tour that came with it.
		There are basically three reasons for the success of “Glory To The Brave”. First of all the timing was perfect. When we released the album people were tired of all the melodic stuff out there and tired of all the extreme and grunge bands. They were ready for old school heavy metal again. Secondly the promotion of that album was just great; everyone knew of the album before it even was released and finally it was just a good heavy metal album played with the right attitude, you know.
		I have noticed that you either love or hate HammerFall, there’s basically nothing much in between and especially old school power metal fans seem to dislike you, doesn’t that bother you guys? No not really, I think it’s good, and it’s actually kinda cool to evoke these kinds of emotions in people. I couldn’t care less if some people don’t like our music. It won’t make or break my will to play this music. Some people say that HammerFall just cannot play but you know that is just not true. These people just don’t know anything about music. Like some people say that our new drummer Anders Johansson is a better drummer than our old drummer Patrik Räfling. They just don’t really know what they are talking about. Anyway, it is weird but you just gotta take the good with the bad.
		Back to the new album, “Crimson Thunder” features yet again a cover song; this time the Chastain cover “Angel Of Mercy”. Will every album you release feature a cover or is it just a coincidence? “Renegade” didn’t have a cover song, just to set things straight (laughter). Anyway, I don’t want to say anything about the future because I don’t want to limit HammerFall. We just felt the time was right for “Angel Of Mercy” and besides it is a good song. We just have fun playing and recording these songs.
		I read somewhere that you plan to record an Yngwie J. Malmsteen’s Rising Force cover together with Stratovarius’ keyboard player Jens Johansson. Can you tell me a bit more about it? Yeah, that is right. We recorded the song “Rising Force” from “Odyssey” for the European version of “Crimson Thunder”. It was quite an honor to play the song with two original members of Yngwie J. Malmsteen’s Rising Force and besides the song is just great. Anyway, our new album was printed in the US, Europe and Japan and we recorded a different cover for each of those prints. They will appear as a bonus track on all the releases of the album, at least that is what Nuclear Blast told us.
		For the European version we recorded “Rising Force” like I mentioned before. The American version will feature the Kiss cover “Detroit Rock City”. That was however more Anders’ and Magnus’ choice than mine. Kiss is not really heavy metal but that song in particular is quite heavy and was easily convertible into a heavy metal song. For the Japan release we really had only one choice: Loudness! So, we recorded “Crazy Nights”, I didn’t much mind though, because that song has one of the greatest riffs ever!
“I am proud of all our albums and I would not have done anything different.”		The first prints of “Crimson Thunder” will supposedly be released with a German comic made by Jan Oidium. Is this true and if so could you tell us a bit more about it? That is true. It will be a special edition containing three mini CDs, uhm, 7 inch or something, the original release and the comic. Each of the small CDs will contain one of the aforementioned covers! Anyway, I read two third of the comic and it looks quite cool. The story in the comic leads up to the cover of “Crimson Thunder”. It is however already sold out! It was a very strictly limited release.
		The artwork is as always excellent and features yet again the knight with the warhammer. Everyone can of course associate the hammer with HammerFall but who is he? Is there a story behind him? There is some sort of a story behind him and we sing about him in a couple of our songs, for instance in “Destined For Glory”. He was originally designed as a cool guy, a symbol for HammerFall. We wanted a symbol that everyone would recognize; one we could use in the long run.
		The lyrics of the album are in the true HammerFall tradition fantasy oriented, but aren’t you afraid that many people will label this type of lyrics as a heavy metal cliché? No, not really, it is just a thing that stands out. People should not always read the lyrics the way they are but should read between the lines instead. The lyrics have a deeper meaning and everyone should interpret the lyrics in his or her own way.
		Now that we are talking about fantasy, do you guys read any fantasy books and if so what books or writers do you like the best? I am not so much into fantasy and I have only read a couple of books. When we were recording our album someone in the recording studio handed me a trilogy from George R.R. Martin and told me to read it. It was really good but it wasn’t traditional fantasy. The books had parallels with medieval times and the writer had created his own world. It had chivalry, knights and everything else and it was written in such a brilliant way.
		I know the writer but I’m afraid I haven’t read the books, what trilogy was it? Hmm, I know the title of the second and third book, “A Clash Of Kings” and “A Storm Of Swords”, but I can’t seem to find the first book. You know I am in my apartment right now and I just packed some stuff in a box. I really don’t have so many books but I can’t seem to find it. Now this is starting to annoy me.
		(Laughter) Ok forget about it, what are the plans for HammerFall in the future? Well, we are going on tour, the dates are on our website (www.hammerfall.net). The tour starts in November and we tour the US together with Dio and King’s X. That will be quite exciting for us! We will come back after Christmas to tour through Europe (silence). Hmm, I am afraid we won’t be visiting Finland though!
		Ha! That is what every band seems to say. I recently talked to the German heavy metal band Messiah’s Kiss and they said the same! I guess it’s just difficult to come here, even from Sweden you would have to come by boat. Yeah I know. Today I received good news from our Finnish promoter though. He said there might be a possibility for a visit to Finland. But like you said we would have to come by boat and that would cost us already two days of traveling. So, we would have to play more than one gig in Finland. We will do our best though!
		What kind of bands do you listen to? I still listen to the same bands as I have always listened to, heavy metal! I listen to bands like Accept and Judas Priest and of the newer bands I like Stratovarius and Edguy for instance! A little bit of everything as long as it is heavy metal.
		That reminds me of something! I read somewhere that one of your favorite bands, the German Stormwitch, reformed because of HammerFall. Do you know anything about that? Well, I wouldn’t go as far as to say that. We recorded the Stormwitch song “Ravenlord” for “The Glory To The Brave” EP and they released their CD just after we released ours. I guess it was more of a coincidence but if somehow we played a role in their return then I am very honored! But you know it is not really a return actually. For them to really make a come-back they would need both their guitarists back. Anyway, I really like their new album (“Dances With The Witches”), it is great!
“Some people say that HammerFall just cannot play but you know that is just not true.”		Do you know Messiah’s Kiss? They play old school heavy metal too, in the vein of Iron Maiden and Accept. You might like it, you should check it out. I have heard of the name but I can’t say that I have heard their music. I shall check them out if I get a chance though!
		Ha, I finally found the book! It is called “A Game Of Thrones” from the “A Song Of Ice And Fire” trilogy. You really should check it out. It is a really great read!
		That was all! Thanks a lot for your time and thanks for the interview. Is there anything you want to add? Thank you, it was great talking to you! And you people in Finland, keep your fingers crossed so that we might make it to Finland! (Make sure to check out HammerFall January the 12th at 013 venue in Tilburg.)
(Frank van de Voorde)