HammerFall
Gates of Dalhalla

There are bands that make technical virtuosity and continuous time changes their trademark, while there are others that use a quite simple yet equally effective formula: repeating the same thing over and over again, always achieving their goal. In power metal, more or less, it works like this. Catchy choruses, a nice upbeat rhythm, a couple of ballads here and there, and a crystal-clear voice as a backdrop.

"Once you've heard one power metal song, you've heard them all!" Oh no, wait a minute. As I mentioned at the beginning of the review, for the first category of bands, there are just as many fans who reject this power genre formula, criticizing the lack of innovation that such a band has in its works, and starting with insults that, if deeply analyzed, turn out to be just a couple of nonsensical statements, most of the time, just because "Hey, listening to complicated stuff is cool, and simple stuff sucks." Or at least, these are the cases I have come across.

Hammerfall fully belong to this category of power bands; they haven't changed their sound one bit in over 10 years of career. Sometimes they've released great albums (Glory To The Brave, Threshold), and sometimes half-baked ones (No Sacrifice, No Victory, Renegade), but on average they have been, and still are, an excellent band. In 2011, the Swedish band released "Infected," an album that tried to change, but not too much, the typical sound of the band, with darker, more elaborate songs, and it had a decent reception, which was also affected negatively by the fact that the very specialized sites that had criticized Hammerfall for never changing, also criticized this work under the pretext of having changed their sound, completely abandoning their roots. Nothing ever seems right for these people, does it?

Not even a year later, however, Hammerfall intended to celebrate 15 years of activity with a live performance planned at an absolutely unexpected place, Dalhalla in Rattvik, Sweden. I said unexpected because this place is not just a simple open spot with a stage; it's an enormous quarry carved into the rock, with a huge body of water as a backdrop. The stage where the musicians play is thus separated from the stands where fans enjoy the concert by this sort of mini stream, a spectacle that, whether seen live or simply from home on the DVD version, is simply breathtaking.

The setlist, of course, is no less. Heck, it's still the 15th anniversary! There are impactful tracks like "Any Means Necessary," "Riders Of The Storm," and "Blood Bound," where despite Joacim's attempt to get the audience to collaborate, they seem completely flat, a real shame, along with more contained songs like the beautiful "Always Will Be" and "Patient Zero." There is also room for a nice drum solo by Anders Johansson, a bit short but good. Strangely the audience seems to wake up from hibernation toward the end of the concert, where in pieces like "Hearts Of Fire," they scream the chorus at the top of their lungs, and rightly so, listening to classics from the first album like "Hammerfall," "The Dragon Lies Bleeding," and "Glory To The Brave." Also effective is the performance of "Last Man Standing," a song included in the group's special collection for their 10th anniversary, which in live settings is a real bomb. Always worth mentioning is Joacim Cans' voice, which never falters but perhaps is excessively clean at times, yet remains enjoyable.

Many things can be said about a band like Hammerfall: that they're not innovators, that their choruses are more or less the same, that they should dissolve and make way for others in this day and age, but in my opinion, these are all nonsense. If a band is entertaining and, above all, manages to never fall into banality with each release, even while always presenting the same formula, why should they dissolve? To please those who can't appreciate a song as simple in its execution as it is impactful? Everyone is free to do as they wish and listen to whatever they want, that's for sure. But try to step out of this mindset of looking for excessively technical and complicated musicians/bands, and listen to a band for what it is. Take "Gates Of Dalhalla" for what it is, about an hour and a half of pure fun and no more.