HammerFall is a
power and
heavy metal band from Gothenburg, Sweden, formed in 1993 by Oscar Dronjak, former guitarist of Ceremonial Oath. A good number of their songs are
Hot Blooded and heroic themed anthems.
And yes, that town in
World of Warcraft is named after them and the game's art director has made some of the band's album covers.
Current members:
- Joacim Cans - Lead vocals
- Oscar Dronjak - Rhythm guitar, backing vocals
- Pontus Norgren - Lead guitar, backing vocals
- Fredrik Larsson - Bass, backing vocals
- Anders Johansson - Drums
Former members:
- Stefan Elmgren - Lead guitar
- Magnus Rosén - Bass
- Patrik Räfling - Drums
- Jesper Strömblad - Drums
- Glenn Ljungström - Lead guitar
- Mikael Stanne - Lead vocals
- Niklas Sundin - Lead guitar
- Johan Larsson - Bass
Discography:
- Glory to the Brave (1997)
- Legacy of Kings (1998)
- Renegade (2000)
- Crimson Thunder (2002)
- Chapter V: Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken (2005)
- Threshold (2006)
- No Sacrifice, No Victory (2009)
- Infected (2011)
They have also released a live album,
One Crimson Night in 2003, and two compilation albums,
Steel Meets Steel: Ten Years of Glory in 2007 and
Masterpieces in 2008. There have also been four video albums,
The First Crusade in 1999,
The Templar Renegade Crusades in 2002, a video version of
One Crimson Night in 2003 and
Rebels with a Cause: Unruly, Unrestrained, Uninhibited in 2008.
The band gives us these examples:
- The Cameo: On one live consert they started singing "När Vindarna Viskar Mitt Namn" and in the middle of the song, Roger Pontare the songs creator himself joined in.
- Chronological Album Title: Chapter V
- Cover Album: Masterpieces.
- Doom Troops: Any Means Neccessary
- Drop the Hammer: Their Mascot's Weapon of Choice. In addition, all their albums except Crimson Thunder and Infected contain a song with "hammer" in the name, and then there's the band's name...they seem to have a thing about hammers.
- Everything's Better with Rainbows: "At the End of the Rainbow" on Legacy of Kings. The cover of I Want Out -single also features one.
- Epic Flail: On the cover of Crimson Thunder.
- Grievous Bottley Harm: Cans got a beer bottle broken on his head while visiting a bar once.
- Heavy Meta: Many songs reference metal itself. Especially Life is Now, Stronger Than All, and Bang Your Head.
- Heavy Mithril
- Historical Hero Upgrade - The Knights Templar in many songs.
- Horrible History Metal: A number of songs about the Crusades.
- Hot Blooded: As if the "Hearts on Fire" wasn't a clue...
- Large Ham: Cans has two modes: "Ham" and "Hammier". It's no coincidence that "Ham" is in the band's very name.
- Lyrical Dissonance: "Natural High" sounds upbeat (like much of their stuff) but is actually about a vampire killing a woman. Or something.
- Instrumentals
- Many Spirits Inside Of One: "Legion" is the Trope Namer.
- Mascot: Sir Hector.
- Mundane Made Awesome: They made a second video for "Hearts on Fire" that starred the Swedish Women's Olympic Curling Team. Curling is FUCKING METAL!
- The Noun and the Noun
- Power Ballad: At least one per album.
- The Power of Rock: The first music video for "Hearts on Fire".
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: At least twice:
- "Unbent! Unbowed! Unbroken!" from Fury Of The Wild (Chapter V: Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken, 2005)
- "Kill! Win! Live! Die!" from Any Means Necessary (No Sacrifice, No Victory, 2009)
- Shout Out:
- The song titles contain numerous references to A Song of Ice and Fire - too many to be mere coincidence. For example, "Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken", part of the title of one of their albums, is also the motto of House Martell.
- There is also the song titles "Take the Black", which is when somebody joins the Night's Watch, and "Dark Wings, Dark Words" which is a in-universe proverb about messages carried by ravens.
- The song Renegade is a power-metal retelling of the setting of the TV-series of the same name.
- Start My Own: The singer Joacim Cans has his own solo project.
- Subdued Section: Featured prominently.
- Suicide By Sunlight: In Always Will Be.
- The X of Y
- Zombie Apocalypse: "Patient Zero". Also, the video for "One More Time".
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