Timeblog.net

When Hammerfall first came out, they were a big hit; and a love ‘em or hate ‘em band right from the start. Their debut album blazed away with “true metal” and to this day remains one of the finest traditional metal albums. With hits like “Hammerfall” or “Where the dragon lies bleeding” they re-established the whole genre and created a following of mediocre or bad “true” or traditional metal bands (most of them from Italy, because they also had Rhapsody).
They followed with their second album in a similar vein, it’s also very good but does not stay in your head as much. Then, from the third album on, they stayed on course but sadly reduced the overall speed a bit towards more mid-tempo hymns. That works and the albums are good but they mostly miss the highlights you just love from the first two.
That is also true for their latest effort, Threshold. While it is a good album, it fails to impress with anything new. What sets this above average apart from bands like Wolf, who released a purely traditional album (that I reviewed) that is really strong, is that they always try to find some pop appeal. Some songs sound like they were mellowed down just to make them single material or to make the album selling to those who liked the single. I miss some more guitar sounds, more kickass and less “Could have been done with a good keyboard and drum computer”.
The album has catchy melodies, good choir singing, it’s all rock solid work. But where are the ideas or the spirit that set the first album above most other releases? You can’t go wrong with buying this album, but it is not exciting. You can hear songs like “Natural High” while cleaning or washing the dishes and will find yourself humming the melodies before you even heard them for the first time, but afterwards you can put the CD away or skip to other songs; and it wouldn’t have made a different if you’d listened to the radio.
Overall: Good work, but more like enjoyable radio songs. Non-essential, but there’s also nothing wrong with buying this also. This leads to an indifferent 7/10 points. Most exciting song: “The fire burns forever”.