JOACIM CANS On Why HAMMERFALL Remains Committed To True Metal: 'I Play Music That I Want To Play'

By David E. Gehlke

Widely credited for the late 1990s traditional metal revival that has shown few signs of slowing down, Sweden's HAMMERFALL now finds itself back on the label where it all started: Germany's Nuclear Blast Records. Amidst the upward trajectory of parallel signees DIMMU BORGIR, HYPOCRISY and IN FLAMES, the label wisely poured resources into HAMMERFALL at a time when traditional metal was radioactive. Yet behind the band's sterling 1997 "Glory To The Brave" debut and excellent 1998 sophomore outing "Legacy Of Kings", HAMMERFALL not only made pure, dyed-in-the-wool metal cool again, but it also opened the door for the next wave of bands who musically upheld the principles of classic metal.

"Avenge The Fallen" is HAMMERFALL's 13th studio album and includes a vocal production credit from the in-demand Jay Ruston (ANTHRAX, AVATAR). True to form, HAMMERFALL delivers a spate of rousing, call-to-arms numbers about brotherhood, metal and honor, traits that have long been part of their lyrical repertoire. Indeed, none of these themes are new, but as vocalist Joacim Cans shared with BLABBERMOUTH.NET, HAMMERFALL has come to master the ability to make the familiar sound fresh — something the Swedes have been doing for nearly 30 years.

Blabbermouth: HAMMERFALL rejoined Nuclear Blast Records. What has it been like coming back to your original label home?

Joacim: "I think it's like any other relationship where you meet the love of your life, get married and after a while, realize you've grown apart. You split up. Then you realize that you have more things in common than you knew, and then you return. [Laughs] That's what happened between HAMMERFALL and Nuclear Blast. Our career is parallel with theirs. They were a really small label when we joined them in 1997. I remember their first little office that was on the main street in a village called Donzdorf [Germany]. I saw them grow; they saw us grow. All of a sudden, they became one of the biggest independent metal labels. It felt really good to come back to them. It's friends and family, even though you shouldn't say that. At the end of the day, it's also business. It feels like they know what they're doing and the way they're doing things is the way HAMMERFALL likes to do things. It's a pretty healthy relationship now."

Blabbermouth: Two additional things about that: Nuclear Blast took a risk on you in 1997 since true metal was so uncool, and then they prioritized the band.

Joacim: "The only person who believed in HAMMERFALL in '96 and '97 when we recorded the album was Markus Steiger, the owner and president at the time. Many of the other staff members were, 'Uh, this is a traditional metal band. We're not sure if it's going to work.' He said, 'I want to release this album and we're going to give it priority.' I met with other labels and A&R who said, 'We'd never put so much pressure on a newcomer band. Oh my god. They're investing too much in you guys.' We said, 'Okay. We'll see what happens.' I thought Nuclear Blast and Markus were right."

Blabbermouth: Are you okay with taking credit for leading the resurgence in traditional metal?

Joacim: "I have to let that sink in sometimes. We're from Sweden and we're like, 'Don't blame us for that! Come on.' Some of the band members were playing in death metal bands. They had roots in traditional metal from the '80s, but I never strayed from traditional heavy metal. I was still doing it. I met people on the streets and they'd say, 'You know what? Why don't you play music that people want to hear?' I'd look at them and say, 'I play music that I want to play and that makes me happy.' At the end of the day, that's the only thing that counts. Do you what you feel. No one should dictate your life. No one should tell you what to do, what to wear, who to be. That's what the new album is all about."

Blabbermouth: As for "Avenge the Fallen", Oscar (Dronjak, guitar) recently shared that he likes writing while on the road and usually isn't short on ideas. That said, do you two ever disagree?

Joacim: "Absolutely, but we let someone else judge that. Sometimes, it's the producer or whoever, but sometimes I feel, 'We can do this better.' Or, 'I don't like this. Can we remove this part?' Oscar may not be happy, but we remove it. Then I'm the one who comes back and says, 'You know what? I miss that part!' [Laughs] Sometimes people have an opinion just in order to have an opinion. They feel they have to say something. We don't work like that. If he has something to complain about or has constructive criticism, there's some foundation or merit to what he's saying. I listen to it and think about it; then I'll get back to him. Sometimes, I'll crack the code of the song, like, 'Ah! This is the way he sees it.' Or 'I see it in this way because the resolution in the end is what I just did.'"

Blabbermouth: Did you intentionally sprinkle in lyrical references to the song "Hammerfall" on "The End Justifies" since it resembles "Heeding The Call"?

Joacim: "The song has so much resemblance with 'Heeding The Call'. That's also the reason why it's not the opener of the album. We were like, 'No, no. Don't open with it! People will think it's 'Heeding The Call'!' The song is about the band's journey and the bond we have with our fans. They will always have our backs and we will have theirs. Always. I kind of like throwing in references from older songs. We don't do it for every song, but there's always one song on every album in the past ten years that has these references. I think it's pretty cool. Sometimes it's a little reminder. If it's a strong word or a strong sentence, it's worth repeating.

Blabbermouth: I like that you're still using the "A metal heart is hard to tear apart" slogan.

Joacim: "It was on the back of the first t-shirts we had. It became a slogan, a mantra. I remember when I came up with it, I thought it was a bit cheesy. At the same time, it's powerful. A metal heart is hard to tear part. HAMMERFALL in '96 and '97, we're living proof of it. I might re-use again in ten years. [Laughs]"

Blabbermouth: Where are you with your ballads these days? "Hope Spring Eternal" is one of the better ballads you've done of late.

Joacim: "I think a ballad is the singer's solo when it comes to live performances. You can stand there and show off your vocal skills for two and a half to five minutes when people go to the bathroom as the drummer and guitar player can. This is a chance for me to show off a little bit, to show off my capability to where I am as a singer. I just love ballads. This ballad is the underdog song of the album. This was one of the last songs Oscar presented to me. This has been cooking for a long, long time. I had some ideas, but he didn't really know if they would work or not. He asked if I could listen and make something out of it. I listened to it. I got an instant idea for the verse and the pre-chorus. I had to listen to it again and again and hit record on my little microphone studio setup at home. Whenever creativity hits me, I can press record. I did that for this song. What you hear in the verses and the pre-choruses is more or less what I came up with on the spot."

Blabbermouth: Michael Weikath from HELLOWEEN has said that no album is complete without a ballad. Are you of the same opinion?

Joacim: "Absolutely. But, if people take it for granted, then maybe you want to surprise them and not do a ballad because of that. We'll see about that. [Laughs]"

Blabbermouth: Can you elaborate on a recent quote from Oscar where he said that if you subtracted one song from the running order, the album would fall down?

Joacim: "I think every song is a piece of the complete puzzle. It's like a brick in a brick wall. If you take something out, it's going to fall. We never wrote a concept album. But, in my opinion, the music is the concept. If you take one song out, you're going to miss something in the story of what this album is telling you and what it's all about. So, absolutely. You need to have the variations. You need to go from the fast song to the ballad to the mid-tempo to the song that people didn't really expect, like 'Time Immemorial'. That's the 'outsider's song.' It's like, 'Wow, cool. I didn't see this one coming.' It has every little ingredient to get this album cooking."

Blabbermouth: Jay Ruston has produced a lot of high-profile metal and rock acts. What has he brought out in you on "Avenge The Fallen"?

Joacim: "He knows what we need for the album. Otherwise, I would belt my lungs out and would never be happy or go crazy and destroy everything in the studio. I worked with James Michael for over ten years. We became close friends and I miss him a lot, but due to some circumstances, we couldn't continue. Then I went to Denmark and worked with Jacob Hansen on 'Hammer Of Dawn'. That was in Denmark so that I could go there for this album, but who wants to go to Denmark in January? The weather there is even worse than in Sweden. Of course, going to Los Angeles is always preferable for me because of the sun. Being there and I spent so much time and I was there over 30 years ago studying, it gives me so much energy. I was then trying to find the right person who could push the right buttons to make me sing better than I ever did before. I met Jay at the show with HELLOWEEN at the YouTube Theater. He came in with Joey Vera [ARMORED SAINT] and other people. I felt it was easy to talk to him. I thought, 'I really liked this guy.' It turned out he was a producer who had done John Bush [ARMORED SAINT], AVATAR and ANTHRAX. He's done some big bands. Then I thought I should work with him and he wanted to do it. He was a little pickier than both James and Jacob. I think he wanted me to sing everything and not use the computer powers that you have nowadays. Like, 'You had a good take here. We can fix this and fix that.' He only wanted to fix minor things, the big issues, which I think is cool."

Blabbermouth: How are you feeling from a vocal perspective? You must be doing something right since HAMMERFALL hasn't started to tune down significantly to help you.

Joacim: "I don't know if I need to thank god or hail Satan, but my voice is still there. I take care of my body. I run 20 or 30 kilometers a week. I try to stay in shape because I know that's the key to being able to sing at the top of my performance for a long, long time. Unfortunately, some songs are written in keys that are not really meant to be sung live. I still struggle with those. But I think I'm in a good place. I've seen many friends in the business go the opposite way. I still feel like I'm in an upward spiral. I'm not losing any of my range."

Blabbermouth: What do you think of guys like Don Dokken having issues or even Paul Di'Anno (ex-IRON MAIDEN) performing in a wheelchair? Does their condition scare you?

Joacim: "We're all getting older, and you have to realize that eventually, I will not be able to sing. I just hope that I am at my senses at the time, so I will not go up on stage if I can't perform a song or if I have to re-write the melodies to be able to perform—it's not going to be the same song. I'm not going to be the same person. I'm going to be a pale version of myself. A shadow of myself. I don't want to be that. I really hope that I can tell myself, or maybe I should get an insurance policy so that someone will knock on my door and go, 'You know what? This album you're about to record? Don't do it. It's not going to help your career.' [Laughs] But the love of being onstage, the adrenaline, the natural high you get from the audience, I know why many people cannot get off the stage because they don't have anything else. They identify themselves with that stage person. That is the problem."