HAMMERFALL Film Another Video With Swedish Athletes

HAMMERFALL guitarist Oscar Dronjak has posted the following update on his official blog:

"So, you probably wonder what the mysterious thing was, huh? By now, people in Sweden know, at least. And now the rest of the world. The 19th European Athletics Championships are being held in Gothenburg in August, and we were going to shoot a video together with a couple of the Swedish athletes. Much like we did with the curling team [Watch video here] (who went on to win the Olympic gold medal, I might add),only with a specically written, previously unreleased track.

"After working half a Saturday, we flew to Stockholm via Copenhagen. At the airport, Stefan, Joacim and I decided it would be a good idea to kill some time with the 75 cl beers they sold there. So, when we arrived in Stockholm on Saturday night it was straight out to Pub Anchor to watch SEVENTH SIGN, a live act featuring Marcel Jacob playing only EUROPE covers. To no ones surprise, they sounded excellent. However, we had to get up at seven tomorrow morning, and by 1:30 we were all at the hotel.

"The athletes were Robert Kronberg (110 m hurdles),Alhaji Jeng (pole vault),Johan Wissman (200 metres) and Kajsa Bergqvist (high jump). Robert especially had been looking forward to this for a long time, apparently, and seemed to enjoy every minute of the long day. He played drums in a few takes (!),and rocked for all he was worth, as did the others. I'm sure it will be a really funny video!

"But the highlight of the day for me was definitely the opportunity to do a couple of high jumps. That was always my best sport in school, and I haven't tried it since then. 1.45 m posed no problem at all, and neither did 1.55. But when I raised the bar another ten centimetres, my body said, 'You know what, brotha, even all my little Hulkamaniacs couldn't force me to get up and jump now.' (Why my body sounds like Hulk Hogan, I'll never know.). Too tired from last night's drinking and not enough sleep — that's what I told myself, at least — I could muster one proper jump but no more. Determined to clear the height later, I let it rest. For a while. After lunch, I felt ready to attack the bar again, and just barely missed. Kajsa Bergqvist, most likely the best female high jumper in the world came over to the mat. I was kind of nervous, not only because she has won virtually everything there is to win and is the current world record holder indoors (2.08 m),but also because I've always admired her. ;-) She gave me some helpful advice, and then I tried it again. Wouldn't you know it, I practically sailed over the bar (I touched it a little, but it stayed in place)! Clearing 1.65 m wearing stage clothes and only socks, I was quite proud of that effort! I have posted a video of one of the first jumps in the video section here on MySpace.

"After a really long day, we literally went straight from performing for the cameras to the taxi waiting to take us to the airport. The trip home was uneventful until we landed at Billund shortly before midnight. The GPS decided now was a good time to stop working. We drove aimlessly around the Danish country side in the middle of the night, waiting for Ms. GPS (yes, I have it set to a woman's voice rather than a man's) to come back to us. When she finally did, we had gone in exactly the right direction and had only to correct the course a little bit to end up back at the studio."

HAMMERFALL recently entered the studio to begin recording the follow-up to 2005's "Chapter V: Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken", tentatively due in October via Nuclear Blast Records. Songtitles set to appear on the CD include "Carved In Stone", "Titan", "Dark Wings, Dark Words", "Shadow Empire", "Rebel Inside", "Threshold", "The Fire Burns Forever", "Howlin' With The 'Pac", and "Natural High".