HAMMERFALL Singer: 'Our Music Is Timeless And Not Dated'

Denmark's Antenna recently conducted an interview with vocalist Joacim Cans of Swedish melodic metallers HAMMERFALL. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Antenna: You're [about] to release a new album, "No Sacrifice, No Victory", your tenth [counting the live album "One Crimson Night", a recent best-of, "Steel Meets Steel", and an even more recent album of cover versions "Masterpieces"]; I have had the privilege to pre-listen to the new album, which is very melodic, though rocking, but how do you, the band find that it fit in with the rest?

Cans: I think it's the best we've done so far. It's still one hundred percent HAMMERFALL, the music and sound fans have come to expect, but more focused and very fresh. It's like "Glory to the Brave", but with a very modern touch, partly because of the lineup change. It's probably the most satisfying album we've ever done, especially from our point of view. Sometimes, when you look back on an album, there're songs that you feel you should have dealt with otherwise, that you should've given more attention, but this time around, there are not one song, that sticks out. We're just happy with the outcome.

Antenna: Surprising to all, Stefan Elmgren [the band's second guitarist, 1994-2008] got a job as an airline pilot by spring, 2008, and after careful consideration decided to pursue that dream instead. Pontus Norgren [of THE POODLES fame] replaced Stefan. How and why did it happen to be him?

Cans: Naturally it came as a shock when Stefan decided to leave. I wouldn't, you know, have traded him off with anyone else, but after all, it's his own decision and you got to respect that. Pontus we all knew from his time in THE POODLES, we're all really close friends with the band. I didn't want to call him and say, "Hey, do you want to be the new guitar player of HAMMERFALL?" I didn't want to steal him from THE POODLES, so I simply asked him, if he knew anyone who would be interested and he said, "Well, I'm interested," so in that case it came from him. We didn't steal him away, he left the ship himself. As for the why in your question, he was tired of playing the type of music he did in THE POODLES, he is more metal than that, but he always end up playing with melodic bands. But his heroes are still bands like ACCEPT, he loves that type of metal, so he felt that this was the perfect thing.

Antenna: How has that affected the band and the process of [e.g.] the new recording?

Cans: I think it's fair to say, that he and his way of playing have taken us in an even more melodic direction.

Antenna: You mentioned something about decreasing sales figures earlier on, but I have noticed that you, HAMMERFALL that is, actually have had good record sales and chart positions with your previous albums; why do you think that HAMMERFALL appeal so greatly to the metal fan of today?

Cans: I don't know, but people in their forties all grew up in the Eighties and are around my age now. To them, this is the ultimate type of music and I also believe that, if you look at festivals, that there're more people at rock festivals than at mainstream festivals nowadays. Plus, like I said, our music is timeless and not dated. Any single artist, like from shows like Idols they have an expiration date. In a couple of months they need someone else and there'll be another artist similar to the first, but for metal … we [HAMMERFALL] have been constantly growing for the past twelve years and this is not the end. We've not reached the ceiling yet. At least I but have a couple steps left. The reason why we chart is because the metal fan is devoted to the bands he or she likes and won't go for the download version but will want to have the CD's, to have the real thing.

Antenna: You're probably right about that; what're your own expectations with "No Sacrifice, No Victory"?

Cans: It's really hard to say. I do hope that we, in Sweden, will be number one again. That would really feel good. And then maybe chart in a couple of more countries … but, at the end of the day, we're very happy with the album and we just hope that the fans will be happy with it as well, so we can do another really great tour. You could put it this way: We just hope that it'll keep us up there for a couple of more years.

Antenna: And that's the most important for you, rather than the actual record sales?

Cans: Absolutely, but you have to acknowledge that it goes hand in hand, don't you? Because we need the sales, you need to recoup in order to get a budget for the next album. If you have a poor album, then maybe the next album will be in danger; every band in this business is living from day to day. They don't know the future. They do one album knowing that that might be the last.

Read the entire interview from Antenna.

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