HAMMERFALL Singer To Hold Release Party For Solo Debut

HAMMERFALL vocalist Joacim Cans will hold a release party for his solo project, CANS, on Saturday, May 8 at the Metallterrassen Club in Gothenburg, Sweden. Joacim will act as DJ, and the evening will also include a performance by the "all-star" band METAL MONARCHS, featuring HAMMERFALL guitarist Oscar Dronjak as well as a number of other local metal musicians.

CANS' debut album, "Beyond The Gates", was released last month through Sanctuary Records. The CD was recorded between November 2003 and February 2004 at Studio Fredman in Gothenburg, Sweden, Frankie's Hideaway in the U.S. and House of Music Studios in Germany, and was mixed and mastered at Twilight Studios in Germany. The recording lineup on the album was as follows: Cans (vocals),Mat Sinner (bass, SINNER),"Metal" Mike Chlasciak (guitars, ex-HALFORD, PAINMUSEUM),Stefan Elmgren (guitars, HAMMERFALL) and Mark Zonder (drums, FATES WARNING).

In a recent interview with Belgium's Conreteweb.be, Cans was asked how difficult it was for him not to write in the same style as the approach utilized by his main band. "Actually, it was not that difficult at all!" he replied. "Of course I was kinda nervous that the outcome of the whole album would come too close to HAMMERFALL, that I wouldn’t be able to 'defend' myself more. People asking, 'Why the hell did he bother doin' this?' When I sat down and made the plan to record a solo album, I had a couple of reasons of why I wanted to do it. One of them is that I have actually a darker side of me as a singer and a songwriter that I couldn't really channel into the music of HAMMERFALL. And all these feelings and emotions I wanted to actually put on an album! That's why I decided to do this! Also, when I decided that I wanted to work with a lot of different songwriters, I gave 'em a couple of key words of where I wanted this album to go. The keywords I gave 'em was I wanted to have it darker, and heavier than HAMMERFALL. I wanted to have it semi-progressive, but still melodic. And with these key words everything more and less started to happen! I got a lot of song ideas from people, sat down and listened to it, and took out what went into the direction I wanted it to go. Of course I was nervous at a time, wondering if it was gonna actually sound different with me as a singer…that people wouldn't be able to look beyond the vocals, so to speak, but until now it feels very, very good. Because a lot of people have said that it actually feels very different from HAMMERFALL. You know, it's still metal, but you can't actually say it sounds the same!"