?Classics? of power metal #4 - HAMMERFALL - Glory To The Brave (1997), early impressions

Past exposure to this band/record:  One of my Pandora stations back in the day would sometimes play HammerFall.  I usually enjoyed it whenever "The Unforgiving Blade" came on.  As far as this record goes, I've definitely heard "Hammerfall" (the song) before.

I had an interesting thought early into my first listen to "I Believe" - "I don't trust this."  Seemed worth unpacking, right?  What exactly is it that I don't trust?  Why would I choose that particular phrase?

"I Believe," and really most of of this record, don't convince me.  This particular song is power ballad 101 stuff, with downtuned chords coming in over the chorus exactly where one expects them to, over a song whose chorus centers on "pain."  I feel like I've heard this tune before done better, I feel like I've heard this basic vocal performance done better.  Oh, look, it's a painfully generic guitar solo coming in exactly where I expect it.  I don't believe for a second that this guy is in deep pain.*  What is this song offering me that I couldn't get from vintage Helloween, or from one of those "monster ballads" compilations they used to sell on cable?

Glory To The Brave mostly isn't ballads, though.  Most of it is straight ahead hammer-swinging songs that use the word "glory" an average of twelve times per track.  I am bouncing off them.  I think there are three possible things going on here: 

Possibility One)  I don't trust slickness

A facile explanation would be to point out that Glory sounds a lot like '80s power metal without the specific excesses and quirks in the soundscape that tie it to the '80s.  This record could have been recorded anytime in the last thirty years and sounded basically the same.  So, it's not "dated," but that also keeps it from being "timely."  Maybe I need my metal to sound a little grittier, and I process it as "pop" if it's not?  (I like to say that every piece of music ever written, there'll be someone who'll hear it as banal pop and someone who'll hear it as avant-garde noise, and everyone just has to find their balance.)

Since I'm so blind to sonic quality in general, I don't think that's the whole story.

Possibility Two)  I still don't trust power metal

I think I've explained my hang-ups here multiple times, and yeah, I do think I need to be able to let go somewhat.  I am not always able to turn off the part of my brain that makes it harder to enjoy a shout-along song about warriors killing dragons or whatever.  Basic fantasy lyrics and basic tunes have a higher barrier for me.  Maybe it's just an exposure thing.  For some reason I keep thinking of a response on Reddit to someone who couldn't enjoy power metal except when drunk, and the responder diagnosed that on some level s/he had this idea that it wasn't "real" metal.  So maybe I just need to keep hammering my brain with more galloping grooves and triumphant screams until they break through. 

Thing is, I have loved power metal records before.  Am I still on a case by case provisional basis?  Or is it something specific to this record?

Possibility Three)  I demand more novelty than we get here

Glory sounds like basic power metal to me, with the emphasis on "basic."  If I could design an AI to produce what I think PM sounds like, it'd come up with this exactly.  

I'm assuming that HammerFall were a deliberately backwards-looking band.  At least they're cited as part of some sort of traditional metal revival within the world of PM, or some such thing?  The music they play can definitely be described as mostly frill-free metal hearkening back to the metal of the '80s.  I mean, there's a Warlord cover that I only learned was a cover when looking stuff up, because they present it exactly the same as all the other songs.  I tend not to care for "retro" acts in general.  

 

Here I am trying my absolute damndest to remember that my ability to evaluate is going to be shaped by the fact that Glory To The Brave is at least twice as old today as the concept of "power metal" was at the time of these songs' composition.**  Familiarity can come though imitators too.  "This one kinda sounds like a less-good Fellowship song" isn't really a meaningful criticism of a nearly thirty-year-old record.  And I'm also trying to be conscious of the fact that vintage early power metal can very much also be described as no-frills metal that's heavily inspired by previous metal.  Still, even with all those caveats... I can't imagine Glory To The Brave ever seeming fresh.  Even in its time.  Maybe that's why I don't trust this record, or trust myself to get into it.

A few tracks I wanted to mention specifically:

- It seems like the best remembered song on Glory To The Brave is the title track.  The other big ballad.  They saved it for the end, which had the dual effect of coming after I'd already formed an overall opinion of the record, and of leaving me wondering after each spin whether maybe I'm misjudging the band.  I think that GTTB (the song) is much closer to hitting its mark than is "I Believe" for me.  I like the conceit of starting with a snowscape and building into a general tribute to fallen comrades that every dude at the gig will think was written for them.  This chorus is only rough because of the endless repetition, but it was pretty good the first six or so times.  The fade-out of the music, leaving just layers of vocals and a piano, works.  Not something I love, not something that seems likely to make me cry anytime soon, but this is one where I think I do understand the appeal.

- "Hammerfall" has one of the better hooks on the record, built around transitioning from the "all for one" pre-chorus into a sort of low-pitched warrior's chant for the actual chorus.  I'm kind surprised they didn't lean into that sound more; it fits the "band of brothers" vibe that most of the songs try for, and that's something that could have made the band stand out.

- "Steel Meets Steel" is musically inert for a metal song.  The main riff is literally one note!  The chorus is literally "steel meets steel meets steel" over and over!  But besides all that, lyrically the song appears to be a uncritical romanticization of the First Crusade; at least I'm not seeing any irony.  My own admittedly skewed perception of the Crusades, due to my own heritage, is to associate "freeing" Jerusalem with the motherfuckers who slaughtered civilians by the hundreds.  Not much glory or bravery in that part of the story.  If I already didn't trust this band to begin with, now I have a personal reason not to, heh. 

Yeah, I know this has gone on a long time, but I have a few other random thoughts:

- I am rather impressed with how much talent is in place to produce something so uninteresting to me.  I don't think clean production is a bad thing at all!  There's nothing inherently wrong with each drum beat popping, or with and avoiding the thin-sounding guitars you sometimes get on older records.  The drummer (Patrik Räfling, I think) knows how to play a bunch of notes fast the way one would want, I guess.  On a purely technical level, Joacim Cans "should" be a great metal vocalist, I guess.  I write about a bunch of records whose singers either strain to hit notes outside a tiny range or don't even try, so it's nice to hear someone who can actually sing.  He sounds like... well, a bunch of other guys who bring the same basic approach.

- In trying to unpack why my antipathy feels so strong, I did a little experiment of pairing a "classic" PM song I don't know well - Running Wild's "Victim Of States Power" - with "The Dragon Lies Bleeding."  On the one hand, the instant I hit play on VOSP, I start banging my head, and I go on to be impressed that like five different things happen within the first minute.  I then do start getting the same rush of adrenaline when switching back to "The Dragon Lies Bleeding," albeit more fleetingly.  I then spend the next few hours with the chorus of "Victim Of States Power" stuck in my head, without being able to remember how TDLB even goes.   So, inconclusive test.  Maybe the hooks just need an extra listen or two to sink in; hooks and energy can make up for a lot of deficiencies.  At least one of my re-listens to Glory To The Brave before I render my final verdict will be while drunk.

Favorite Track:  "Glory To The Brave"

Runner up:  "Stone Cold"

Least favorite track:  "Steel Meets Steel"

Preliminary rating:  2/5  

Next:  More thoughts on Glory To The Brave, whenever I get around to it!

*Think of any hair-metal song about heartbreak in which one knows for a fact that the actual singer of the song has never thought about any of the groupies he's banged for more than twenty seconds afterwards.  That's the vibe I'm talking about in terms of not being convinced by a vocal performance.

 

**Mostly on the road in the mid-'90s, per Wikipedia