HammerFall - No Sacrifice, No Victory review
| Band: | HammerFall |
| Album: | No Sacrifice, No Victory |
| Style: | Power metal |
| Release date: | February 2009 |
01. Any Means Necessary
02. Life Is Now
03. Punish And Enslave
04. Legion
05. Between Two Worlds
06. Hallowed Be My Name
07. Something For The Ages
08. No Sacrifice, No Victory
09. Bring The Hammer Down
10. One Of A Kind
11. My Sharona [The Knack cover]
Hammerfall have been around a while now, but even though weren't spawned out of the century they take most of their influence from, they have the number of followers to match of a top one who has. Album number seven, a tenaciously titled "No Sacrifice, No Victory" and is the first album with previous bassist Fredrik Larsson back on the thick strings, and new guitarist Pontus Norgren. A new Hammerfall, a refreshed lineup - a fantastic album.
For a power metal band, Hammerfall have never been the fastest around, and neither have they been swayed by the harder and punchier American style, and while clearly taking huge influence from Helloween and such bands, Hammerfall have always been one of the most solid and compact power metal outfits on the scene. "No Sacrifice, No Victory" is no different as the band stick to what they do best; making infectious and catchy heavy metal that is both modern but also with a chunky kick of the eighties. The album is Hammerfall back to making top quality metal of the highest and most confident order.
Typical heavy metal plodder "Any Means Necessary" kicks proceedings off and sets the pace for a generally solid and mid-tempo album with the odd exception of fast-paced, galloping songs like "Legion", whose chorus can be heard for weeks clinging onto your neurons, and clearly shows the Helloween influence, and also "One Of A Kind" to finish off the best part of the album. "Between Two Worlds" takes the ballad slot with no competition and "Something For The Ages" takes the role of instrumental with a five minute piece of lovely guitar melody and soloing with the rest of the band backing up this genuinely great piece of metal instrumental music. "Bring The Hammer Down" completes the album in typical, strong Hammerfall form with again, wonderful guitar melodies and a chorus to get your mouth around and sing along to with your fist in the air.
One or two tracks slip slightly under the radar, but on the whole "No Sacrifice, No Victory" is a very typically solid album and arguably shows the best form Hammerfall have been in for many years. Perhaps not very original, but that should come to no surprise, the quality in the album lies within what Hammerfall do so well, sticking greatly to a consistent heavy metal stomp. The instrumental song is a highlight of the album and serves as a refreshing break from constant wailing vocals, and the ballad likewise. Production as you can expect from a Nuclear Blast release is top notch and clearly displays to your ears every musical component to this heavy metal slab of classic, turned modern metal. "No Sacrifice, No Victory" is a superb album showing Hammerfall back on top of their game and a band ready to bring their hammer down on anyone who thinks otherwise.
Comments page 2 / 2
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| Lord_Regnier Posts: 1469  |
Written by Thor arise on 10.02.2010 at 01:55 "Any Means Necessary" doesn't remind me at all of old Hammerfall. Way too hard rock-ish and slow compared to the first two albums. Their music is just a mediocre cheesefest nowadays. Some kind of pop-metal.
---- "Why would we fear death, when life is so much more frightening?"
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| Andreas Posts: 330 |
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| Angelic Storm Melodious Posts: 6675  |
I wrote a review for this album a while back, and gave it 80 out of 100. And I pretty much stick by that score. I think its easily one of their most consistent albums, as there's only a couple of fillers on it. And ''Between Two Worlds'' is by far the best ballad they've ever done. Is it original? No, Is it awesome? Most definitely!
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| vezzy Stallmanite Posts: 3493  |
It's a decent album, nothing spectacular, but it has its moments.
---- Licensed under the GPLv3. Relinquish proprietary software for a greater GNU/America.
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| Valentin B Iconoclast Posts: 10084  |
Written by Lord_Regnier on 10.02.2010 at 04:48 i think this is the first time we ever agree on something. there's something distinctively fishy about their last two albums, i can't really put my finger on it but they just sound very uninspired and commercial, abandoning the absurdly catchy, epic and heavy choruses and riffs of their first 3 albums in favor of melodic sing-along crap. and even when it sounds mildly heavy and dramatic like in Any Means Necessary, the lyrics are just far too cheesy and vague to possibly be taken seriously and the riffs are impossibly generic. for some reason HF's first three albums work with pretty much the same formula, but now they don't. something is definitely FAKE AS FUCK in HF's last albums. it all started with Hearts On Fire for some reason, that's when HF started going down the toilet, with very few redeeming moments in their later albums, the only good track on this album at least is Punish and Enslave, even in Between Two Worlds there's something simply not right there.
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| Lord_Regnier Posts: 1469 |
Written by Valentin B on 08.06.2010 at 21:59 On this matter, I would say it depends on your standards. Personally, I like metal heavy, fast and aggressive, with dark lyrics. I would say I have heavy standards. So what happens is lots of bands people consider as metal sound like some kind of pop to me. Also, lots of people label music as 'heavy' or 'metal' only because it has a weighty sound, which plays only a very small part as to decide if something is metal or not for me. What makes music metal is much more a matter of attitude in music (aggressivity, intensity, rawness, dark lyrical themes and not sounding commercial or mainstream at all- not something those people who barely know any metal band other than commercial bands like Maiden, Metallica and Hammerfall would like). Some people are trying very hard to deny it but nowadays, there is metal and there is mainstream metal. And what most people consider as metal is surely not 'pure metal to the bone' (if you allow me to use this expression) but mainstream metal even tons of non-metal fans know. I would add that tons of albums released nowadays sound way too polished, with barely any roughness (or no roughness at all), which is an element that belongs to mainstream music and not to metal, from my point of view. And, imo, when metal sounds 'too good', it just plain sucks most of the time. I think the problem with traditional Heavy Metal and Powermetal is both genres can be enjoyable if done in a rougher way but they easily become damn boring and cheesy as soon as you slow the music down and remove the sharpness or roughness in the sound and vocals. As soon as it is not done with enough intensity, it becomes some kind of a joke. I mean, more extreme genres (Thrash, Death and Black Metal) can be done quite bad too but it usually won't sound commercial and mainstream. It will sound bad but not 'pussified'. It will still sound like metal, though bad metal, and not like commercial music.
---- "Why would we fear death, when life is so much more frightening?"
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| Andreas Posts: 330 |
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| Valentin B Iconoclast Posts: 10084 |
Written by Andreas on 29.07.2010 at 16:24 if you like the newer material sure be my guest, but my nausea comes from the band going from: "flying on wings of steel thundering we are breaking the seal fighting for the oath we sworn we spread the word of a legend reborn" to "Our life is not a fashion - Life is Now Pedal to the metal - Life is Now Our life is based on passion And we live our lives the way we want" now don't get me wrong i love new Edguy for example, but that's only because they never really pussified their style, they always were cheesy and light-hearted but new Hammerfall(apart from a few select songs) sucks badly imo.
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| Andreas Posts: 330 |
Written by Valentin B on 30.07.2010 at 08:42 Ah I see where you're coming from. Maybe it's because I never witnessed that lyrical shift, because when I got into HF, it was not even a year before this album. And when you're into Rhapsody like I am, you achieve a certain extent of immunity for cheese 
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| Angelic Storm Melodious Posts: 6675 |
Written by Valentin B on 30.07.2010 at 08:42 Come on now, the former set of lyrics are hardly ones that anyone could take seriously.  And a lot of people would find them just as cheesy as the 2nd set of lyrics. :\ I can kinda see what you mean, but its hardly as if they went from writing serious songs to writing silly ones. The topics Hammerfall have always written about would be classed as cheesy by most people. There is a time and place for serious lyrics, but I definitely have no problem with less serious/cheesy lyrics so long as the music is good. xD
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| Valentin B Iconoclast Posts: 10084 |
Written by Angelic Storm on 30.07.2010 at 14:02 okay, they ARE cheesy when you look at them in depth but imo it's like this: -old hammerfall: epic, dramatic cheesy -new hammerfall: silly, pop-ish cheesy when it comes to riffs the decline isn't as steep but there's still a noticeable difference.
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| ErnilEnNaur Account deleted |
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| Mountain King K i K o Posts: 1361  |
Baz, i have no clue why u have given this album an 8.6. I mean an 8.6 to me would be Hammerfall's best album and that would be Legacy Of Kings. This album is average, but everyone's got his opinion in the end...
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| Baz Anderson staff Posts: 13237  |
It was two and a half years ago. I'd review it differently now...
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| Andreas Posts: 330 |
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