BraveWords scribe Carl Begai recently caught up with HammerFall frontman Joacim Cans to discuss the band's new album, Dominion. Following is an excerpt from the interview, with Cans opening up about the events that pushed the songwriting for the new record.

Cans: "After we released Infected (in 2011), HammerFall was in a bad place. We didn't have fun on tour - personally, I didn't have fun at all - so we decided to take a break. We needed to take a break, and that break was the game changer. It gave us a new spark, a new fire to do this for everyone in the band. When we did Built To Last (2016) we finally had the chance to go back to North America; we had given up on your continent way back because it just didn't work for us. It was hard go there for six weeks and then come home with $200 in the pocket. But, we found people that truly believed in us and sent us over to co-headline with Delain, and because we had a couple good tours (earnings) going on in Europe we figured we had nothing to lose. We decided to give it one last try touring North America, and that tour was by far the most fun I've had on a tour in my 22 year career. We didn't play arenas but it was great; good set-up, good following, and we got closer as a band. That created a momentum, and we took that with us into the next tour cycles. And it resulted in us thinking outside the box when it came to writing new music."

Watch for the complete story, coming soon.

Hammerfall has only just released their eleventh studio album, and second with Napalm Records, Dominion, and they’re already breaking the charts worldwide.

Hammerfall prove once more that they are one of the biggest heavy metal bands today. Dominion is currently ranked #2 on the Swedish and Swiss charts, #4 on the German and #11 on the Austrian charts. In the United Kingdom, the album is currently ranked #4 on the Rock Album charts, #8 on the Current Hard Music Album Charts in the United States, as well as #9 on the Canadian Top Hard Rock Music Album Charts. In Finland, they are currently placed #5 on Physical Album Charts. See the placements below.

Singer Joacim Cans on the chart entries: “We are so proud and happy with the current chart success of Dominion and want to thank all our fans for the great support. This makes us even more eager to start touring to be able to play some of these songs live.“

Having released their album on the day they played at Summer Breeze Open Air 2019, Hammerfall arranged a huge release party for their fans - cake included! The event was a total success and everyone involved, including Hammerfall themselves, was utterly elated. Take a look at how the Swedes celebrated their album release:

Hammerfall have released this new track-by-track video, discussing "Scars Of A Generation" from Dominion:

To view a variety of the Dominion merchandise, head here.

Dominion tracklisting:

"Never Forgive, Never Forget"
"Dominion"
"Testify"
"One Against The World"
"(We Make) Sweden Rock"
"Second To One"
"Scars Of A Generation"
"Dead By Dawn"
"Battleworn"
"Bloodline"
"Chain Of Command"
"And Yet I Smile"

"Dominion" video:

"One Against The World" video:

“(We Make) Sweden Rock” live video:

"(We Make) Sweden Rock" lyric video: