HAMMERFALL - Threshold
September 21, 2006, 18 years ago
(Nuclear Blast)
Any sensible power metal fan will tell you that Hammerfall are as richly entertaining a live band as the genre has to offer, but equally there’s no denying that this, their sixth studio effort, smacks of treading water and creative instincts frozen in time. Christ knows it sounds immaculate, and the Swedes inhabit their trademark sonic world so well that it would be churlish to knock them for dishing out more of the same, but hold this up against Crimson Thunder or Legacy Of Kings and it’s hard to get truly excited. ‘Natural High’, ‘Rebel Inside’ and ‘Reign Of The Hammer’ provide solid moments of sword-wielding grandeur and ‘Titan’ is a stirring, cocksure closer, but for once Hammerfall sound less like the band that revitalized this whole sugar-fed trad metal shtick and more like weather-beaten veterans in need of a new quest.
