Pontus Norgren from THE POODLES will be replacing Stefan Elmgren, who left HAMMERFALL in early April to focus on his new career as a pilot/ "Pontus is a fantastic guitar player with musical roots in ACCEPT and neo-classical metal," comments drummer Anders Johansson. "I have know him for many years, I know how he works as a musician and as a person."

"I like Hammerfall, I think they have amazing stage shows and I like their songs, so when I heard they were looking for a guitar player I thought I'd give it a try," says Pontus. "Playing in The Poodles has been a wonderful experience in many ways, but I have always liked a little heavier music and have felt at times that this wasn't the right kind of forum for the music I'd most like to play. It's simply time to move on."
"Replacing Stefan is not easy, he has a very characteristic way of playing and is a great guitarist," explains singer Joacim Cans. "But Pontus will add a different style than Stefan since they are two quite different persons. I'm looking forward to see how we will mesh as a band during the coming months!"

At the moment, Hammerfall has a scheduled gig in Montréal, QC on June 21st (HEAVY MTL Festival) and in July the recordings of a new studio album will begin.

On June 27 via Nuclear Blast Germany, two new Hammerfall releases will see the light of day: a DVD - continuing chronicling the band's career - and a cover CD - a collection of all the covers recorded by HF to date plus three new, unreleased ones. Incidentally, this will be guitarist Stefan Elmgren's last release with HammerFall. Detailed information from Hammerfall follows:

Rebels With A Cause - Unruly, Unrestrained, Uninhibited (DVD): "The DVD will be a continuation of the previous two (The First Crusade and The Templar/Renegade Crusades) and contain newly recorded interviews with the band interspersed with footage from their own cameras. The time span is six years, from the beginning of 2002 til the end of 2007, and it's edited together as a documentary of sorts, i.e. one continuous film, but of course with chapters. Also included will be all six promo videos made during the time in question plus some behind the scenes, four professionally filmed live songs from Filderstadt 2005, five TV clips they have purchased the rights to from SVT (the Swedish national television network) and some more home-made stuff as bonus. The complete running time is estimated to 1h 30-1h 45 plus 1h 15-1h 30."

Masterpieces (CD):

'Child Of The Damned' (Tsamis) - Originally recorded by WARLORD

'Ravenlord (Spengler) – Originally recorded by Stormwitch

'Eternal Dark (Lovell/Jaarsveld/Vreugdenhil/Manen/Bakker) – Originally recorded by PICTURE

'Back To Back (Hammer/Owen/Atkins) – Originally recorded by PRETTY MAIDS

'I Want Out (Hansen) – Originally recorded by HELLOWEEN

'Man On The Silver Mountain (Blackmore/Dio) – Originally recorded by RAINBOW

'Head Over Heels (Accept/Deaffy) – Originally recorded by ACCEPT

'Run With the Devil (Wahlquist) – Originally recorded by HEAVY LOAD

'We're Gonna Make It (Snider) – Originally recorded by TWISTED SISTER

'Breaking The Law (Downing/Tipton/Halford) – Originally recorded by JUDAS PRIEST

'Angel Of Mercy (Chastain) – Originally recorded by CHASTAIN

'Rising Force (Malmsteen/Turner) -Originally recorded by YNGWIE J. MALMSTEEN'S RISING FORCE

'Detroit Rock City (Stanley/Ezrin) Originally recorded by KISS

'Crazy Nights (Takasaki/Nihara) – Originally recorded by LOUDNESS

'När Vindarna Viskar Mitt Namn (Holmstrand/Jansson/Dahl) – Originally recorded by ROGER PONTARE

'Flight Of The Warrior (Reale/Van Stavern/Moore) – Originally recorded by RIOT

'Youth Gone Wild (Bolan/Sabo) – Originally recorded by SKID ROW

'Aphasia (Norum) – Originally recorded by EUROPE