Joacim Cans, frontman for Swedish bashers HAMMERFALL, is featured in a new interview with Calum Robson at RushOnRock.com. An excerpt is available below:

Q: Would you say (new album) Infected takes a more traditional metal stance as opposed to the power metal that has described your sound?

JC: "Power metal is something that all the journalists around the world have been labelling us since day one. I’ve always said that we play heavy metal and within heavy metal there’s room for the power as well. The progress while writing the album – these songs came natural. We were aiming for something more alive, maybe with a little more roughness to it. We didn’t really sit down and have a ‘cunning plan’ on how to write the album! Everything happened naturally. When we were done with the first two songs ('Patient Zero' and 'Redemption') we set the standard already there. The main theme for the album was the zombie and we had to add a little more attitude because a zombie without attitude is a lame fucking zombie!"

Q: So in terms of content, Hammerfall are going in a different direction?

JC: "I think this is really back to the roots when talking about the lyrics. It’s back to the original idea I had when I started to write music, in terms of storytelling. Every song on this album is a well-thought-out story, and I really had battles with myself in writing the melodies as well as the lyrics, but at the end of the day I got a lot of recognition from James (Michael/producer) when it came to the lyrics. He said it’s unbelievable that someone who’s second-speaking language is English came up with all these twists in the lyrics. That really made my day that he was a part of them. In the end, a song like 'Let’s Get It On' is a typical Hammerfall story about being an army of one and battling your own battles. It had all the ingredients there but they’re with a twist now."

Click this location for the complete interview.

Hammerfall have announced the first dates for their upcoming European Outbreak 2011 tour, set to launch this October.

Guitarist Oscar Dronjak comments: "Beginning on October 25th and ending on December 10th, we will embark on the real tour for Infected. Dubbed European Outbreak, this will show the very best side of HammerFall, we've got some very cool things in the pipeline for this tour! So hope you see you all at the shows, it will be a blast! And that's guaran-damned-teed!"

Confirmed dates currently include:

October

31 - Hamburg, Germany - Große Freiheit

November

1 - Antwerp, Belgium - Trix
2 - Filderstadt, Germany - Filharmonie
4 - Oberhausen, Germany - Turbinenhalle

5 - Paris, France - Bataclan

6 - Esch-Sur-Alzette, Luxembourg - Rockhal
7 - Zurich, Switzerland - Volkhaus
9 - Vienna, Austria - Arena @
10 - Graz, Austria - Orpheum
11 - Milan, Italy - Magazinni Generali
12 - München, Germany - Theaterfabrik
15 - Warzaw, Poland - Stodola
16 - Berlin, Germany - Huxleys
17 - Tilburg, Netherlands - 013
18 - Köln, Germany - Essigfabrik
27 - Trencin, Slovakia - Piano
28 - Budapest, Hungary - Petöfi Hall
30 - Bucharest, Romania - Hard Rock Café

December

1 - Belgrade, Serbia - SKC
2 - Zagreb, Croatia - Boogaloo
3 - Ljubljana, Slovenia - Siska
4 - Passau, Germany - Dreiländerhalle
9 - Porto, Portugal - Hard Club

More dates to be announced. Stay tuned for updates.