"Templars, fight or fall, Raise your fists, heed the call, Bring The Hammer Down"... A band singing about hammers and templars it has to be Hammerfall, and well wouldn't you know it, Hammerfall are back and with one of their strongest releases in No Sacrifice, No Victory. Two original members have remained through the years from the lineup featured on the debut, 1997's Glory To The Brave, vocalist Joacim Cans and guitarist Oscar Dronjak, also of note, new bass player Fredrik Larsson played bass on their debut.
Even with the changes it's still very much Hammerfall, yes it's more of the same, which seems to be the common complaint with any new a Hammerfall release, but who cares, certainly not this guy. No Sacrifice, No Victory is a catchy and fun CD brimming with classic power/heavy metal. Ten new tracks and a cover of The Knack's "My Sharona", it's a good and faithful version with some added gang chants, but quite similar to the original, though I was probably expecting it to be more metalized if there is such a word. "Any Means Necessary" is the catchy metal starter with great use of vocals and the guitars of Oscar Dronjak and Pontus Norgren, as does "Hallowed Be My Name", one of many damn fine pounding rockers on here. Does a song get any more "METAL" than track four "Legion", which has some evil sounding dude gong off at the beginning, before the band kicks off at a swift pace.
Guest appearances include the brother of Hammerfall's rock solid drummer Ander's Johannson, being Stratovarius/former Yngwie J. Malmsteen keyboard maestro, Jens Johannson. Jens provides the church organ on "Between Two Worlds" and a cool solo on the cracking instrumental, "Something For The Ages". There is also a solo on "Bring The Hammer Down" by former Hammerfall guitarist Stefan Elmgren.
Overall No Sacrifice, No Victory is a fine album, long term fans like myself or anyone after some infectious heavy metal, will certainly enjoy Hammerfall's latest CD.
Track list:
1. Any Means Necessary
2. Life Is Now
3. Punish and Enslave
4. Legion
5. Between Two Worlds
6. Hallowed Be My Name
7. Something for the Ages
8. No Sacrifice, No Victory
9. Bring the Hammer Down
10. One of a Kind
11. My Sharona
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