Cans – “Beyond the Gates”
This solo album by Hammerfall’s Joacim Cans is a heavier, chunkier side of traditional heavy metal. Sounds “harder”, in line with Seven Witches or Cage, not Hammerfall. A variety of people wrote the songs, like Annihilator’s Jeff Waters, Primal Fear’s Mat Sinner, David Chastain and Mike Chlasciak (ex-Halford), for example. Sounds metal and all, but the songs never really jump out. They’re ok, not great. The riffs sound “tight”, but nothing outstanding, though the ballad “Forever Ends” is catchy, as are one or two other tracks. The lyrics are clichéd: gang-shouts of “Go Back to Hell” and the dumb “poetic” titles like “Silent Cries” and “Garden of Evil”.