Hammerfall – “Chapter V: Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken”
“Secrets”, “Blood Hound” and “Fury of the Wind” open this album in a perfect way to start. The band sounds re-energized and ready to rock. The first song sounds great. The second better. The third one is even better!! So far, so good, right? Well, so that it’s not all fast songs, “Hammer of Justice” slows things down to a nice mid-paced feel. Cool. “Never, Ever” is the ballad. Yes, it’s good, of course. “Born to Rule” brings things back to that sing-along feel, which works, and “Knights of the 21st Century” is a 10-minute song with the grandfather of death/thrash/black metal Cronos (Venom) guesting for some spoken/growled-word stuff. This is the band’s fifth album. By now, it has become obvious that they specialize in that traditional Priest/Maiden/Accept sound, while at the same time, in my opinion, sounding like HammerFall, but not a rip-off. If you don’t like traditional heavy metal, then you won’t like this. Of course, this is not the revelation of the universe, but it’s damn catchy and good. Forget the cynics. HammerFall rocks.