Customer Reviews

Glory To The Brave

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Metal is back!!! The power chords, the solos, the lyrics!!! Pure epic metal! Raise your tankards of beer to the sky and hail the true lords of metal - Hammerfall! Do you own this album? If not, you better get it quick! You'll hate yourself for missing out on these epic cuts! Are you feeling down on life? Listen to "I Believe" and it'll all be good. In the mood for dragon hunting? Check out "The dragon lies bleeding". This album has it all and you'll feel like a true champion. Your face will light up our era! "A metal heart is hard to tear apart"!!!!!

Along with Gamma Ray, Rhapsody, Blind Guardian, Kamelot or Stratovarius, one of the top ten contemporary power metal bands! True followers of Helloween and Mannowar! Wonderful speedies, great power, breathtaking ballads! The voices, the choruses and the guitar-playing are un-*-believeable! Together with Gamma Ray's "Alive'95" and Rhapsody's "Legendary Tales", the best power metal album of the 90's I have listened to. Buy it or go listen to Limp Buiskit!

4.5 stars. I first picked up Hammerfall's most recent studio creation "Crimson Thunder" and I enjoyed it, but in no way did it prepare me for the shredding guitar-work that is on this CD. This album reminded me time and again of early Iron Maiden with all the incredible riffing that might recall, but this Power Metal album also has an excellent ballad in "I Believe" which manages to sound emotionally evocative without ever crossing over into the realm of grandiose sappiness. The only average moments on the entire album come in the song "Stone Cold" with its repetitive background vocals and simplistic mid-tempo riffs; and it doesn't help that it clocks in at nearly six minutes long. The tone of the album is not sacrificed, however, in its wake. Without that single track I would have a hard time not giving this album a five-star-rating. The opening three tracks are all superb examples of Power Metal at its finest, with particular notice going to "Hammerfall" with its use of polyrhythms: a slow, but huge chorus floating over a shredding lead guitar. Fantastic! While the final, title track sounds less like Power Metal than a seven-minute Rock Opera, it is nonetheless a fitting end to a great album. This CD is essential listening for any and all Power Metal fans. Highly recommended.

With "Glory to the Brave" Swedish metal band Hammerfall created a mighty metal album that began a line of epics. As their first album, "Glory to the Brave" is the rawest and most unrefined of their works. Some of the fast-paced rockers on this album are of average quality, but highlights such as "Metal Age",
"Stone Cold", and "Unchained" hint at the epic metal mastery that continues to mature with "Legacy of Kings" and peaks with their masterpiece, "Renegade". Joacim Cans' vocals rival those of Queensryche's Geoff Tate, and furious, fast-paced melodic guitar riffs from Oscar Dronjak and future Hammerfall lead guitar player Stefan Elmgren are a trademark of Hammerfall's "'80s metal for the 21st century". The album's strongest points are without a doubt its ballads... the excellence of which the band was unable to replicate in its future albums. Mindblowingly awesome is the lengthy epic "Glory to the Brave". The melodic intensity and sheer emotion evoked by this song ranks it as one of the best song the band has ever created, and it also ranks as one of the greatest metal ballads of all time. Without these songs, the album may easily a rated only 3 stars... with the addition of the ballads, the only thing stopping the album from scoring 5 was needing the addition some stronger rockers, such as "Let the Hammer Fall" from "Legacy of Kings" or "Templars of Steel" from "Renegade". Still, overall an excellent debut album... and a definite sign that not only is metal not dead, newer generations are taking up the reins and producing metal as powerful, if not better, than old school rock bands like Savatage and Iron Maiden.
Recommended!

This band doesn't write great lyrics in English (they're Swedish), they don't really impress with their playing, and they don't do anything to original. That being said, this band is very pleasing, satisfying, and entertaining.

Although they don't break much new ground, everything they do is so well done you can't help but enjoy the music. Everything on this album is solid, from riffs to drums to bass to Joachim Cans's soaring tenor vocals. Most of the lyrics are all right, but some are too self-conscious. I will admit that there are better lyrics on their second release "Legacy of Kings," but this is the album that cemented Hammerfall as the medieval power metal band to beat, and that makes this release worth buying.

Give this cd a chance and you'll find that it will grow on you like it did me.

Yes, Sweden's Hammerfall is the only power metal band I like. I can't stand bands like Helloween, Gamma Ray and Running Wild, not to mention all the other bad Swedish power metal bands. However, having seen Hammerfall live at three occasions (you can hear me screaming on their live-MCD "Heeding The Call") I must say that Hammerfall are never as good as when on stage. So even though this album is rather good, it's nowhere near as good as hearing Hammerfall perform it live. That's metal magic!

HammerFall hailing from Sweden have revived the scene of power metal. Although Blind Guardian has been around long before these guys, it was HammerFall who "put power metal back on the map" so to speak. The strong points on this CD include, "The Metal Age", "Stone Cold", and "Unchained". The only weak point is that the ballads are a bit much, although good musicianship is maintained. HammerFall are gods of the new age of power metal and should not be overlooked by fans of Helloween and Iron Maiden as well as Blind Guardian and Nocturnal Rites.

This review is in response to the EXTREMELY ETHNOCENTRIC AND BIGOTED people who are mocking and making fun of this band's grasp of the English language. Do you not know that English is not their native tongue (and if you do know and are still making fun, shame on you!) as they are from Sweden and making fun of people's "broken English" does not constitute a proper review of a band. If you do not like their music, that is perfectly acceptable but please do not make fun of the way they speak, as I know many Americans who have an even worse grasp of this language. The reason this band sounds silly to you, I'm sure is the fact that they make minor grammatical errors in their lyrics, but again how many American bands do this AND THEY'RE FROM THIS COUNTRY!!!!!!! So please let's stick to the reviews of their music and forgo picking apart their lingual skills, ok? Not to mention, how well do speak your second language, if you have one anyway?

Thie is one of the greatest newer metal albums out there. If you like metal at all, I almost guarentee you'll like this. Also, if you play any mystical or fantasy games, like LOTR, Warhammer, or any fantasy video games, this is an awesome CD for background music; they sing about slaying dragons, going to the promised land, etc. Anyway, this is a must if your a D n' D player, or a Metal Head.

This cd is a master pieces. This is the first time I heard a swedish band this great. The first and last songs are my favorites. So buy it now or you will lose a great cd and some swedish culture.