Hammerfall

Renegade

Is this serious?

Review Score:

(4/10)
This is unreal - let me just explain what we're dealing with here - to begin with, on the CD inlay, the lead guitarist (Oscar Dronjak) is dressed as some imitation medieval knight in plastic shiny armour holding guitar and sword. Is this for real? I mean, Yngwie Malmsteen and Ronnie James Dio support the whole sword and sorcery image and have placed themselves in the metal hall of fame, but are Hammerfall serious? This is 2001, not 1981.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not exactly a Limp Bizkit fan, and I love old school metal. Even the new stuff: Symphony X, Blind Guardian, Edguy, etc. I can even forgive the cheesey lyrics and styles of Nocturnal Rites and Rhapsody. But Hammerfall's Renegade is just laughable, and this is the exact type of 'Spinal Tap' cliche image that makes the world frown upon the metal scene in hysterics (at least it does in the USA) and drives it back underground. Isn't it amazing that the metal world still holds Sabbath, Metallica, and Iron Maiden at the top of the metal scene? I think bands like Hammerfall just create a sense of ridiculous hysteria, and other bands such as Iced Earth and Kamelot somehow pay the price and get attached to the same image of acne faced geeks living at home with their parents at the age of 35.

Why drag the scene back to drainpipe jeans and bullet belts? From the album cover, you assume the Renegade is the character on horseback holding that big hammer, but the song is about a biker. It even starts with a motorbike revving engine...I mean, come on, even Rob Halford doesn't do that anymore. Why make Spinal Tap into a reality? Metal is serious music, not to be made fun of, but you can't help but laugh along with the metal-hating critics on this one. This is fuel for their fire.

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