But listening to the album after being a big fan of the first two, there is a different sound present. Oscar defends this change: "The maturity of everyone involved... from the song writing to the recording... has changed so much! The experiences we've gained traveling, touring, recording over the last five years were unbelievably important. But the biggest difference was Michael Wagener, who truly helped us get to the next step."

The sound in question is certainly very eighties. Those comparisons to Dio et all are not too far fetched, but Hammerfall are proud to be labeled a heavy metal band. "Absolutely, I would agree" says Oscar. "Our roots are in the eighties. No nineties band, except maybe Stratovarius, had any influence on us. We're certainly proud to be compared to what I feel are the greatest metal albums of the eighties. Heavy metal is the type of music that Hammerfall has always played, we don't make any excuses for that. It has its roots with bands like Judas Priest, Accept, with Motley Crue or Twisted Sister maybe and not the seventies so much. I mean, I love Kiss, but that's not really heavy metal. The press needs to stop adding additional names to metal. Heavy metal here is a label applied to many types of hard music and I take great exception to that."

More in line with metal and its imagery are the lyrical subjects Hammerfall take on. The templars, the crusades, the fascination with medieval times...."It is informed interest," explains Oscar Dronjak. "It fits well with our music. It feels right to sing about battles and swords held high. It's majestic, but it is hard to describe exactly. It fascinates us very much. I used to study history and read a lot about this era. Several of our songs are derived from my readings about the crusades and much of it is about exactly how it happened. But it is mostly for fun that anything else. You know, it needs to be mentioned, that the Templars stood for something they really believed in!"

Click Here For HAMMERFALL Interview Page 4