HammerFall — Glory to the Brave

𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐑𝐘𝐏𝐓𝐒 - 𝐂𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐏𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐀𝐋𝐁𝐔𝐌 𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐄𝐒 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐨𝐟 𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐃 𝐑𝐎𝐂𝐊 & 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐕𝐘 𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐀𝐋…

26 years ago today, HammerFall made Metal history with their debut release!

On this day (June 27) 1997, Swedish Power Metallers HammerFall released their debut full-length studio album, “Glory to the Brave” in Europe via Nuclear Blast.

In order to give you a better understanding of this release, I am going to give you the complete history of HammerFall up to the point of the release of “Glory to the Brave”….

HammerFall was formed when rhythm guitarist Oscar Dronjak quit Ceremonial Oath and invited Jesper Strömblad (from Ceremonial Oath and In Flames) to join him as a drummer in a new musical project he had been contemplating for some time. Dronjak had already composed the song "Steel Meets Steel," which was later included on HammerFall's debut album. Dronjak and Strömblad were later joined by lead guitarist Niklas Sundin, bassist Johan Larsson, and vocalist Mikael Stanne. When Niklas Sundin and Johan Larsson left HammerFall the following year, Glenn Ljungström (then guitarist of In Flames) and Fredrik Larsson (bassist of the former Swedish Death Metal band Dispatched), replaced them.

All five members played in other bands at the time. Dronjak and Larsson played in Crystal Age; Strömblad and Ljungström played in In Flames and Stanne sang for Dark Tranquillity (Both of which have been major influences on the Swedish Melodic Death Metal scene). HammerFall was relegated to being a side project of them all for several years. Their concerts were limited mostly to a local music contest named Rockslaget. The band had few songs of their own and played mostly covers from bands such as Pretty Maids, Judas Priest and Alice Cooper.

In 1996, HammerFall reached the semi-finals of Rockslaget. When Mikael Stanne could not perform with the band in the semi-finals, they found Joacim Cans, who agreed to play with them for the night. The concert was a success although the judges disqualified HammerFall for the finals. By the end of that day, Joacim had already been made an official member of the band.

To give more exposure to their work and try for a professional recording deal, a short live performance was recorded and sent to the Dutch label, Vic Records. The musicians soon received a deal and spent the whole of the following year writing the album “Glory to the Brave”. The album was initially released in the Netherlands and obtained positive feedback; it is also worthy of notice that the band's mascot, the paladin Hector, first appeared on the cover of this album.

As HammerFall grew in popularity, the time available for members of the band to dedicate to other projects became limited. Dronjak and Cans wanted to pursue the path of HammerFall (Dronjak's Crystal Age had ceased to exist some time ago), but Strömblad and Ljungström were committed to In Flames and Larsson was committed to the Thrash Metal band None. Thus, HammerFall's line-up soon underwent changes. Stefan Elmgren assumed lead guitar duties and Patrik Räfling assumed drum duties (they joined the band in the beginning of 1997 before the release of “Glory to the Brave”) and Larsson decided to remain in the band until a suitable replacement for him was found. This happened in May 1997, when bassist Magnus Rosén joined the band. Stefan Elmgren played some of the guitars on the “Glory to the Brave” album (such as the acoustic guitars on "I Believe") and Patrik Räfling actually played the drums on all songs in place of Jesper (even though Jesper was credited). However, at the time they were considered guest performers, not members of the band.

In early 1997, German label Nuclear Blast approached HammerFall with a contract for a European release deal, which included four albums. The deal was accepted and the band proceeded to record their first two music videos — "HammerFall" and "Glory to the Brave". After the release of a promotional single, “Glory to the Brave” was released throughout Europe. The results were quite unexpected, even after the intense marketing campaign made by Nuclear Blast. The album reached position number 38 on the German Music Chart on the week of its release, something which had never before been achieved by a debut Heavy Metal album.

Joining bands like GAMMA RAY, Jag Panzer, Lake of Tears and Raven, HammerFall played several tours throughout the European continent, while also performing to a crowd of over ten thousand people at Wacken Open Air.

Towards the end of 1997, “Glory to the Brave” was released in Japan and the United States. Sales of the album reached one hundred thousand copies. HammerFall was also nominated for the Swedish Grammy award in the Best Hard Rock act category.

In February 1998 they did a small club tour (5 gigs) in Belgium and the Netherlands. Support was the Belgian band Double Diamond, who later became Fireforce

More Information:

The cover art was painted by Andreas Marschall.

"I Believe" was co-written with Peter Stålfors of Pure X and, later, the more famous Dream Evil.

“Glory to the Brave” was re-released in 2002 as a Deluxe Edition with the Stormwitch cover "Ravenlord" as a bonus track as well as a multimedia section including a music video.

Critical Reception:

In 2005, “Glory to the Brave” was ranked number 295 in Rock Hard magazine's book of “The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time”.

In 2020, it was named one of the 20 best metal albums of 1997 by Metal Hammer magazine.

Links to Artists, Albums, and Music Videos:

Click this link to listen to “Glory to the Brave” via Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/glory-to-the-brave/1460473546

Click this link to listen to “Glory to the Brave” via Spotify: Glory to the Brave https://open.spotify.com/album/0fEJ9kfAhVqTBVCvyFPvWu

Click this link to watch the official music video for “HammerFall”: https://youtu.be/3geTo96RwMo

Click this link to watch the official music video for “Glory to the Brave”: https://youtu.be/YLQtS84ccyk

Click this link to follow the HammerFall on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hammerfall

Note: The reviews shared here are for historical reference. The views and opinions expressed within are not always supported (in full or in part) by Into the Wells. — E.N. Wells

HammerFall — Glory to the Brave

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