"Brace up, defend, never ever be outdone in bravery"

This album ranges from good to outstanding, with the only uninspired track (surprisingly) being a ballad entitled "Always Will Be." Hammerfall usually nails their ballads, so I was actually stunned that this track is easily the least effective song here. After their stellar debut album, "Glory to the Brave," shocked the entire Metal community into believing in Power Metal again, their second album, "Legacy of Kings," cemented their standing with a solid follow-up excursion but showed them to be in a holding pattern nonetheless. Not content to play it safe for their third album, they released "Renegade" with a sound of renewed vigor and some substantially improved production. Hammerfall takes more chances with this recording, incorporating studio effects and even more chain-gang choruses than ever before, making for a much more interesting album. The vocals are confident and inspired, the guitar-work is often technically impressive but never at the cost of losing the direction of the song, and the end result is a solid Power Metal album that I feel is nearly as good as their debut. However, this album did polarize some of their fans who wanted another "Legacy of Kings." I enjoy listening to all four of their studio creations, but with "Renegade" I appreciated hearing Hammerfall push themselves in new directions, intuitively aware of the acute possiblity of sounding stagnant with yet another attempt at replicating "Glory to the Brave." I rate this album as their second best album to date; topping "Glory to the Brave" will be next to impossible, but there are many moments on this recording that feel equally inspired. Thank you.

Hammerfall: Metal the Way It Was Meant To Be

Growing up to bands like Sabbath, Maiden, Priest, Deep Purple and other metal band of this ilk, it's great to see that there is a new generation of metal band that are producing metal with intelligent lyrics, epic song structure, lead singers who sing and don't song like a band immitation of the Cookie Monster.



This is my first foray into these new crop of bands and this will not be my last. This album rocks with strong heavy metal anthems ( at times it is a bit repetitive, hence the 4 rather than 5 stars). A good metal ballad. I intend to buy more Hammerfall and also look into bands like Blind Guardian and Iced Earth. Metal is back...thank the Gods!

Unprofessional, unexceptional, but fun to listen to

First of all, this is the only Hammerfall I've heard. So I'm not a fan or anything and I won't be comparing Renegade to their other albums. I do listen to this kind of music in general, though.



Anyways, the album isn't bad but there are a few flaws that just make it OK. The most obvious problem is the lyrics, which are horribly cheesy. Now I'm a huge fan of Dream Evil, who often have the same problem, but this is worse. And I don't care for the singer's whiny voice (better than Jeff Scott Soto though!!) There also isn't much variety in the songs, they pretty much all have the same beat and tempo. The musicians themselves aren't particularily talented, either. I mean, the drumming and guitars and stuff are actually pretty cool, but not as good as a lot of other metal bands. For example the guitar player's solos kind of suck. He can play at a decent speed but his playing gets pretty sketchy when he tries to go faster than 16th notes (and he doesn't play good slow, either.) And finally, the writing is good at some times and bad at others. All their riffs are good but they're all the same. Double bass 16th notes with some kind of harmonies in front of them. I actually do like their songs like Keep the Flame Burning and The Champion but there isn't any variation! And sometimes the writing is actually BAD, like those HORRIBLE random key changes towards the end of "The Templars of Steel." Otherwise that song was awesome, and the last 30 seconds or so ruined it. And the cheesiness doesn't really help. Even the guitars on Renegade (the song) were cheesy, and they're usually what make the lyrics tolerable. But don't get me wrong, I can definitely listen to this. It just could be a lot better. I did like a couple of the songs enough to figure them out on guitar, and I do occasionally throw it on and listen to a couple songs.