The Swedish "metal" band HammerFall from the city of Gothenburg arose from the combination of two bands - IN Flames and Dark Tranquility, gained the status of the leader of the so-called "second wave of hard rock in Europe". Fans appreciate the songs of the group to this day.
What preceded success?
In 1993, guitarist Oskar Dronjak teamed up with colleague Jesper Strömblad. The musicians, having left their bands, created a new project HammerFall.
However, each of them had another band, and the HammerFall group initially remained a "side" project. The guys were planning to rehearse several times a year to participate in some local festivals.
But still the composition of the group was constant - in addition to Dronjak and Strömblad, bassist Johan Larsson, guitarist Niklas Sundin and soloist-vocalist Mikael Stanne joined the team.
Later, Niklas and Johan left the team, and their places went to Glenn Ljungström and Fredrik Larsson. Over time, the vocalist also changed - instead of Michael, he became Joakim Kans.
At first, the group performed cover versions of famous hits. In 1996, the guys reached the semi-finals of the Swedish music competition Rockslager. HammerFall performed very successfully, but the jury did not allow them to participate in the final. However, the musicians were not very upset, since everything was just beginning for them.
The beginning of a serious "promotion" Hammerfall
After this competition, the musicians decided to develop their project further and offered their demo version to the famous Dutch label Vic Records. This was followed by the signing of the contract and the first album, Glory to the Brave, which continued to be worked on for a year.
Moreover, the disc consisted of original songs, there was only one cover version. In Holland the album was quite successful. And on the cover of the album there is a symbol of the group - the paladin Hector.
Oskar Dronjak and Joakim Kans completely switched to the activities of the HammerFall group, the rest were replaced by Patrick Rafling and Elmgren. Fredrik Larsson stayed in the band longer, but Magnus Rosen became the bass player instead.
HammerFall under new label
In 1997, the band lured the label from Germany, Nuclear Blast, and a full-scale "promotion" began - new singles and video clips were launched.
The project was very successful, heavy metal fans were delighted with the HammerFall group, the media gave rave reviews, and in the German charts the group took 38th position. Such heights have not been reached before by any "metal" group. The team instantly became a headliner, all performances were sold out.
In the fall of 1998, the band's next album, Legasy of Kings, was released, on which they worked for 9 months. Moreover, Oscar, Joachim and Jesper took part in the work, who were no longer in the main team.
Then the musicians were noted at several significant concerts and went on a large-scale tour around the world. They were received very warmly everywhere, but not without trouble.
Kans contracted some kind of infectious disease, and after him - and Rosen, because of which some concerts were postponed. At the end of the tour, Patrick Rafling announced that he was giving up exhausting road trips, and Anders Johansson became the drummer.
2000-ies
The recording of the third album was accompanied by a change in the band's producer. They became Michael Wagener (instead of Fredrik Nordstrom). The media scoffed about this, but they soon had to calm down - the album Renegate, on which they worked for 8 weeks, took the top of the Swedish hit parade.
This disc has acquired the status of "gold". Crimson Thunder came next, making it into the top three, but getting mixed reviews due to the move away from high-speed power.
In addition, the team was pursued by other troubles - an incident in one of the clubs, as a result of which Kans received an eye injury, theft of money by the group's manager, and Oscar had an accident on his motorcycle.
After the release of the album One Crimson Night, the band took a long break, and reappeared only in 2005 with the album Chapter V - Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken. The rating of this record is the 4th position among national albums.
In 2006, the HammerFall group once again took the top thanks to the Threshold program. At the same time, Magnus stopped working with the band due to disagreements with the musicians. Larsson, who returned to the band, became the bassist.
In 2008, Elmgren left, unexpectedly deciding to become a pilot, handing over his place to Portus Norgren. With the new line-up, the band released a cover compilation Masterpieces, followed by the 2009 album No Sacrifice, No Victory.
The novelty of this album was an even lower guitar tuning and the disappearance of Hector from the cover. This disc took 38th position in the national chart.
After the success of the album, the musicians went on a world tour, and in the summer of 2010 HammerFall took part in a number of festivals.
After their eighth album, Infected, in 2011 and the European tour that followed, HammerFall once again took a long two-year break, the band announced in 2012.
