The career of Swedish heavy metal pioneers HAMMERFALL is one amazing march of triumph: After revolutionizing the genre by the end of the 90s, the Gothenburg based quintet released a total of eight studio albums, several compilations, live-releases and toured the globe relentlessly. Right after celebrating the 15th anniversary of their legendary debut »Glory To The Brave«, the band announced to be taking a creative break in 2013, only to treat the fans with the highly acclaimed live DVD »Gates Of Dalhalla« in late 2012.

 

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder, they say, and that was definitely true this time around,” commented guitarist Oscar Dronjak. Following this, the new mindchild of the legendary Scandinavian fivepiece, which will be out August 29 (Sweden: 27.08., UK: 01.09., USA: 02.09.) via Nuclear Blast, sees the band fully recharged, “raw, energetic and very hungry” – in short: stronger than ever!

 

»(r)Evolution« not only has HAMMERFALL reclaiming their rightful place on top of the metal globe, but also taking things back to the roots in many ways. Once again the band has had production duties handled by none other than Fredrik Nordström, who helmed their two milestone releases »Glory To The Brave« and »Legacy Of Kings« in the early years of the band’s history. “The last time we worked with Fredrik Nordström back in 1998, so it’s definitely been a while! Fredrik is a very vital component in making the album sound the way it does, and I think it was the perfect match once again”, states Dronjak.

 

The music recordings for »(r)Evolution« took place in March and April 2014 at guitarist Oscar Dronjak’s Castle Black Studios. Vocalist Joacim Cans went to the United States for vocal recordings, working with James Michael (SCORPIONS, MÖTLEY CRÜE etc.), who also did a great job on the predecessor »Infected«. 

 

About the meaning of the title »(r)Evolution«, Oscar Dronjak states: “The name comes from the second remake of the Planet Of The Apes movie, “Rise of…”. In Swedish, it was called “Apornas Planet: (r)Evolution.”, and the name stuck with me ever since I saw (and loved!) the movie. It seems like a fitting title for this album, since that’s how I view it: we’ve taken everything that makes HammerFall HammerFall and evolved it. So I guess the revolution is that we’ve gone back to basics a little, yet still are moving forward.” 

 

Yet another return has the band reunited with cover artist Andreas Marschall, the “father” of HAMMERFALL’s mascot Hector, who first appeared on the band’s debut record and is now back on the front cover of »(r)Evolution«. The beautiful artwork features all the traits that made the Andreas Marschall HAMMERFALL covers so beautiful and special.

 

The first single track to be released on July 18, 2014 is the hymn-like ‘Bushido’. The song sums up the band and its history perfectly, as in Japanese bushido means “the way of the warrior”