| CD REVIEW Hammerfall |
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Band : Hammerfall Hey...apparently I missed the first DVD in this serie, as this is the second part of a documentary delving into the history of Swedish top True Metal act Hammerfall. The main part of the DVD is of course the 67-minute documentary itself, filled with interviews and tour footage recorded by the band members themself, and covering the band's history from 2002 up to today...well, actually it ends in 2007, and originally the DVD was meant to be released somewhere last year as part of the band's 10th Anniversary celebrations (the release was delayed by the fact that the singer had to undergo surgery in late 2006 after a pollip was found in his throat, and he was subsequently put out of order for several months). I'm not gonna tell you anything about the historic part of the thing, the boys do that very nicely themselves indeed. Very interesting for the Hammerfall fan, die-hard or not...but I guess the music fan will wanna learn more about thàt side of the band. Among the extras...yeaahhh, the extras...you get 5 extra menus, the first being "TV Clips". As suggested, this contains excerpts from television appearances the band did. The first two are for the Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken track "Blood Bound" (which was released as single in Scandinavia), and the band's appearance on the programs Tracklistan and Lantz i P3 (the latter actually recorded at the radio station with an in-studio played version of the song), the band's appearance on television at the occasion of the Melodifestivalen, where the band sang the Roger Pontare song "Nar Vindarna Viskar Mitt Namn", and was joined on stage by Pontare. Next up is the band's appearance at the European Athletic Championships in 2006 Göteberg, where the band brought their "The Fire Burns Forever" for an at least partially (some of the old geezers in attendance were actually clapping in their hands, you know) shocked audience (who were listening to an orchestra playing just before), and were joined on stage this time by one Richard Kronberg. Last but not least, there's the band's...well, actually only guitarist Oskar and singer Joacim partook in this...appearance at the Rundgäng program, where first the Hammerfall men thrash the two presenters of the program in a (friendly) game of , and then have a (real short) interview. Regrettably all (and I'm speaking about everything in the section) is done in Swedish, without subtitling! Good for almost 21 minutes of viewing. Next menu is "Promo Clips", containing the clips for "Hearts On Fire" (original ànd "Olympic" version), "Blood Bound", "The Fire Burns Forver", "Natural High", and "Last Man Standing", and will set you back at least 24 minutes to view (because you're returned to the sub-menu after each song). Next course on the menu brings you the "Live Clips" section,interesting because it contains footage recorded on April 22, 2005 in Filderstadt, Germany, of the band playing the songs "Templars Of Steel", "Unchained", "The Templar Flame", and "Knights Of The 21st Century" with a philharmonic orchestra. Also in this section a collage of (backstage and live) footage of the song "Secrets"...good for a total of almost 35 minutes! Menu N°4 is the "Behind The Scenes" section, and takes you into the secrets of the recodings of the promo clips for "Hearts On Fire" and "Natural High"...good for almost 18 extra minutes of viewing. Last but not least, as a dessert so to speak, you get the last menu with the "Short Movies" section. In essence, this contains a total of 14 shorties shot by the band members themselves while they were on tour. Possibly deemed unworthy, or inappropriate to put in the documentary, but found funny enough by the guys (they àre a bunch of juvenile pleasure seekers, and that especially the drummer...the things he will be up to when he's got a little alcohol in him...hahah!), and moments (lasting, together, just over 14 minutes) they wanted to share with the fans. In all, that brings the DVD length to just under 3 hours! But...that ain't all! Because the DVD is also released in a limited edition version containing the recently released covers album Masterpieces. In essence, that is a compilation of all the covers Hammerfall have ever recorded in respect for the original artists, and put on their own records. "Hold it," I hear you go, "but then I've already got all that stuff from the full-lengths by the band I've got?"...well, you would only be pàrtially right, like in the case of Warlord's "Child Of The Damned" (appeared on 1997's Glory To The Brave), Pretty Maids' "Back To Back" (on 1998's Legacy Of Kings), Chastain's "Angel Of Mercy" (on 2002's Crimson Thunder), while Yngwie Malsteen's Rising Force's "Rising Force", Kiss' "Detroit Rock City", and Loudness' "Crazy Nights" only came as bonus tracks (respectively) on the European, North-American and Japanese versions of Crimson Thunder. And you would have to be quite an Hammerfall fan to collect àll those full-length versions just for the hell of the exclusive bonus tracks, eh? Also, most of the remaining cover songs appeared on the band's singles (Stormwitch's "Ravenlord" came on the 1997 Glory To The Brave single, Picture's "Eternal Dark" came on 1998's Heading The Call, Helloween's "I Want Out" and Rainbow's "Man On The Silver Mountain" got onto the 1999 I Want Out single, Accept's "Head Over Heels" and Heavy Load's "Run With Te Devil" were recorded for the 2000 Renegade single, Twisted Sister's "We're Gonna Make It" for the 2002 Hearts On Fire single, Judas Priest' "Breaking The Law" – recorded with a jumbled-about line-up – came on the 2000 Always Will Be single), and Roger Pontare's "Nar Vindarna Viskar Mitt Namn" came exclusively to the Melodifestivalen 50 Är compilation album in tribute to the festival. You would have to be a really BIG Hammerfall fan to have ALL of that in your collection!!! But even if you WERE, you would still not have the last covers the band recorded especially for the album in late December 2006 (which made Joacim first feel his pollip, actually). So, exclusive for this covers album, there's versions of Riot's "Flight Of The Warrior", Skid Row's "Youth Gone Wild", and Europe's "Aphasia". Of course, if you had already bought the Masterpieces album, there's no reason for you to by the limited edition of this DVD, but if you hadn't yet, and had been considering to brush up on your knowledge about the band, then maybe you would even save a few bucks...sorry, Euros...or whatever...by going for it all the way! DVD, so no rating, althought the band gets two thumbs up for this nice package! Tony. |