(Rated this album with 6 out of 10) Reviewed by
somereviewer
from USA
The reviewers here will kill me, but I just have to say my opinion. I am a huge HammerFall fan, I've heard all their songs and in my opinion if you cut the power-metalish lyrics off their first 3 albums, you can get maybe the 3 best metal albums ever. But HammerFall's 4th album was a huge let down for me. I've listened to it all. The songs sound forced. The production from the first 3 albums are much better. The riffs, guitar work and drums works are excellent as well but they've lost their touch. The album isn't exciting, the song don't stuck in your head anymore. HammerFall also used to combine power metal with amazing power ballads. Each of their first 3 masterpieces combined at least 1 amazing power ballads, but not here. The best ballad here is "Dreams Come True" which doesn't even getting closer to HammerFall's ballad masterpiece "Glory to the Brave". Some songs are very dry, missing something, and again, sound force. These guys have became less creative, the masterpieces are gone. But for some good things: there are some quite good songs here: track 1 - "Riders of the Storm", track 4 -"Crimson Thunder" and track 6 - "Trailblazers" are my favorites. But they aren't HammerFall classics. For me it was a major dissappointment, for you it may be the best HammerFall album. Everyone with his own music taste. Enjoy anyway, if you think of trying it. I'm not even listening to this album anymore. I prefer the first 3 albums.
