HammerFall at the Gramercy Theatre

Joacim Cans & Oscar Dronjak

Guitarist Oscar Dronjak was born in Mölndal, Sweden, and played the accordion and the trombone before starting on guitar at age 14. Shortly thereafter he assembled his first band, the Hippie Killers, then in Striker he mixed his original songs with heavy metal covers. He founded the death metal band Desecrator (later Ceremonial Oath) in 1989, but quit the band to form melodic heavy metal band HammerFall in 1993 in Gothenburg, Sweden. Vocalist Joacim Cans joined in 1996 and HammerFall began recording. After many personnel changes the band presently consists of Dronjak, Cans, guitarist Pontus Norgren, bassist Fredrik Larsson, and drummer David Wallin. HammerFall's 10th and most recent studio album is 2016's Built to Last.

At the Gramercy Theatre tonight, HammerFall specialized in a facet that has been disappearing rapidly in many metal subgenres -- the band's old school metal was built on clarity instead of muddle. The razor sharp vocals soared without screeches or growls and the rapid guitar leads and riffs were lucid without distortion and effects. Cans' vocals rose and fell for dramatic effect and the guitarists balanced solos with coinciding twin leads. The band embraced the visual and interactive possibilities as well, with Cans making many exaggerated facial and body gestures and the guitars-and-bass triumvirate synchronizing body movements and hair spinning. The band performed songs from all of its albums except the first, providing a broad scope of its past 20 years. HammerFall may be the band to reference when bookmarking a band that has studied and faithfully replicated the spirit of late 1970s hard rock and heavy metal.

Visit HammerFall at www.hammerfall.net.

Setlist:

1. Hector's Hymn
2. Riders of the Storm
3. Renegade
4. Dethrone and Defy
5. Blood Bound
6. Any Means Necessary
7. B.Y.H.
8. Crimson Thunder
9. Threshold
10. Built to Last
11. Last Man Standing
12. Legacy of Kings Medley
13. Heeding the Call
14. Let the Hammer Fall

Encore:

1. Hammer High
2. Bushido
3. Hearts on Fire