With brutal honesty, Joacim Cans unveils the behind-the-scenes of the creation of Hammerfall's new album, "Avenge The Fallen". The vocalist explores the pandemic's influence on the creative process, highlighting the importance of resilience and the search for meaning in uncertain times. Additionally, Cans shares insights into the messages behind the lyrics, which range from the importance of individual freedom to the need for strong and inspiring leaders. The musician also reflects on the band's career, its challenges, and its achievements over the years.

 Marcelo Vieira

It was impossible for me not to view "Avenge The Fallen" as a direct result of the pandemic. Could you tell us how this context influenced the writing of the album?

I mean, this album was, I would say, the pandemic album—that was "Hammer Of Dawn". That album was written during the pandemic, recorded during the pandemic, and we also wanted to tour right after the pandemic. But that messed everything up because we were supposed to do this tour with Helloween for six weeks, and no one was ready for a tour like that. So it just got canceled, rebooked, and spread out over, I think, 60 months. And so this album, "Avenge The Fallen", was mainly written during the tour for "Hammer Of Dawn".

Of course, some of the songs—writing music now for Hammerfall is kind of a constant process. We are not sitting down for six months to write songs for a new album. No, whenever creativity hits, we are ready to start recording all these ideas. And that is how Oscar works nowadays. I know he can come off stage when we played in Los Angeles, for instance, with Helloween. He came off stage, took a shower, went directly to the tour bus, and set up his little recording system and his travel guitar because he had some ideas. So, meanwhile, we were partying our asses off backstage, and he was working on the tour bus because he had some ideas he needed to record.

So, I think, with this album, a lot of songs have the energy and joy of being on tour inside the compositions. There are also songs on this album that kind of came into being—the idea of a song like "Hope Springs Eternal" was born already 15 years ago, but it was not ready, you know, to be recorded. It was not ready to be a song until now. Because Oscar said, "You know what? I think I have something here. Can you listen to it and see if you can do something with it?" He sent it over, I listened to it like two times, and then I pressed record and had an idea. What I sang the very first time—most of that is on the album. It's on that song already.

So, it's kind of funny how things work. Some songs you work on for months, even years. Other songs, you work on for six hours and you're done because the song talks to you. You understand the song. You understand what's best for the song, and what you have to add there. I think the whole process of this album, of the songwriting, was really tough this time because this is album number 13. We have already written over 120 songs together, me and Oscar, so where do you go from there? It's really hard to... I would say it's very easy to write 10 songs that are good, but good is not good enough.

For all intents and purposes, is "Avenge The Fallen" a concept album?

It's not a concept album per se, but it's a concept within my thought pattern about the lyrics—that everything concerns the word "freedom". So, this album has a freedom aspect, focusing on the right to live the life that you want to live and be the person that you want to be. This album might require some contemplation, and it might raise some existential questions for the listener if they're open to it. So, I really advise everyone, when you listen to the album, to try and find the lyrics so you can follow along and really understand because I think this can be something positive for the listener. There's also a second word, and that word is "hope". So, this album is all about freedom and hope.

The album starts with 'Avenge The Fallen' and ends with 'Time Immemorial', two tracks that reference the past. What kind of message do you want to convey by placing these songs at the album's extremities?

I think the music is more important than the lyrical themes when you place the songs on an album because you really want to start with a bang and end with something that leaves the listener wanting more. "Time Immemorial", in my opinion, is a different song, but it's still Hammerfall. This intriguing melody for the chorus is just like a fantastic ending, but it leaves you wanting more, and maybe then you go back and listen from the top.

"Avenge The Fallen" starts with a line that says, "What is the worst? Be the one who died, or be the one who survived?" And if people think about that for a little while, that's some heavy stuff because—is it better to be the very last person alive, or is it better actually to go with your friends? So this is kind of a very... Like I said, it has this aspect of... What should I call it? I can't find the word here—the existential thing. And that song is very... If you think about it, as long as you have a voice, if you're the last person alive of your breed, you have two options: either you live your life, do the best you can, and make a difference, or you just give up. You surrender. And at the end of the day, you probably go kill yourself because being alone, with no one to call, with no friends left, that's tough. That's really, really tough.

Regarding the verse "What is the worst? Be the one who died, or be the one who survived?" did you experience this survivor's guilt during the pandemic?

No, but I have seen people around me go through some really, really hard stuff. This happened over 10 years ago now. It was a car accident—there were four girls in the car, and everyone in the car died in the crash, except for the driver. She was the one who survived, but she couldn't take it because she thought she was the reason all her friends died. So, she decided to commit suicide.

Surviving isn't always a blessing; sometimes, it can also be a curse. That's why this line is so important—it really needs to be thought about. I have another friend; he's 75 years old now, and he said, "I really want to call my friends sometimes and ask for advice, but no one is alive anymore. I have no one to call." That's also some tough stuff.

"My kind won't go down without a fight." Here, you seem to acknowledge that the pandemic highlighted the importance of community. What would you say you learned from the pandemic?

As long as you're alive, as long as you have a voice, you should make yourself heard. If you're the last person left, make a difference. Do good things for people. Life is too short for drama—I learned that in the past couple of years. Why go around being miserable? Help people. Be kind to people. A smile doesn't cost anything. If you smile at a person, say hello, and smile, that can mean so much to them. I would say that is what I have learned in the past couple of years. 

Do you think humanity as a whole learned anything?

Unfortunately, no. Absolutely not. Because it's all about greed, and it's all about making everything good for yourself first. It's always "me, me, me" first, and that is not okay. That is not okay at all.

In a world marked by uncertainties, what is the role of perseverance and determination in achieving goals, as suggested by the title of 'The End Justifies'?

I mean, if a goal is morally important enough—"moral", we have to keep that in mind—if it's morally important enough, any method of achieving it is acceptable, I would say. But, if you have to step on people, if you have to hurt people on your way to achieve your goals, then it's morally incorrect. You shouldn't do it.

For Hammerfall, this song is about the band's journey and the strong bonds we have with our fans—that they will have our backs, and we will have theirs. Always. That's just the way it is.

I think Hammerfall has had a clear vision, and a clear goal from day one of where we want to take the band, and we have kept our eye on the prize the whole time. Not bending for anyone telling us, "Why do you play this form of music? You should play this. Why don't you play grunge?" Because we play the music that we want to play—it's as simple as that. And sometimes you have to—not fight this fight, but you have to take some verbal fights about it because you play "uncool" music. But, hey, we're still here, so someone likes it.

In a world that has experienced restrictions on freedom and increased tensions, what reflections do 'Freedom' and 'Rise Of Evil' bring about the concepts of freedom and evil?

First, for freedom—true freedom is being yourself without anyone's permission. It's kind of like, have we not learned anything from the past? Because, as the song says, "Now, what is this? The future or repeated past? Faith instead of reason—it will never last." In the year 2024, shouldn't we rely on science before faith? I mean, faith is just faith; it's nothing. There's no proof because religion messes up so many things.

I have no problem with people being religious and having something they believe in, but faith cannot be the guiding star in your life. We have to follow reason; we have to go with science at all times. And that is what freedom means to me.

"The Rise Of Evil", that song—actually, if you look at the album artwork, I would say that "Rise of Evil" represents the artwork more than the title track. The song is about taking inspiration from both heaven and hell. You need to have dualities in life because if there's a heaven, there has to be a hell. If there's light, you need to have dark. It's all about dualities.

You should take inspiration from wherever you want but always follow your heart when making the final decision. So, Hector smashes the chains holding him down from both sides—from heaven and hell—because he wants to. It symbolizes Hector's ability to go his own way and to make his own decisions in life. And I think that's something we should all do. Listen to people, and take inspiration from what they say and what they do, but at the end of the day, listen to your heart and make your own decisions.

Speaking of listening to the heart and making your own decisions... the pandemic generated a lot of anger and frustration. Is 'Burn It Down' a channel to express these feelings cathartically?

No, I mean, "Burning Down" is a very powerful song. We always try to write songs that are diverse from each other. A full album needs to have a certain type of songs to be complete. If you were to take away one song from this album, the album would not be complete. It's like a puzzle—if you remove one piece, it will not be steady.

Of course, this is really hard to describe because sometimes the album speaks for itself. If you break things down and ask, "What is this song about?" you'll find that everything links into each other. If you understand what I mean.

The aggression in "Burning Down"—I would say that the word "freedom" is there as well. True freedom is always worth defending, and maybe the end justifies the means in this song. Sometimes, you really need to go in with a blast. You need to be aggressive in order to defend something you truly believe in, and that is freedom. If someone wants to take that away from you, you need to defend it.

'Hail To The King' and 'Hero To All' pay tribute to heroes and figures of leadership. Who are these heroes for you?

To me, it would be anyone who stands up and fights for his own beliefs and fights for others. A hero.

Let's see, I need to pull that up here. "Hail To The King" is a song of hope, where hope is reborn when all else is forlorn. It's kind of like no matter how dark the night may be, the sun will always rise and wipe the darkness away. So, "Hail to the King" represents that. There's always Hector in this matter—our mascot, our guy on the artwork. You know, he is that person, I would say. Everything circles around him, more or less.

What is the importance of having them in challenging times like the ones we've lived through?

True. You need to have strong leaders who are fighting for democracy. Nowadays, we see the total opposite. I think that to unite people, you need to be strong, but you also need to be passionate. You need to have a big heart in order to bring people together. You can't divide people; you can't really force them. What we see nowadays is a lot of weird stuff going on, with internal fights within different countries. That's pretty bad.

I think you should be a good leader, a role model to your people, and practice what you preach.

"Honor" and "valor" are repeated throughout the song 'Hail To The King'. Do you think these concepts became more important during the pandemic? Why?

This is something that we have always been talking about in the music and lyrics of Hammerfall. You should live a noble life; you should be valiant and a role model—a positive person. We always try to deliver that, even if it's a song about a very tough subject. There's always something positive in there; it always has to be.

A song by Hammerfall is like an onion. If you peel it and take one layer off, there's something else underneath. Then you take another layer off. Depending on how deep you want to get into the music and the songs, there's always a second layer, a third layer. But it's also up to you to be open-minded when you listen and when you read the lyrics.

Even in difficult times, hope and the pursuit of dreams are essential. How do 'Hope Springs Eternal' and 'Capture The Dream' translate this message?

We have to separate the songs; we can't really bundle any song together with the others because they're so different. "Hope Springs Eternal" raises a very important question about existence and our time on Earth. If it were not for hope, the human heart would break. We are the only species that needs something to look forward to. If you take away hope from a human being, they will just break down. If there's nothing to hope for, there's nothing in that person's life.

The existential part of the song—and also the mantra we should never forget—is: Learn from hope for tomorrow, but life is right here, right fucking now. Period. People keep forgetting about it. If you mention it, yeah, you know, these are simple words, but still, you keep forgetting. So this mantra is something we should never, ever forget, in my opinion.

"Capture The Dream"—we talked about this a little before—is about always looking inside yourself for the answers. You know best what is good for you. If you want to do something, do it. Go out there, capture your dream, follow the beat of your own heart, and live your life like a champion. But pick your battles wisely because sometimes you run into problems, and you can't battle for everything. Sometimes you need to compromise. So, pick your battles wisely.

What ideas or lessons do you hope fans take away from listening to the album?

I think that they don't need to learn anything specific. As I said, this is kind of a reminder that they should be open-minded and pursue their dreams. If people ask me sometimes, "How long will you do this? How long will you be the singer of Hammerfall?" I would say, "As long as it's fun. If it's not fun, I would actually do something else."

I think that if people listen to this album and understand the freedom aspect and the hope aspect, and they find themselves in a very bad position in life, maybe they should do something else. If you hate your job, find a new one. If you're in a bad relationship, end it and move on. There is something out there for you. Just don't be satisfied with a little; always go for something bigger. Maybe you won't reach the stars, but if you end up on the moon, hey, you're halfway there. At least it's something. 

What is Hammerfall's secret to staying creative and relevant after 13 studio albums?

The joy of playing the music that we want to play and playing the music that we always play—that is heavy metal music to us. It's as close to the truth as we can come. And having fun together, like I said, if you're in a bad place, if you don't like this form of music, you can't fake it. You cannot fake heavy metal. Either you have it, or you don't.

Would you say you've achieved everything you dreamed of in your music career?

Absolutely not. In that case, it could only go down. There are always new territories you want to play in, and there are always venues you want to play. So, no, absolutely not. I have achieved a lot. Let's say if my career were to end tomorrow, I would be happy because I have experienced so many good things in my career. Hey, I couldn't ask for more, but I still have bigger dreams.

What is still missing?

The dream is still to do a world tour where, wherever you go, you play in venues that allow you to come in with your full production. That way, every fan, no matter where they live in the world, will get the same show. That is my dream.

What do you enjoy doing when you're not playing or writing music?

I'm running a lot, and exercising to stay in shape and to be able to perform better and be a better singer and performer. I drink a lot of wine, not as an alcoholic, but I'm actually a trained sommelier, so I'm a wine expert—at least on paper. That is my interest. I also watch TV and hang out with friends, like everyone else, I think.

Can you draw a parallel between this and singing in a metal band?

No, not at all. But I need the running to be able to sing and perform at the level where I am right now.

----------

Video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUknZAyS9jg

Quite recently I've had a pleasure to listen to Omophagia's upcoming album, "646965". You can read my thoughts in the review. That again brought my attention to one of my favourite labels - Unique Leader Records. Maybe this album is not a typical slam stuff that I like the most, but oh boy, it was good fun listening to it and watching their recent video for the title track. I strongly recommend watching that video, reading my review and then finding out how nice these guys are, answering all of my questions below. Enjoy!

Maciek

Could you please provide some short story on how did your band come to life?

Beni and Henrique started the band in 2006 when their former thrash metal band split up. They really wanted to play death metal as their heroes were bands like ‪Cannibal Corpse, Monstrosity, ‪Morbid Angel and so on. So, they went to that direction and started to compose songs. 

Your description says that you are Brazilian/Swiss band - which of you is of Brazilian descent?

Henrique originally is from Brazil and soon after they got to know another Brazilian guy called Rafael that took his duties on bass. Soon after other members were found and Omophagia got a complete band in 2007.

How did you come up with the band's name?

The name Omophagia derives from Greek mythology and means devouring of raw flesh (also the name of the first demo). We came about that name by chance and there wasn't any other band with that name, so we took that one.

Since releasing your demo in 2007 you started playing with big bands like Keep of Kalessin, Morbid Angel and Kataklysm. These shows had very good reception from the very start. What was your idea for the live show to have so much energy? What is your recipe for a perfect show?

Yes, we were lucky to have a good response quite form the beginning although it wasn't easy for us to step out of Switzerland for a long time. We are very happy to be where we are now but still trying to improve every day and work on our skills. We don't have any certain "recipe" for a perfect show but if we are happy with our performance and the people like our show then we are happy too :-)!

First two albums mastered and mixed at Hertz Studio in Poland - why this studio? The new album shows quite a shift in the band's sound, I've also read that you decided to change where it was recorded, mixed and mastered - Kohlekeller Studio (Recording & Mix) and Tom Porcell (Mastering). Could you also say something about the reason and how different was it from previous two? Are you happy with the result?

There is something important to know to answer this question properly: all the recordings in the past were recorded by us (the demo was even mixed by Beni). We always liked the productions of Hertz Studio and from the second release (the first album, Guilt By Nescience) we reached out to Hertz and asked them to mix and master it. And they did a great job on that.

We did the same for our second album (In The Name Of Chaos) but for the recent album we wanted to change our workflow and to record everything in the studio. The reason why we changed the studio is quite simple: we love the productions of Kohlekeller as well and it was much easier to head to Frankfurt since it is much nearer for us.

We think that was a good decision to record and mix it in the same environment (at Kohlekeller). The work on it was much more professional and relaxed than recording it by ourselves. And we think the result speaks for this change: we are extremely happy with the production of Kohlerkeller! We also want to mention the awesome mastering of Tom Porcell. Everybody did an amazing job on this album. We hope you guys like it as much as we do!

New album "646965" - how and when was it composed? Are you following the same creative process? Is anyone in the band the main composer or are you sharing these duties?

Vocalist Beni has a small home studio and we went always there to compose our songs. Actually, we started to compose the songs for this album already in January 2016. During this process we always tried to put new things in every song, things that we haven't played before, new technics and rhythms. But the most important thing is to keep it sophisticated, brutal and catchy in a death metal way. So as already said we are always trying to introduce new things and not to follow the same creative process as in the last album. Henrique is the main composer in the band and the answer above was written by him.

What are your inspirations? Are you trying to become perfect in the current style you're playing or are you still in search for your artistic "comfort zone"?

My inspiration is to learn more new things and technics in every album. So, if you like our music you will find in every album something new. I think that keeps a band interesting for listeners. We don't change our style we just improve and put some special adjustments as a fine tuning. 

I've seen quite a lot of strings on your videos, 6-string bass, your guitars are also at least 7-string guitars if I get it right. Could you share some details about your equipment? Which brands are you playing on in the studio and what are you taking on tour? Do you customize your instruments in any way?

Mischa: I used to play a 6-string Ibanez JS100 on the previous records. On the new album I play a 7-string guitar, the Agile Interceptor Pro 727. On stage, I use the EVH 5150 III 15W which is very small but sounds like a beast. Especially on tour this size is incredibly practical. For my effects I use the Line6 Pod HD500X.

Henrique: I play Dean guitars and the same EVH amp like Mischa. That's all!

Rafahell: In this album I used my Spector Euro5 LX AW bass with Snakeskins Strings by Conklin. I also used a Kemper Amp. I am endorsed by Spector and Snakeskins Strings.

I understand that currently you're promoting new album on tour, playing with Nile and Hate Eternal. Are you playing the album in its entirety?

Yes, we'll release the new album on September 6th and immediately afterwards go on European Tour with Nile, Hate Eternal and Vitriol. We will play a lot of new songs but not the entire new album

How do you prepare for your shows? Are you wearing suits?

Yes, we wear the suits on stage. We have brand new suits which differ slightly from the previous ones.

Using any special effects?

No reveal yet about any special effects or show details ;-) So you should come and check this out.

Are you composing any new material in the meantime? It's been 3 years since the previous album - does that mean that most likely the next one will also be released 3 years from now on? Is there any pattern of frequency at which new ideas start popping up in your heads so that you can begin crafting a new release?

Henrique: Well, I cannot control when I have good ideas, but to get good ideas for a song, I need to be already in writing modus. Mostly it happens when the band is not happy with a song, then we put it aside and resume it later. That means that after composed a couple of songs I get better and more creative.

Thanks a lot, and hope to see you soon!