HammerFall: 30 Years Avenging the Fallen
Three decades into a 13-album career – including this year’s acclaimed record Avenge The Fallen – Swedish metal heavyweights HammerFall aren’t slowing down anytime soon. Ahead of their debut Australian tour, vocalist Joacim Cans opens about their new LP, prioritising hope and the demands of the creative process
Words by Tobias Handke
Image supplied
Congratulations on the release of Avenge The Fallen! The record is just as hard-hitting as your earlier work. After 30 years, how do you continue creating consistently good music?
I think it’s passion for the music, the fun of being in a band and being on tour with your best friends. We’re still getting bigger and that inspires me to be creative [and] to release [music] that’ll mean something in the future. This is album number 13 and it’s still a record that makes a difference. So many of my friends in other bands release albums [because] they want to go on tour and they can’t get any support without a new album. They write and release an album they shouldn’t have released, which waters down [their] trademark.
Do you find it challenging to write albums that sound fresh and engage your audience?
It takes a lot of hard work. You need to dig deep inside yourself to find a song, melody or guitar riff that you haven’t done before. The creative process is very demanding. After a session, if I write something good, I have to go to bed afterwards because I’m totally drained. There’s no energy left because I’ve been working so hard.
Walk us through your creative process.
Everything starts with [guitarist] Oscar [Dronjak]. He works with something he calls A.B.C - Always Be Creating. He can get off stage, have a quick shower, run to the tour bus and start recording an idea. You just need to be ready when the idea hits. He already has some songs for the next album, so soon I’ll start listening to whatever he came up with. Then we bounce ideas [off each other] and I find what type of melodies work.
‘Hope Springs Eternal’ is one of our favourites on the new album. Do you feel hopeful for the future?
That’s also my favourite song on the album because it’s something different. There are liner notes to every track to explain a little [about] what I thought when I wrote each one. For ‘Hope Springs Eternal’, that note reads, “If it were not for hope, the human heart would break.”
As long as there’s a little grain of hope inside of you, you have something to look forward to. If you take that away, it’s gone. This song might raise important questions about [your] existence and time on Earth. Learn from yesterday, hope for tomorrow, but life is right here, right fucking now. This is a mantra we should never forget.
READ MORE: Good Gig Chats: Almost Human
Your voice on this album is as powerful as when you first joined HammerFall in 1996. How have you managed to keep your voice in such good nick?
For me, it’s of great importance to take care of my body [and] my voice. We’ve seen what happened to the singers from the '80s who partied too hard, drank too much and did too many drugs – they don’t have any voice left. You can’t just go up there and belt your lungs out for two hours, it doesn’t work like that. You need to be prepared.
I warm up my voice before a big show. I run 25 to 30 kilometres every week – I’ve done that now for close to 11 years and it makes me perform so much better. I can rush from one side of the stage to the other and sing without having to catch my breath. I think I’m proof that at 54, your vocal ability won’t drastically [change]. It’ll go down because of physics and all that, but I’m trying to prolong my career by taking care of myself, respecting my body and respecting my instrument. This is everything I know. This is what I want to do. So now it’s up to me.
You’ve spent much of this year touring in support of Avenge The Fallen. How have the new songs been received?
They’re working really well! We open with ‘Avenge The Fallen’, which is a mid-tempo song. Most bands open with something fast, but it’s so cool to do the opposite. The audience is so receptive. Give it a couple more months, and some songs might fall into the classic HammerFall box [of songs].
You’re heading to Australia on HammerFall’s first national headline tour in January. You must be excited to be touring the country…
Absolutely. I’m also a wine nerd and a certified sommelier, so I’m really looking forward to checking out some of the wines that never make it out of Australia. And if there’s time for it, I would love to go to a vineyard!
What should we expect when you hit the Lion Arts Factory stage on January 15?
An overdose of traditional heavy metal music. We just go out there and give 100 per cent. It’s going to be the ultimate heavy metal experience
Catch HammerFall at Lion Arts Factory on January 15. Tickets on sale now via Moshtix.
