lista zespołów Melodic Power Hammerfall No Sacrifice, No Victory

Although there are select highlights throughout the record, Hammerfall’s 2009 LP release, "No Sacrifice, No Victory", suffers on the whole for lacking any semblance of creative ingenuity by maintaining a strict formula of repeating already exhausted power metal themes both musically and lyrically.

Hardly any of the songs in its totality are strong, but there are many little pieces of brilliance peppered throughout the album, and that is mainly due to the sheer playing and vocal abilities of the band. The ‘no mercy…’ lyric from “Any Means Necessary” has a strong melody and the solo is one of the most impressive on the album. “Between Two Worlds” is a surprising tune with its organ intro followed by an acoustic guitar backed first verse. The second movement on “One of a Kind” features an emotional soft pedal guitar sound. The sweetest addition (not counting “My Sharona” – a great song and on here a great cover) is perhaps guest star Jens Johansson from Stratovarius contributing a synthesizer solo on the instrumental “Something for the Ages”.

Hammerfall has some exceptional musicians in the group, and it can be surmised that the greatest aspect of the album is not exactly what they write but how they play. Joakim Cans is a very pleasant vocalist who not only excels at delivering clean notes in his high register, but can also rough it up with his chords just as well. “Life Is Now” may be the best song on the album because Cans’ voice is so clearly heard due to the bass line providing the only backdrop on both verses and final refrain. It also helps that the song is not only highly melodic but also delivers a most anthem-like hook. The soft “Between Two Worlds” also spotlights Cans delivery.

On the guitar side Oscar Dronjak and Pontus Norgren are shredders and are among today’s best, but a peculiar number of songs here have a slow to medium tempo. As with most power metal bands speed is what brings out the good stuff. On "No Sacrifice, No Victory" there simply isn’t enough allegro to really fly. The few exceptions include “Legion” and the title track “No Sacrifice, No Victory”, which have killer harmonizing lead duets. “Legion” also has the greatest set of alternating lead guitar solos on the album, and finally - with respect to Cans - “Something for the Ages” is from start to end the best showcase of speed and power metal guitar.

Unfortunately, most of the rest of the album is unoriginal, uninspired, cliché, and spent. Lyrically, "No Sacrifice, No Victory" is a joke – all of the material is stock and soulless. Songs centering on slower riffs suffer even more from the lack of poetry from these lame lyrical themes. “Legion”, with its attempt at being the evil track of the album with its demonic spoken word intro is simply laughable. Knowing that Hammerfall is a flag bearer of second generation German power metal, it isn’t enough anymore to simply mail in another batch of the same. Fans will disagree, but for those who measure any band’s work by their creative integrity, "No Sacrifice, No Victory" is in the end a very disappointing release.