HammerFall are very close to releasing their 10th studio album Built To Last, which is set to see the light of day on November 4th 2016 on Napalm Records. You can pre-order the album already at Amazon (and help support this site): digital download / CD / CD DVD / vinyl.
Vocal powerhouse Joacim Cans gave his voicebox a rest and tapped out a reply to some questions we threw his way…
What were the influences (lyrically and musically), behind the new album Built to Last?
Not in general but we always get inspired by the urge of producing high quality heavy metal music. I think we got a ”natural high” while writing and recording (r)Evolution and managed to capture that feeling when it was time to start writing for Built to Last. Hardest part is always to try and re-invent the wheel on every album.
Did you do anything different in terms of recording and writing with this album than your previous albums?
We found the perfect set-up while working on (r)Evolution and developed that a bit further on this album. Fredrik Nordström was more involved this time as a producer/consultant and did a tremendous job mixing the album.
James Michael was for the third time hired as the vocal producer and the rest we managed to track ourselves. A perfect trinity in my opinion.
Also you have announced a European tour, how do you feel about that?
Can’t wait to go out on tour to meet the fans and see how some of the new songs will work out live. The best part being in a successful band is still the live playing part.
The rest sometimes just feels like a necessary evil :-)
What are you most looking forward to whilst on tour?
To deliver high octane live shows and explore the cities and countries we get to visit. And the beer of course.
Going back to the new album, power metal is a huge genre. Are there any other bands that have influenced Built to Last at all?
The whole genre of Heavy Metal have inspired us since day one and I also think we inspire ourselves sometimes.
What sort of gear did you use to record the album?
We used a Pro Tools HDX system with Avid Pre interfaces on the whole production.
For guitars Pontus used my main Sandberg ST-H guitar with Dimarzio pickups and the amp set-up was a Marshall JVM 410 and a JVM 210 head running through two JCM 1960B Lead cabinets.
The microphone setup we used was two Shure SM57’s on each cabinet in a Fredrik Nordström (Producer) way. Then of course a Cry Baby Wha, MXR Phase 90 and Boss Octaver ended up here and there to fatten up some solos and melodies.
Oscar played through a Marshall JVM-1H and a Hughes & Kettner TriAmp, using 2 Marshall JCM Lead cabinet. Same microphone set up as Pontus. For guitars, it was mainly a Sandberg prototype with an EverTune bridge, but also my own custom made Sandberg Chains guitar for the leads, along with a Cry Baby Wah for special parts.
Fredrik played his Sandberg California TM5 through a Cali76 compressor and then split by a Lehle P-split to a REDDI tube D.I., for clean, mixed with the Le Bass and Torpedo C.A.B. from Two Notes.
Joacim sang through a badass Telefunken microphone.
What are your plans for the future?
Enjoy the ride and release of our 10th studio album and next year we will celebrate 20 years since our debut album Glory to the Brave came out. This tour will take us all around the world and in between we will do summer festivals and try to take care of our families.