HEARTS ON FIRE BY HAMMERFALL

Hammerfall released in 2002, they had already become an unlikely success story, channelling their passion for classic heavy metal into international chart success and a legion of diehard fans. Yet five years earlier, when they released their debut , things couldn’t have looked more different. The tides of heavy metal had changed immeasurably from the genre’s heyday; the arena-filling, PMRC-baiting behemoths of the 80s had been slain by a new generation of rock stars clad in plaid, the entire genre undergoing an alternative reinvention so it could survive the nihilistic ‘kill yr idols’ zeitgeist of the 90s. “Hammerfall were pretty far from the popular metal of the time,” admits founder and guitarist Oscar Dronjak, his voice laced with the dry amusement of someone who has had the last laugh. “When we formed it was more rhythmic aggressive stuff like Korn, Machine Head and Pantera. Of course, in Gothenburg we also had this