Hammer King - Hammer King (2021)^{Release ID: 32461}

Having read the reviews of this to date I find myself in the bizarre scenario where I am defending what is deemed to be a power metal album. Perhaps the least power metal favouring member of The Guardians is the one left with only good things to say about Hammer King’s fourth full-length. Joking aside, this distinction is important. I have no vast armoury of power metal albums to be drawing comparison to, no years of listening to the likes of Hammerfall, Rhapsody etc to have to feel any sense of (over) familiarity. Plus, I do not think this is a pure power metal album either.

I have already made my feelings clear on the usual lack of power in most power metal. As such, if I find an album labelled as thus that has some ‘oomph’ behind it then it is more than halfway there to a positive response. Hammer King have that ‘oomph’ to them and what I get on the album is hi-octane metal with just enough cheese to remind me that this is a power metal influenced album. If I gave a shit about classification/sub-genres/boxes/pigeon-holes I would say this is more heavy metal than power metal.

Now, clearly it is not perfect (the rating is not a five as you can see) but to be honest, I don’t care. I cannot wax lyrical about the album. In simple terms, it is fast, it is heavy and it is memorable and that is enough. There would not be any Grammy nominations for song writing; no masterclasses in performance are delivered here folks. As the album artwork suggests, the album is here to just look impressive and then go home, which is exactly what happens.

Nobody is exceptional on their instrument. Everyone just turns up and puts a solid shift in and a result I do not have to decipher anything or focus on some story I am being told. Instead, I can just nod along appreciatively and then get on with my day with a positive mentality. Hammer King feels good and sometimes that is all that counts. Choruses ring around my head for hours after listening to it and the teenager in me can look at the album artwork all day long.