7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not the best from these metal gods, but pretty solid..., Mar 25 2009
By Johnny "Bloody Popcorn" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: No Sacrifice No Victory (Audio CD)
Hammerfall's first four albums were nothing short of amazing, reaching their apex with "Crimson Thunder". The next two studio albums after that were okay, but nothing special--a few stand-out tracks here and there and a lot of filler.
When I initially heard the first single from this new HF record, "By Any Means Necessary", I thought, this record will be a return to form for the boys. Well, it's not really, but it is better than "Chapter V" and "Threshold".
The album starts out with the aforementioned single, so it's a strong beginning. The second song, "Life it Now", is one of the two weakest tracks. The next couple of songs are filler-ish, but not too bad. The track five, "Between Two Worlds", is the other weaker track on the album (it is their obligatory mid-album power ballad, but nowhere near as wonderful as "Dreams Come True" and "Always Will Be").
Then, starting with track six, the album gets going. Tracks six through ten are all excellent Hammerfall rockers that live up to their first four albums.
Finally, track eleven--the cover. On first listen, I thought their version of "My Sharona" was one of their more uninspired covers, but after a few listens it has really grown on me. They really Hammerfall-ify it, adding backing-vocally "HEYS!" instead of "whoas", along with plenty of soloing. Sounds pretty epic, actually.
So if you are new to Hammerfall, you could do worse with this album, but I would recommend starting from the beginning of their discog, with "Glory to the Brave".
If you are a returning metallion, this record won't be album-of-the-year, but you might like it.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sounds good to me........, May 4 2010
By Chris Rutherford "Chris" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: No Sacrifice No Victory (Audio CD)
Don't quite understand all the low reviews. Sounds like a well put together Hammerfall album. Now I understand the complaints about the cover song "My Shanora". This cover song sounds way out of place on a Hammerfall album (or any metal album for that matter). Other than that the album is very solid. Fav tracks: any means necessary, life is now, hallowed by my name, and the title track. If you are a Hammerfall fan, I feel you will at least like this album. Sure everyone has their favorites, but this is a good album.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Whats so bad about this album?, May 25 2010
By Anti MTV "Old school MTV 4ever!" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: No Sacrifice No Victory (Audio CD)
Im no expert when it comes to hammerfall and I don't think this album is perfect but it's not as bad as other reviewers say it is. I thought their album was solid their metal work and all their songs were pretty decent and catchy for me and their cover song of my sharona was ok but I think pink cream 69 covered it better.
Any way I say this album is awesome and I enjoyed listening to it in my car loud, hell this is way better than listening to the crappy radio of today.
\m/ stay metal \m/