Hammerfall vocalist Jocaim Cans breaks down MASTERPIECES track by track
Swedish Metal saviours HammerFall are celebrating their 15th birthday with an all covers album. Now, vocalist Jocaim Cans breaks down MASTERPIECES track by track.
18 tracks, 18 stories. Jocaim Cans comments on all the tracks and tells all the stories!
Child Of The Damned
This Warlord classic is one of my all-time favourite songs from this highly underrated band. Both, me and Oscar, are influenced by this band - and this track really represents HammerFall anno 1997! A few years later, another dream came true when I became the singer of this band. But that's another story!
Ravenlord
Also a personal favourite, originally recorded by Stormwitch. I still remember the first time I met Oscar and he played a little melody on his guitar. "Dorian Gray", I said! Oscar instantly dropped his jaw and asked me if I knew about Stormwitch. I answered that they are one of my all time favourite bands and I have all their releases in my vast vinyl collection. Off course we had to do a Stormwitch cover to celebrate another underrated band that influenced us a lot.
Eternal Dark
What a great song! What a great album cover! Picture is probably the best band ever coming from Holland. We had the honour to perform this song with the original Picture line-up in 1999. It was a great experience even-though too many beers had been consumed prior to the show!
Back To Back
Another band both me and Oscar treasure a lot is Pretty Maids. One of the first HammerFall songs to be covered live was ‘Red, Hot and Heavy’. But when it was time to pick a cover track from the album with the same name we decided to do ‘Back To Back’ instead. Don't know why, but its one hell of a great song!
I Want Out
This song was meant to be part of a Helloween tribute, but I guess it never was. We recorded this one in Hansen Studios, Hamburg, together with living legend Kai Hansen. A great version of the song spiced up with some backing vocals sung by Udo Dirkschneider!
Man On The Silver Mountain
This track did end up on a tribute album. Not to Rainbow but for Ronnie James Dio. Also, recorded at Hansen Studios together with Kai & Udo. I really like this version of the song and special guest behind the drums is no less than legendary Running Wild drummer AC Dreffein! Sink your teeth into that!
Head Over Heels
The last of the three songs recorded at Kai Hansen's studio in Hamburg. This one was for the Tribute to Accept album. What could be better than doing a tribute to the masters of metal with Mr. Udo himself. A great song that I really think we did justice. Kai Hansen is doing some backing on this one.
Run With The Devil
Heavy Load is probably not the most well know band deriving from Sweden, but still one of the best! This song was recorded at Thunderload Studios together with the mighty Wahlqvist brothers, both being the solid base of Heavy Load since the beginning. This was also the first recording ever with Anders Johansson behind the drums.
We're Gonna Make It
Another band that influenced both me and Oscar a lot. This song is very energetic and shows a more mature side of Twisted Sister. Funny thing is that I mention this title people tend to respond the same way: I love this song followed by some spontaneous singing: We're not gonna take it....Shut the fuck up! Wrong song!
Breaking The Law
A spoof in the studio while recording the Twisted Sister track. Somehow this ended up on a Judas Priest tribute. We have to thank our eminent record label for that! During a long period of time we ended every show with changing instruments with each other performing this song. Oscar - Vocals, Joacim - Guitar, Magnus - Guitar, Stefan - Drums, Anders - Bass.
Angel Of Mercy
I always wanted to cover this great song to see what is would sound like with male vocals. Originally, it was sung by Leather (a girl). One of the best covers we ever recorded and I think we gave this one an extra boost in comparison to the original Chastain version.
Rising Force
Recorded as a bonus track for the European version of CRIMSON THUNDER. To make it even more close to the original, we had Jens Johansson playing the keyboard parts.
Detroit Rock City
Recorded as a bonus track for the North American version of CRIMSON THUNDER. Kiss was never one of my favourite bands, but I have a lot of respect for these guys. This song is probably their best one, and it was the most suited for HammerFall.
Crazy Nights
Recorded as a bonus track for the Japanese version of CRIMSON THUNDER. Great song from a great band that we all grew up listening to. I had some problems with the lyrics on the chanting part and I have no idea what we actually ended up singing. We ended up close enough!
När Vindarna Viskar Mitt Namn
We did this song for a Eurovision Song Contest Anniversary a few years ago. This is probably the only song we could get away with doing. Some really cool riffs and melodies that we made into a pretty cool heavy metal version. If you watch the DVD, the original singer, Roger Pontare, is singing with us.
Flight Of The Warrior
Riot is by far one of my favourite bands, and the album THUNDERSTEEL is on my top five favourite album list! I used to cover this song with my previous band Highlander already in the beginning of the 90's and finally I got the chance to make a proper recording of it. The melodies are simply enchanting.
Youth Gone Wild
The ultimate party song with another great band from the 80's. I think we really hit the spirit of the song without losing the HammerFall touch. Sebastian Bach's singing style is so different from mine that it took me a while to understand how to sing it.
Aphasia
Due to the fact that I had to undergo vocal chord surgery, we decided to put in an instrumental track as well. I really wanted to pay some attention to the biggest Hard Rcok band ever coming from Sweden.
Find HammerFall-pictures in the "Bildergalerie" above!
More track by tracks:
+ Grand Magus - IRON WILL
+ Moonspell - NIGHT ETERNAL
+ Testament - THE FORMATION OF DAMNATION
+ Unleashed - HAMMER BATTALION
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