Hammerfall's 13th album will be released in August. The first single Hail to the King is out now. Can't say I found it particularly interesting.

01. Avenge The Fallen
02. Burn It Down
03. Capture The Dream
04. Hail To The King
05. Hero To All
06. Hope Springs Eternal
07. Rise Of Evil
08. The End Justifies
09. Time Immemorial

It's not bad, but it's not impactful in any way....just like most of their material after the first few albums.
They lack grit.

Awesome, sounds great to me!

I noticed the MA page here lists 10 songs (instead of 9 as in the press releases), and that the order is different. I wonder if one is a bonus track? It doesn't seem like too long of a record even with the 10th song.

Definitely checking this out, but their last really good release was No Sacrifice, No Victory. Most stuff after that has been entertaining without real bite.

I’m happy to see they are back with Nuclear Blast and the album will be released in jewelcase. The second and third Napalm record were digipack only and I haven’t bothered with those.

That was good. But not great. Sounded like a Louder Than Hell-era Manowar tune.

Personally, I thought the song kicked major league ass. I'm just loving the overt Manowar references and the no apologies, metal is the law approach. Granted, the only Hammerfall albums I've found underwhelming were Crimson Thunder and Infected, so my bias on this one is pretty obvious, but I think this album could have the potential to surpass everything they've done since Renegade if this song is any indication.

"Can't say I found it particularly interesting."

Hasnt that been Hammerfall for like the past 20 years?

It's not as bad as what I remember Built to Last being like - what a slog that was - but it's pretty weak... I don't get what their aversion is to getting a real meaty guitar tone and just rocking out. I love some ballady, moody stuff too but this band just can't seem to pull it off; the soft parts sound weak, gang shouts sound like shit, etc. Everything sounds safe and just sort of trite. Not expecting 'em to go thrash or really rip our faces off, but even for what they try to do, the Germanic anthem power metal stuff, they always sound neutered as fuck.