Initial response
At the very end of the recordings but before the mix and mastering, a listening session for the press was held. Accompanying everyone in the studio was also the winner of the Name-the-Warrior contest held on www.hammefall.net, Christoph Lutz, who came up with a well-fitting name for HammerFall's mascot and defender of heavy metal: Hector.

The people who were in attendance all seemed to enjoy what they heard, and some even expressed relief over the production not being similar to "Renegade", oddly enough. Charlie had managed to come up with a much heavier sound better adjusted to the songs written for this album, which were all more powerful and catchy than ever before. And this sentiment seemed to be shared by reviewers everywhere, as "Crimson Thunder" got favourable reviews in magazine after magazine. As is now par for the course, a single was released some six weeks before the album, and chosen for this was "Hearts On Fire". A good selection, it would turn out, as the video - once again masterfully done by Roger Johansson and Tussilago - dominated the chart program replacing Voxpop, Spin, again occupying the no. #1 spot for the maximum three weeks.


Idiots everywhere
In early August, the plan was to record the video for "Hearts On Fire". The weekend before the recordings, Joacim was in a well-known rock club in Göteborg having a drink with his girlfriend, just like he has on so many occasions during the past seven or eight years. For no other reason than the fact that Joacim represented the music of HammerFall, he was viciously attacked - ambushed, cowardly enough - with a beer glass to the side of the skull. The perpetrator immediately fled the scene, leaving Joacim lying unconscious in a pool of his own blood. A master plastic surgeon sowed him up so well that the physical scars are barely visible today. But they are definitely showing in the video, which was postponed only a week. There is no stopping the metal force!


The updated art of Blizzard
The band had returned with a new flavour, a new album and a new cover artist: Samwise Didier. Another collaboration with Andreas Marshall, while a given to be great, would feel like falling back on the safe and obvious at a time when the band wanted to explore new avenues. Samwise, who is one of the people responsible for the art in the million-selling PC game series Diablo and Warcraft, was the man to help them with that. He created two paintings, one for the single and one for the full-length album. Both featured a new character in the HammerFall pantheon, a yet nameless adversary to Hector. The single sees this foe being born out of a lake of fire, the album displays the two in full combat. Samwise had come through in a big way, and the refreshing aura of the whole release helped propel the band to before-unseen levels.


Crusading America once more
Setting sails even before "Crimson Thunder" was released in the U.S., a five-week tour with Dio and King's X was undertaken in November/December 2002. The experience proved to be a most valuable one, despite the fact that the tour manager disappeared afterwards with all the band's money, adding losses of over $25,000 to the touring account.

Many were the times when fans, after watching HammerFall play, waited outside the tour bus - which frequently served as the band's dressing room - proclaiming: "Dio's great, but I have seen him a million times. It was you I came to see!". Such a response was evident throughout the majority of the gigs, where the audience really seemed to appreciate what they saw and heard in spite of not having heard the music before. All in all, a tremendous victory for heavy metal in the U.S.A. and for HammerFall, having gone throught the fire and prevailed yet again.


On stage effects in Europe
After a well-deserved and much needed Christmas break, the European leg of the Crimson Crusades was scheduled to begin, on January 11th. The place was Halle Gartlage in Osnabrück and the excitement was clearly in the air, for fans and the band alike. This would be HammerFall's biggest tour to date, both in terms of stage show and number of people in attendance. To top the drawbridge used last time, the band and booking agency had come up with a special drumriser, moving up and down using hydraulic tenchniques. When in its highest position, two doors would create a way out on stage for the band members to come through in a carefully planned entrance. First, "Lore Of The Arcane" would set the tone for the intro, with Hector coming out holding his hammer high and slamming it down on an anvil right in the front of the stage. This set off a series of explosions in the ceiling, causing the black front drop to fall to the floor and reveal the landcape from the "Hearts On Fire" single, complete with actual spiked skulls on poles throughout the stage. When Magnus, Stefan and Oscar - Anders was already several meters in the air - had made their separate entrances through the doors in the drum riser, the whole stage virtually exploded when twelve pyrotechnical devices went off simultaneously at the first note of "Riders Of The Storm".

The machinery for the drum riser was heavy as shit - two lifters weighing in excess of 100 kg each! - but well worth it (for the band, at least, seeing as how they never had to lift it…); it worked perfectly, creating a great introduction to the guys and the show. Which apart from the natural energy and audience participation, also featured snow (in "Glory To The Brave") and pyro-shooting guitars ("HammerFall") to end the evening. All of this was captured on film for a live-album and -DVD release, but more on that later on.




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