Oscar: It's the same kind of music, the same kind of Hammerfall heavy metal but this album I think is more professional than the other ones, like a mature version of Legacy of Kings.  The sound is not as static and as machinelike as before, more of a natural sound and more of a live feeling throughout the whole recording.  We felt we really wanted to break away from that mold that we had with the other albums, they were great and all but you can't do the same thing over and over again so we needed to change some things to keep the band and the music fresh.

Ron: I was reading the diary on your web page, it sounds like you guys had a lot of fun doing the album and stuff, do you think it really paid off to use that studio and Michael as a producer?

Oscar: Yes, I think we could search the world and we could not have gotten a better producer for this, because he did such an excellent job, especially when it comes to creating a relaxed atmosphere.  Recording an album is supposed to be fun, and what we felt like, was more like six friends having fun together rather than a producer and a band trying to record an album, and that helps a lot because everyone can focus on their special thing and when they needed to focus they didn't need to worry about everything else because it was such a friendly atmosphere, and that helped a lot for us to enjoy ourselves, and also to enjoy recording the album put a lot of effort and intensity into recording.

Ron: What is the tour looking like right now?  What are the plans?

Oscar: Right now we're gonna start in January with the tour.  Not until january because we decided we'd rather do the tour in europe first in one block instead of dividing it up and going home for christmas and such, we start in Sweden on January 10th then go throughout europe until March 1st, in March April and May we will be doing North America, South America, and Japan, but nothing is confirmed as far as dates or anything, we just know we're gonna do it and everything is being planned right now.  I can't say 100% sure that we will tour North America, but it looks really good at the moment, I really hope we can come back, this is something we really want to do

Ron: Last time you when you were with Death, what kind of experience was that?

Oscar: It was a little bit weird sometimes, at all the shows we did there was at least a handful of Hammerfall fans there, so that was really good, that was a big surprise for us.  Some of the shows were more or less Hammerfall shows which was excellent, but some of the shows, there were only Death fans, and Death fans who didn't want to listen anything but Death basically, so there was a hard time at some of the shows, but I think it was a great experience for us to, because, you know, doing all these small clubs and trying to bring the heavy metal back to the people basically, and as far as I understood it, reactions from the tour was that heavy metal has a future even in the United States.

Ron: We're doing our best to keep it alive.  Here you mostly played clubs and stuff, when you tour europe I'm assuming the venues are a bit larger?

Oscar: Usually yeah, it depends also in europe, last time we booked the tour before the album was released in europe, so some of the venues were not as big as the others.  This time we're gonna try and wait and see how well the album does in order to try and get the biggest places and the best surroundings, because its so much easier to perform when everything works.  In America there were a lot of things left to be desired from a promotional end of the club owners, in europe that is not the case, and also in europe we wanna bring the whole Hammerfall show, which includes pyrotechnics and backdrops and stage props and stuff like that, and if we can book the somewhat bigger venues, then we can actually bring this to the people because I think that is what a Hammerfall show is all about, when we do a tour over here we have to restrict the stuff, first of all its expensive to bring over, and second of all there's not gonna be these bigger stages and bigger clubs, because of the fact that Hammerfall is not so big over here, but we'll try to bring as much as we can anyway.

Ron: If you got the chance to tour with another band like Death that had a different style of music... for instance In Flames just toured here with a hardcore band and that was kind of odd.  Would you do that again?  To join different styles like that on a tour, do you think that works?

Oscar: I would not want to do that actually.  Because I think, what we're trying to do in europe is to put on three bands, on the tour, Hammerfall, then there's gonna be Virgin Steele, and another band that I don't know who its gonna be yet, what we're trying to do is put together a heavy metal package that everybody in the audience can appreciate.  Something that people who buy the ticket, they don't just buy the ticket for Hammerfall, they buy the ticket for the entire evening, to get their dose of heavy metal if you will.  If we were to have a death metal band as an opener there would be a clash of styles which I don't like particularly, if I go to a show, I want to see the music I like, and many of the heavy metal fans don't really like the death metal stuff, and that's what I think also, I want to give our fans what they want and what they deserve

Ron: Do you have some favorite songs you like to play live?

Oscar: I'm glad you asked that question and added "that you like to play live" afterwards because its really hard to choose which songs are your favorites.  Some songs that go over particularly well live are I would say, the first song that we used to open the tour last time is "Heeding the Call" and also "Let the Hammer Fall" I think the song "Hammerfall" that's like, the final song, the anthem that we have which we always close the show with, and that's the song that people usually want to hear very much, and those are the songs that are the most fun to play.

Ron: I think i played your cover of "I Want Out" about a hundred times on my show, are you guys thinking of playing any covers on the tour?

Oscar: No, we are actually gonna concentrate on our own material exclusively this time, maybe we can break out a cover just for the fun of it if there's a special occasion, but as far as in general goes, we're probably gonna do only Hammerfall songs, and maybe end the shows with a little cover that we did last time, a little special treat, but we're not gonna do "I Want Out" for example as a regular part of the show.

Ron: How do you guys normally go about writing the songs, what's the process like?

Oscar: Usually I start out with a chorus, or a riff or something, just a general idea of what kind of tempo the songs gonna be in, what kind of drum beat stuff like that, then I work around that, build it around that for a little while.  I finish the whole song when it comes to music and drums then I record everything on a computer so that Joachim will have something to sing to, and sometimes if I have a chorus I have the vocal melodies all ready, if I don't he does all the vocal melodies and the lyrics, so we work separately from each other, which I think is the way to go, because then there's nobody sitting there criticizing what you do, and you can experiment a lot more than if you're sitting there writing stuff.

Ron: Where did the name Hammerfall come from?

Oscar: This was back in '93.  I decided I wanted to form a heavy metal band and usually when I do something I have the whole vision behind everything, even though this was just a project, just for fun, I wanted to have a great name, even though you do something as a project or for fun I think it should still be quality stuff, I don't like the fun for fun stuff, its not for me, so Hammerfall was a well thought out name from the beginning.  I wanted to have a name that when you heard it you would instantly think 'this is not death metal or black metal'

Ron: This is a heavy metal band

Oscar: Yeah exactly, that was the point.  And also, something that nobody else had, nobody else was called Hammerfall.  and also I wanted a name that I could relate to that was kind of a cool heavy metal name.

Ron: You guys are relatively new, bringing back this style, are there any other new bands around that you think deserve attention?

Oscar: Some bands that I like right now... would have to be Edguy, a German band from southern Germany, they are really good and they are young and have a future ahead of them, they recorded three albums already and I think they're getting better and better with each album, so that's a band I really wanna recommend, if somebody likes Hammerfall and the kind of melodic heavy metal that we do, they're gonna like Edguy very much.

Ron: Are you guys checking out the new rob Halford album?

Oscar: I think the new rob Halford album... it's very nice to see him back where he belongs.  He belongs in the heavy metal genre and not in the whatever else he was doing before.  And that's really good, and he sings really good on it, especially the first song I like that a lot, the resurrection.  What I don't think this is is another Judas Priest album though, which a lot of people said "ohh its just Screaming for Vengeance part two or Painkiller part two" or whatever, and it might be in the vocals because the vocals are really cool, and in the heaviness of the music, but if you look at the guitar work, to compare the guitar work with what Glenn Tipton and KK Downing are doing, its not even in the same league really.

Ron: What's the music scene in Sweden like for heavy metal right now, I heard you guys got your video on tv and everything.

Oscar: That is a very good testament to the power of heavy metal and the strength of people when they get together and unite for something.  Heavy metal has a very good future in Sweden now because there are a lot of fans of Hammerfall and heavy metal in general that want to see this music on tv they wrote emails, they voted for the videos, they let their voice be heard, which I think is really cool.  And there are also a lot of new bands, young bands that are playing heavy metal or melodic hard rock, heavy metal music, and they are the ones who are going to carry the music into the new millennium, they are the ones who are going to carry the torch after bands like Iron Maiden or Judas Priest or even Hammerfall have died out.

Ron: Sadly its a little underground right now in the US, you know that obviously, but I think things are picking up, Maiden had a successful tour here.

Oscar: Yeah, that's really good.

Ron: Hopefully we will see you guys next spring, and it was awesome talking to you, good luck with the album, and hope to see you on tour.

Oscar: Okay, thank you very much, thanks for the support!

Ron: No problem, keep it metal!