Listen to King Diamond’s cameo on new HammerFall single Venerate Me

HammerFall have released Venerate Me as the second single from their forthcoming twelfth album Hammer Of Dawn, with Danish metal legend King Diamond guesting alongside the Swedish power metal crew.

“The second single is here, and I'm very, very proud of it,” says guitarist Oscar Dronjak. “The music was written during the darkest, most uninspiring days of the pandemic and still came out as one of the strongest on the whole album. [Vocalist] Joacim's [Cans] fantastic lyric idea makes this track really stand out, and the special guest appearance towards the end really pushes it over the edge.”

“The song is overloaded with enchanting melodies and a very catchy chorus,” Joacim Cans adds. “Lyrically one of my greatest efforts dealing with the fact that we die twice. First when we take our last breath and second when someone says your name for the last time. Say my name and I will never die.”

Produced by the Gothenburg quintet’s long-time collaborator Fredrik Nordström (In Flames, Opeth), Hammer Of Dawn, the follow-up to 2019’s Dominion album, will be released via Napalm Records on February 25. The album’s title track was released as a single in December.

Speaking about the album, Joacim Cans says: “It’s hard to describe in words how extremely happy and proud I am about the outcome of Hammer Of Dawn. It was a struggle, for sure, but in the end we pulled it off and delivered a solid, vital and positive new album. Everyone is on top of his game and together we have created yet another milestone in HammerFall history. Can’t wait to sing these songs live together with my sisters and brothers, The Templars of Steel!”

“We spent a long-time creating the songs for this album, mainly due to the Coronavirus but also because we began working on the material very early,” Dronjak adds. “That’s definitely evident in the result, the attention to detail is very big… This album is a product of the pandemic in some ways, but more importantly it’s a strong statement that we are experiencing the high point in our creativity at the moment. I’ve said it before: HammerFall has never sounded better than we do right now!”

HammerFall will play two UK shows in support of the album, co-headlining with Helloween: the pair play Manchester Academy on May 4, and London’s Brixton Academy on May 5.

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.