In 1998, one year after their debut album Glory To The Brave, the Swedish Power Metal band Hammerfall released their second full-length studio album, entitled Legacy Of Kings. It was once again produced by Fredrik Nordström, only this time with guitarist Oscar Dronjak co-producing.

Legacy Of Kings is another tight, tasteful, immaculate collection of catchy, memorable and melodic Heavy Metal in the tradition of Priest, Maiden, Saxon, Accept and Helloween. Expect soaring melodic vocals, frequent dual guitar lines and melodic guitar solos, solid galloping drums and heroic lyrics about subjects like triumph and victory.

This album also added a tiny touch more mid-tempo numbers and power-ballads than Glory To The Brave, Slow, heavy tracks like “End Of The Rainbow” and more emotional balladry like “Remember Yesterday” and the piano-led “The Fallen One” provide a contrast to the speedy stylings of things like “Heading The Call,” “Warriors Of Faith,” the Gamma Ray-esque “Dreamland” or the Pretty Maids cover “Back To Back.”

The all-important second album. After the immediate success of Glory To The Brave, the pressure was on us to deliver. But we weren’t worried, we had a vision of the perfect Heavy Metal band and were intent on following through on it“, explains guitarist Oscar Dronjak.