David Wallin

David Wallin — born in Sweden in 1976 — is HammerFall's drummer across two periods: between 2014 and 2016 and again since 2017. He came in replacing Anders Johansson, who had held the role for fifteen years and came from a very different technical school — that of Yngwie Malmsteen's neoclassical metal. Taking over after a drummer with that résumé, in a repertoire demanding steadiness more than virtuosity, is a position of particular exposure. His function is defined by HammerFall's format. The band plays traditional heavy metal designed to work live with the audience singing along: firm tempos, clear marking, choruses that thousands of people have to follow at once. The drums hold that without variation that would confuse — deliberate simplicity executed with absolute precision. He recorded Built to Last (2016), Dominion (2019), Hammer of Dawn (2022) and Avenge the Fallen (2024), forming with Fredrik Larsson the rhythm section of the current line-up, alongside Oscar Dronjak, Joacim Cans and Pontus Norgren.