After quitting the death metal act Ceremonial Oath in 1993, guitarist Oscar Dronjak formed HammerFall and soon asked his friend Jesper Strцmblad to join him. Since this idea had existed in Oscar's mind for a while, the name, general direction and some music (such as the song "Steel Meets Steel") were already there. It was decided that HammerFall had to be forwarded on a project level, since both wanted to keep on with their other, freshly started, bands, Crystal Age and In Flames respectively. They enlisted the help of fellow metallers Niklas Sundin (guitar) and Mikael Stanne (vocals) of Dark Tranquillity, and Johan Larsson (bass guitar) from In Flames.
 Vic Records signed HammerFall after watching a low quality video tape of a local music festival.Consequently, the summer and fall of this, the Olympic year, was spent writing, rehearsing and perfecting the soon-to-be debut album, already entitled "Glory To The Brave". Vic Records first licensed the album and later on sold the rights to Nuclear Blast.