Sabaton

Swedish SABATON will be releasing their new album The Great War today.  While their genre IS power metal, they have kinda created their own thing – because Sabaton is not known for singing about dragons and fantasy feuds, instead drawing inspiration from historical conflicts and the world wars. The Great War is a concept album about World War I and different aspects of it. Those historical topics range from “Fields of Verdun”, which tells the tale of the longest-lasting battle of the war in Verdun, to “A Ghost in the Trenches” detailing trench warfare, which was heavily used in World War I, but also proved extremely fatal. Sabaton is also releasing a history version of this album, which features a short narration at the beginning of each track, setting the mood and story of the song. The historical cherry on top of the album is the final track, “In Flanders Fields”, which is a choir rendition of a famous poem from World War I.

Highlights for me include “The Attack of the Dead Men”, which has an incredibly catchy, epic-sounding chorus and a classic power metal guitar solo, sprinkled with some subtle electronic elements, which is always fun.

Joakim Brodén’s vocals are good as ever, especially on the upbeat hymns “82^nd All The Way” and “Devil Dogs”. Honestly, it’s hard to pick favorites on this album – I can’t say I dislike any of the songs, because all in all, The Great War sounds like classical Sabaton, so it’s easily digestible. Some may find that boring, but I don’t think so in this case. And if anything, I think Sabaton should be praised for maintaining their original sound and feeling after losing most of the original members (Brodén and bassist Pär Sundström being the only remaining original members).

The album is released today, so get ready to listen!