As most of you already know for better or worse, the Swedish metal machine Sabaton have been creating war-themed hymns since 1999 to the delight of fans and detractors alike. Sabaton is not everyone’s cup of tea but for many folks they are an entertaining and greatly talented lot. I fall somewhere in the middle as I have seen the band many times over the years and have a love-hate relationship with many of their albums. After the massive success of their previous offering: The Great War, released in 2019, I looked forward to the follow up: The War To End All Wars.
The Good:
The galloping salvo in Stormtrooper, a proper tune reminiscent of Ghost Division with great speed and a couple of impressive solos courtesy of Chris Rörland & Tommy Johansson.
Tracks like The Unkillable Soldier, The Valley Of Death and Christmas Truce follow Sabatons great tradition of sing-along-anthems and help make the album a more memorable affair.
The clean production on this album, guitars, bass and drums are all present equally and are greatly complemented by Joakim Broden’s vocals.
The Bad:
Although the album is a continuation of The Great War, the quality of the songs isn’t quite there. Tracks like Hellfighters and Dreadnought drag down the album and turn repetitive. The closer, Versailles, borders on annoying with the addition of a narrator that does not add to the atmosphere of the song.
Much like AC/DC or Amon Amarth, if you’ve heard one song you’ve heard them all. This album doesn’t offer anything new, even some sentence structures from songs on Heroes and The great War are recycled here which is a clear sign that creativity is lacking.
Overall this is not a bad album, the outstanding production and 3 or 4 good songs make it worth a listen. The theme and historical significance of WWI make it an interesting concept even for the casual listener. So even if you don’t enjoy all the songs at least you get a brief history lesson.
Check out reviews of the latest Crowbar, Vio-Lence, and Immolation
I suspect this band is in part the result of the awesome metal festival scene in Europe — and why their fan base is far more rabid on that side of the Atlantic. Like Manowar, their songs resonate far better in a live setting, with the crowd singing along at all of the right parts (by design).
A band I don’t like or dislike, but suspect I’d be more impressed with that thing that they do if I was in a huge open air festival, with a bier in hand, and my closest 10,000 friends nearby lol!