[Album review] Sabaton - The Great War
Aug. 26th, 2019 07:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yuuagoSabaton released The Great War* last month, and man, am I ever in love with it! What an album. It's been a while since I've listened to any metal, and this was exactly what I needed.
Like the title suggests, it's a concept album centred around the First World War. They've done individual songs about this period before, but never a full album about it.
There isn't a single dud on this one; all of the songs are good. It starts off really strong with "The Future of Warfare", and then just keeps going. Some of the tracks that stand out most for me are "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" and "The Attack of the Dead Men". The album's sober, subdued closing note of a choral version of "In Flanders Fields" caps the theme off perfectly.
When comparing it to their previous album, The Last Stand, I think I have a slight preference for the songs on Last Stand as individual works. "Sparta" and "Blood of Bannockburn" and "Winged Hussars" are amazing all on their own. In The Great War, what I like best is the way that they work as a cohesive whole. As a concept album, it's meant to fit together as one work, and it's effective at that. But that might just be because this album is new, and I haven't sunk my teeth into each song on its own yet.
The Great War is a much better album than Heroes, thankfully. Heroes has some amazing tracks on it, like "Night Witches", which is one of their best songs ever, and "Resist and Bite", which is awesomely catchy. But it also had some songs that don't hit the mark. "The Ballad of Bull" tells a stirring story, but Joakim's voice isn't very suited to such a slow and melancholy song, and he makes it into a dirge that I find really hard to listen to. There aren't any tracks like that on The Great War.
I had hoped that this album would have a song about Canadians, or maybe even an indiviual person from Canada, and I wasn't disappointed. "Ghost in the Trenches", about Ojibwe sniper Francis Pegahmagabow, is an absolute banger! I'm really happy about it for a few reasons. In addition to being an awesome song, it's centred around a figure that I know a little bit about, which makes it extra fun for me; it might inspire fans to find out more about him, and more generally about the First Nations soldiers who contributed to Canada's war effort during WWI; and finally, it's not about Vimy Ridge. I had figured Vimy would be the obvious choice for a song about Canadians, if they were going to do one at all, since it's kind of a cliche about this point. I'm really glad that we were spared that.
Tracklist & Song Themes
01. The Future of Warfare - Use of tanks during the battles of Flers-Courcelette* and Villers-Bretonneux*
02. Seven Pillars of Wisdom - T. E. Lawrence*
03. 82nd All The Way - Alvin York*
04. The Attack of the Dead Men - The pyrrhic Russian victory at Osowiec Fortress, 1915*
05. Devil Dogs - US Marines in the Battle of Belleau Wood*
06. The Red Baron - Manfred von Richthofen*
07. Great War - Battle of Passchendaele*
08. A Ghost in the Trenches - Francis Pegahmagabow*
09. Fields of Verdun - French victory at Battle of Verdun, 1916*
10. The End of the War to End All Wars - WWI casualties*
11. In Flanders Fields - Choral version of John McCrae's poem*
I was a little surprised that they included a song about Passchendaele, considering they tackled that back on The Art of War with "Price of a Mile". But then again, it isn't the first time they've revisited a topic - they do have two songs about the Winter War, after all. And "Great War" is a great song, so I'm not complaining at all.
In short, I'm really, really happy with this album. It was totally worth the wait.
One thing that I will note: there is more than one version of The Great War. There is the regular version, which just has the songs. Then there's the "history edition", which has narration telling the story of the track before each song. Sabaton used a similar motif in their album The Art of War. On that album, the narration is on its own track in most cases, so you can turn the narration off for most of the songs if you're putting the album on an mp3 player. In the history edition of The Great War, the narration is incorporated into the track and can't be separated from its song unless you're using editing software to do so. The idea of the history edition is pretty cool, but I don't recommend adding it to your collection unless you're really into metal that incorporates spoken narrative.
There is also a "soundtrack edition", which has instrumental, non-metal versions of the songs, like a film or video game soundtrack. Now, this is pretty damn cool, and I might add it to my collection at some point. You can check out the Soundtrack Edition on their bandcamp.*
As always, I'm really curious about what direction they're going to go in after this. It probably won't be a concept album like this one. But whatever the theme of their next one is, I hope there will be some songs centred around events from earlier centuries. I loved their Carolus Rex album - it's still one of my favourites - and it would be awesome if they tackled more events from the Northern Wars. ...Okay, I confess, mostly I want a song about Tordenskjold. ;)
Or maybe they could put together something themed around even earlier time periods. "Sparta" on The Last Stand is an awesome song, but it's also a total outlier in Sabaton's works because they don't usually write about ancient history. It would be cool if they did some works themed around the Roman empire; in particular, I'd love a song about Hannibal Barca and Scipio Africanus. Or... you know what, it would be neat if they stepped really far outside of their typical historical and geographic area, and did a song about the Battle of Red Cliff. But I might have a bit of bias there.
Another thing for the wishlist: more songs in Swedish. I was so happy that they put out a Swedish version of Carolus Rex - Joakim's voice sounds ridiculously sexy when he's singing in that language, hot damn - but they haven't done anything similar since then as far as I know.
Regardless of what Sabaton does next, I'm sure it'll be interesting! They've found some great energy with The Great War, and I hope they keep it up.
Like the title suggests, it's a concept album centred around the First World War. They've done individual songs about this period before, but never a full album about it.
There isn't a single dud on this one; all of the songs are good. It starts off really strong with "The Future of Warfare", and then just keeps going. Some of the tracks that stand out most for me are "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" and "The Attack of the Dead Men". The album's sober, subdued closing note of a choral version of "In Flanders Fields" caps the theme off perfectly.
When comparing it to their previous album, The Last Stand, I think I have a slight preference for the songs on Last Stand as individual works. "Sparta" and "Blood of Bannockburn" and "Winged Hussars" are amazing all on their own. In The Great War, what I like best is the way that they work as a cohesive whole. As a concept album, it's meant to fit together as one work, and it's effective at that. But that might just be because this album is new, and I haven't sunk my teeth into each song on its own yet.
The Great War is a much better album than Heroes, thankfully. Heroes has some amazing tracks on it, like "Night Witches", which is one of their best songs ever, and "Resist and Bite", which is awesomely catchy. But it also had some songs that don't hit the mark. "The Ballad of Bull" tells a stirring story, but Joakim's voice isn't very suited to such a slow and melancholy song, and he makes it into a dirge that I find really hard to listen to. There aren't any tracks like that on The Great War.
I had hoped that this album would have a song about Canadians, or maybe even an indiviual person from Canada, and I wasn't disappointed. "Ghost in the Trenches", about Ojibwe sniper Francis Pegahmagabow, is an absolute banger! I'm really happy about it for a few reasons. In addition to being an awesome song, it's centred around a figure that I know a little bit about, which makes it extra fun for me; it might inspire fans to find out more about him, and more generally about the First Nations soldiers who contributed to Canada's war effort during WWI; and finally, it's not about Vimy Ridge. I had figured Vimy would be the obvious choice for a song about Canadians, if they were going to do one at all, since it's kind of a cliche about this point. I'm really glad that we were spared that.
Tracklist & Song Themes
01. The Future of Warfare - Use of tanks during the battles of Flers-Courcelette* and Villers-Bretonneux*
02. Seven Pillars of Wisdom - T. E. Lawrence*
03. 82nd All The Way - Alvin York*
04. The Attack of the Dead Men - The pyrrhic Russian victory at Osowiec Fortress, 1915*
05. Devil Dogs - US Marines in the Battle of Belleau Wood*
06. The Red Baron - Manfred von Richthofen*
07. Great War - Battle of Passchendaele*
08. A Ghost in the Trenches - Francis Pegahmagabow*
09. Fields of Verdun - French victory at Battle of Verdun, 1916*
10. The End of the War to End All Wars - WWI casualties*
11. In Flanders Fields - Choral version of John McCrae's poem*
I was a little surprised that they included a song about Passchendaele, considering they tackled that back on The Art of War with "Price of a Mile". But then again, it isn't the first time they've revisited a topic - they do have two songs about the Winter War, after all. And "Great War" is a great song, so I'm not complaining at all.
In short, I'm really, really happy with this album. It was totally worth the wait.
One thing that I will note: there is more than one version of The Great War. There is the regular version, which just has the songs. Then there's the "history edition", which has narration telling the story of the track before each song. Sabaton used a similar motif in their album The Art of War. On that album, the narration is on its own track in most cases, so you can turn the narration off for most of the songs if you're putting the album on an mp3 player. In the history edition of The Great War, the narration is incorporated into the track and can't be separated from its song unless you're using editing software to do so. The idea of the history edition is pretty cool, but I don't recommend adding it to your collection unless you're really into metal that incorporates spoken narrative.
There is also a "soundtrack edition", which has instrumental, non-metal versions of the songs, like a film or video game soundtrack. Now, this is pretty damn cool, and I might add it to my collection at some point. You can check out the Soundtrack Edition on their bandcamp.*
As always, I'm really curious about what direction they're going to go in after this. It probably won't be a concept album like this one. But whatever the theme of their next one is, I hope there will be some songs centred around events from earlier centuries. I loved their Carolus Rex album - it's still one of my favourites - and it would be awesome if they tackled more events from the Northern Wars. ...Okay, I confess, mostly I want a song about Tordenskjold. ;)
Or maybe they could put together something themed around even earlier time periods. "Sparta" on The Last Stand is an awesome song, but it's also a total outlier in Sabaton's works because they don't usually write about ancient history. It would be cool if they did some works themed around the Roman empire; in particular, I'd love a song about Hannibal Barca and Scipio Africanus. Or... you know what, it would be neat if they stepped really far outside of their typical historical and geographic area, and did a song about the Battle of Red Cliff. But I might have a bit of bias there.
Another thing for the wishlist: more songs in Swedish. I was so happy that they put out a Swedish version of Carolus Rex - Joakim's voice sounds ridiculously sexy when he's singing in that language, hot damn - but they haven't done anything similar since then as far as I know.
Regardless of what Sabaton does next, I'm sure it'll be interesting! They've found some great energy with The Great War, and I hope they keep it up.
Yuu. Fic writer & book lover. M/Canada.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-27 02:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-08-27 02:57 am (UTC)Not gonna' lie, if I didn't need a constant barrage of new music in order to keep myself from going stir-crazy at work, I probably wouldn't pick up new things so often either. ;)
no subject
Date: 2019-08-27 09:37 am (UTC)Rushing off to listen to this immediately. Thanks!!
(Also, 10000x agree on the Swedish songs. Man.... man.... Carolus Rex was a great album on its own but in Swedish? *fans self*)
ETA: oh MAN you were NOT KIDDING. Every song is a banger.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-27 11:54 am (UTC)