[Music] Sabaton - Christmas Truce
Dec. 7th, 2021 12:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yuuagoA few weeks ago, Sabaton released their latest single, "Christmas Truce".
I've had mixed feelings about most of their recent releases. In fact, I've tried to draft reviews of them twice, but my thoughts were so negative overall that I decided not to post them. Though, I think I can manage a condensed version.
+ The Royal Guard/Livgardet: Extruded Sabaton Product. If someone told me it'd originally been meant to go on the Carolus Rex album but was cut because it wasn't good enough, I'd believe it. (A shame, because I was really looking forward to this song.)
+ Kingdom Come: Classic sound, but too slow for me to get excited about. I tend to hate the vocals when Sabaton goes slow.
+ Defence of Moscow: A banger, and well put-together, sounds very good; however they lean into the POV so much, lyrically and musically, that it sounds like it was commissioned by the Russian department of propaganda or something. Result is it's very hard for me to listen to.
Anyway, because of the above, I was a little hesitant to listen to this one - the 1914 unofficial Christmas ceasefire makes for such a stirring story, and I was worried I'd be disappointed with it.
Fortunately, this one wasn't a disappointment at all. :D
The song starts off slow, but the music builds quickly, hits really well. Joakim's vocals sound great. It's the sort of medium-paced song that Sabaton is really good at. And the choral stuff in the background sounds awesome; the effect isn't narmy or overdone.
Lyrically, this one works for me. Sometimes Sabaton gets extremely cheesy, even for power metal, but this one... It's stirring/uplifting, not too much.
The music incorporates the 'Carol of the Bells', which might make people think of Trans-Siberian Orchestra's "Christmas Eve Sarajevo 12/24"*, but the similarity is just in the use of the carol. "Christmas Truce" doesn't sound like a re-tread of anything TSO has done. It's possible there's some influence there, but the feel of the thing is 100% Sabaton. (And is it just my imagination, or are there a few parts in the music that reference Beethoven's 5th in addition to 'Carol of the Bells'?)
This song isn't a banger, and it probably won't be one of my top favourites, but it's still very good. Essentially, it's Sabaton doing all of the things that they do well.
"Christmas Truce" is one of the songs that will be included on Sabaton's upcoming album The War to End All Wars, which is due to come out in March 2022. I'm a little surprised that they decided to do another WWI-centred album directly after The Great War, but I'm certainly not going to object to that. This is the only single from it that's been released for preview, but if the rest of the album is this good, I bet it'll be great.
You can listen to "Christmas Truce" here:
Bandcamp
Youtube - Official music video (song starts 1 minute in.)
I've had mixed feelings about most of their recent releases. In fact, I've tried to draft reviews of them twice, but my thoughts were so negative overall that I decided not to post them. Though, I think I can manage a condensed version.
+ The Royal Guard/Livgardet: Extruded Sabaton Product. If someone told me it'd originally been meant to go on the Carolus Rex album but was cut because it wasn't good enough, I'd believe it. (A shame, because I was really looking forward to this song.)
+ Kingdom Come: Classic sound, but too slow for me to get excited about. I tend to hate the vocals when Sabaton goes slow.
+ Defence of Moscow: A banger, and well put-together, sounds very good; however they lean into the POV so much, lyrically and musically, that it sounds like it was commissioned by the Russian department of propaganda or something. Result is it's very hard for me to listen to.
Anyway, because of the above, I was a little hesitant to listen to this one - the 1914 unofficial Christmas ceasefire makes for such a stirring story, and I was worried I'd be disappointed with it.
Fortunately, this one wasn't a disappointment at all. :D
The song starts off slow, but the music builds quickly, hits really well. Joakim's vocals sound great. It's the sort of medium-paced song that Sabaton is really good at. And the choral stuff in the background sounds awesome; the effect isn't narmy or overdone.
Lyrically, this one works for me. Sometimes Sabaton gets extremely cheesy, even for power metal, but this one... It's stirring/uplifting, not too much.
The music incorporates the 'Carol of the Bells', which might make people think of Trans-Siberian Orchestra's "Christmas Eve Sarajevo 12/24"*, but the similarity is just in the use of the carol. "Christmas Truce" doesn't sound like a re-tread of anything TSO has done. It's possible there's some influence there, but the feel of the thing is 100% Sabaton. (And is it just my imagination, or are there a few parts in the music that reference Beethoven's 5th in addition to 'Carol of the Bells'?)
This song isn't a banger, and it probably won't be one of my top favourites, but it's still very good. Essentially, it's Sabaton doing all of the things that they do well.
"Christmas Truce" is one of the songs that will be included on Sabaton's upcoming album The War to End All Wars, which is due to come out in March 2022. I'm a little surprised that they decided to do another WWI-centred album directly after The Great War, but I'm certainly not going to object to that. This is the only single from it that's been released for preview, but if the rest of the album is this good, I bet it'll be great.
You can listen to "Christmas Truce" here:
Bandcamp
Youtube - Official music video (song starts 1 minute in.)
Yuu. Fic writer & book lover. M/Canada.