SABATON-The Great War

Nuclear Blast Records

June 26, 2019 by Martien Koolen - More about our team

To be honest I was actually never really a fan of Swedish history loving metal band Sabaton. But now, as the band is reaching its 20^th anniversary they release their best album so far, called: ‘The Great War’. As you already know ‘The Great War’ is a concept album about World War 1 (check out the interview with bassist Pär Sundström here) and this truly 100% pure Sabaton album is really impressive. ‘The Great War’ is a very diverse, dynamic, powerful, heavy and even dramatic metal album and, I know it is a cliché, their best effort by far; a true metal rollercoaster that you will like to listen to repeatedly. On May 3rd the band released the first single called ,,Fields Of Verdun”, a ferocious up-tempo metal track with excellent guitar work, gripping lyrics and a really addictive chorus. This song sets the tone for the rest of the album as ‘The Great War’ is packed with catchy metal anthems like e.g. ,,The Attack Of The Dead Men”, ,,Great War” and ,,82^nd All The Way”. The title track belongs to the highlights of this album as it filled with, again great lyrics, choir passages that remind me of Nightwish and outstanding riffs, melodies and “marching” drums. Another Sabaton milestone is the song ,,The End Of The War To End All Wars”, which kicks off with a choir, piano and violin sounds, before it evolves into a real metal killer like only Sabaton can make them. The heaviest tracks are probably ,,Red Baron” and ,,Devil Dogs”, which both will turn out to become live killers for the band! This amazing album ends with the “weirdest” track of the entire album called ,,In Flanders Fields” (based on the poem by lieutenant- colonel John McCrae), a choir sung hymn, in memory of the fallen soldiers in World War 1.’The Great War’ is a must for Sabaton lovers and addicts, but it is also highly recommended to fans of roaring, melodic heavy metal, buy or die!! Or as singer Joakim Broden says: ,,The main goal of ‘The Great War’ is to build up a f***ing impressive Sabaton album that will go down in the history of harder music.”