Sabaton - The Great War

The Guardian 60

(Nuclear Blast)
With pounding drums and demonic choirs, the Swedish power metal band deliver a dark, fascinating history lesson on the first world war

Swedish power metal band Sabaton have created a rather specific oeuvre, based on modern warfare and the accompanying sacrifices and endeavours. Their ninth album reaches an apogee of human conflict, the first world war, in which an estimated nine million soldiers and almost as many civilians died. The band certainly don’t spare the horses. There are cannon and mortar fire effects. Songs rage about gas, trench warfare and the Fields of Verdun on the western front in 1916, where “the bombardment lasted all day long. Yet the forts were standing strong.”