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› Sabaton – The Art of War – Black Lodge
I must confess at the beginning of this review that I am by no means a Sabaton buff. Before this album my experience of this band was one gig. A bloody good gig, but a single set nonetheless. It was also about 2 years ago, so the band have written a wealth of new songs since they previously crossed my path.
That said, I still had my expectations when I put The Art of War into my CD player. From what I could remember hearing in Manchester I expected a solid CD, good riffs, strong vocals and at least one decent singalong track like ‘Primo Victoria’ which I remember screaming on numerous occasions all that time ago.
The Art of War surpassed my expectations completely. It became clear after only a couple of listens that the band that I had last seen supporting Edguy and Dragonforce, (don’t let that put you off), had become a much tighter unit and a much better band in the last two years.
From the first track, (which is preceded by a quotation from the book ‘The Art of War’) Sabaton leave you in no doubt as to their intentions and motivation.
The bands songs are about war, mainly the world wars, and they kick off in spectacular fashion with the song ‘Ghost Division’ which immediately grabs your attention with it’s powerful opening riff and keeps it with good song structure and a catchy chorus. The trend continues as you go onto the albums title track, which is a slower and all the more powerful for it.
As the album gets into it’s stride with songs like 40:1 and the first single the band has ever released ‘Cliffs of Gallipolli’ it becomes clear that the band’s sound has matured and what you’re hearing is what Sabaton do best.
However, as the album progresses I do feel it gets a little monotonous with no particularly stand out tracks in the middle part of the album. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it filler, as it is clear that these songs have been crafted to the same extent as their earlier counterparts, but the songs do lack the edge of the earlier songs on the album.
Another thing I find interesting is the choice of ‘Cliffs of Gallipoli’ as the first single release from the album. I feel that it is by no means the best track on the album (this title I believe belongs to ‘Ghost Division’) and in many ways doesn’t really give a good account of the album as a whole. It’s a good song, but it doesn’t really share a lot of the positives that other tracks on the album have.
One thing that cannot be criticised on this album is the production values. The band have really pushed the boat out with this album incorporating various choral vocals into the songs as well as numerous effects. Thankfully they haven’t, in doing so, lost any of the gritty pure feel to their music which is one of their hallmarks from previous recordings.
Overall then, this album is worthy of any rock or metal fans collection, it shows a band that is really starting to fire on all cylinders, though it’s not a future classic in its own right, I think that it could be the CD that pushes Sabaton from the relative periphery of the music scene, well into the spotlight.
Whilst it does become a little repetitive towards the end, there is something on this CD for everyone so I think it fully deserves the mark I’m giving it.
7.5/10
Jim
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