SABATON

‘The Art Of War‘, the fifth album from Swedish 6-piece metal band Sabaton, takes its inspiration from a book by Sun Tzu. The whole album is superbly produced and the band display monumental musicianship from start to finish. If you ignore the brief ‘Sun Tzu Says’, which features a female narrative, the album kicks off with ‘Ghost Division’. This track grabs your attention immediately with its huge synth driven intro and gets better as you are enthralled by the awesome choir backing, instantly likeable vocals and a fantastic proggy keyboard solo. The title track repeats this wonderful formula but also includes a fabulous melodic guitar solo. ‘Unbreakable’ has a great Black Sabbath feel running through it before the increased tempo kicks in with lead riffs reminiscent of classic Iron Maiden/Judas Priest. The whole album generally carries on in this vein, maintaining the same huge, impressive sounds. ‘40:1’, ‘Cliffs Of Gallipoli’, ‘Talvisota’, the corny but infectious ‘Panzerkampf’, ‘Union (Slopes Of St Benedict)’ and ‘Firestorm’ are all metal epics of the highest quality. The one criticism I have, albeit a minor one, is the overuse of the female narrative, which after a while becomes quite irritating. This also affects the overall momentum of the album, which is a pity because the songs are generally awesome. With ‘The Art Of War’, which displays incredible power, intensity and outstanding vocal melodies, Sabaton have come close to creating a prog influenced power metal masterpiece. Based on the evidence of this album alone, they should be considered as one of the more unmissable bands at this year's Bloodstock festival.

LABEL:

FORMAT:

Black Lodge

Album

THE ART OF WAR

Review by Dave Crewe

RUNNING TIME:

49:35

RELEASE DATE:

8th July 2008

TRACK LISTING

1) Sun Tzu Says
2) Ghost Division
3) The Art of War
4) 40:1
5) Unbreakable
6) The Nature of Warfare
7) Cliffs of Gallipoli
8) Talvisota
9) Panzerkampf
10) Union (Slopes of St.Benedict)
11) The Price of a Mile
12) Firestorm; 13) A Secret

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:

Sweden

"With ‘The Art Of War’...Sabaton have come close to creating a prog influenced power metal masterpiece."