Sabaton - The Great War (2019)Release ID: 11248
Not Great Enough
The historians of Power Metal are back with their crack at a World War 1 concept album in the standard but grandiose Sabaton style. These Swedes have been milking their act for quite some time now, with The Great War being their 9th historical war themed album. (That doesn't count Fist For Fight, their debut album which was extremely dull and generic power metal.) As derivative as Sabaton's albums can be, they've done a fantastic job marketing themselves as the metal band that writes about historical battles and figures, pumping out content on YouTube as well as their own website outlining the inspirations behind their songs. As it turns out, Power Metal is a great genre to pay homage to specific historical battles or individuals since it has the flexibility to sound either pompous and victorious or aggressive and bleak while maintaining a consistent approach. That's, without a doubt, what Sabaton has been for the past 10 years since The Art of War; consistent. But that comes at a cost.
Even for the most hardcore fans of Sabaton or Power Metal in general, there comes a breaking point where it just feels like you've heard it all before. As a fairly avid Sabaton fan, I think I've finally found that breaking point. When I dug into The Last Stand 3 years ago, I couldn't believe that the more vocal critics found it soulless and boring. All the amazing stories about key battles and life or death situations gripped me, along with the music capturing those moments in memorable ways. Coming into The Great War after listening to the two singles, "Fields of Verdun" and "The Red Baron", I wanted Sabaton to touch on the unique horrors that World War 1 contained as well as the courageousness of those who fought. Sadly it's an empty shell of what could have been an interesting album.
Sabaton have dialed up the production another notch, adding even more synths, strings, and backing choruses to an already bloated style. By adding so many layers Sabaton's compositions have lost a distinct punch that they used to have, with tracks like "The Future of Warfare" and "Devil Dogs" having so much going on that nothing sounds especially interesting. Every time there is an interesting guitar riff for a chorus, it's masked by the blaring synths and backing choruses, which creates a grand-sounding atmosphere but leaves something to be desired.
Cohesiveness is also a trait that The Great War misses the mark on, with the World War 1 theme not shining through as brightly as it could. "The Attack of the Dead Men", "Field of Verdun", "Great War," and "The Red Baron" sell the album's theme the best, but for the most part aren't lyrically strong. Most of the lyrics turn out to be generic Sabaton lines that can be applied to any topic, such as "the legend will never die" at the end of the chorus in "The Red Baron". The Great War only scratches the surface on some of these stories and at this point in their career I expected a bit better from Sabaton.
It's a shame that Sabaton missed the mark on creating a true concept album about World War 1, since it feels like they were so close. The circus swing rhythm of "The Red Baron" was an amazing choice because of the history of the "Flying Circus", "The Future of Warfare" set the stage well in explaining how different World War 1 was from any previous conflict, and "In Flanders Field" is a fitting somber end to the album, but the entire package doesn't live up to the source material. There are just too many forgettable tracks and generic choices for me to be impressed with this.
"The Attack of the Dead Men", "The Red Baron", "A Ghost in the Trenches", and "Fields of Verdun" will be the singles to pull out of this album to add to the overall Sabaton playlist, but The Great War turned out to be a great misstep. "Bismark" showed that Sabaton still has some creative juices left in them though, so I can only hope they'll get out of their rut eventually, but they have a good enough brand that it's extremely unlikely.
