Sabaton - Heroes

Published May 12 2014

*=Staff's pick	Night Witches* No Bullets Fly Smoking Snakes* Inmate 4859 To Hell And Back* The Ballad Of Bull Resist And Bite Soldier Of 3 Armies Far From The Fame* Hearts Of Iron

Genre	Heavy Metal	Joakim Brodén	Vocals
Tracks	10	Thobbe Englund	Guitar
Running time	37 Min.	Chris Rörland	Guitar
Label	Nuclear Blast	Pär Sundström	Bass
Release	14 May 2014	Hannes van Dahl	Drums
Country	Sweden	-	Keyboard
Producer	Peter Tägtgren
Similar artists	---

The first album recorded with the new lineup and Sabaton bounces back from the commotion created around two years ago, when four bandmembers suddenly, and to me unexpectedly, decided to part ways with the main men, bassplayer and driving force Pär Sundström and vocalist Joakim Brodén. With an impeccable commitment to deliver the message with lyrics about war and its heroes, the band continues to pursue the long-term journey for world fame in the metal community and it decidedly gains more and more popularity for each record released to this date.

These heavy metallers have quite a few detractors in their native country of Sweden and say what you will about their music, but the metal they represent is nonetheless highly captivating. When I initially set my teeth and claws into Heroes, it seemed a little dull, but when giving it a few more shots, I can't deny that rather many tracks stick like flies to a pile of shit.

It's mostly heavy with tumbling rhythms, bombastic with choirs and also varied with speedier sections. The keyboard play isn't signalizing anymore and I totally embrace this progress, since it has indeed left room for sharper and more prominent guitar sequences. Brodén's voice never was metal's most complete and awesome, still he manages to fulfill his duties and with a tremendous amount of confidence, he also accomplishes what's expected in order to get the job done to fit the musical approach.

I personally quite often support shorter records before longer ones and a total playing time of only thirty-seven minutes makes this release pretty intense, although The Ballad Of Bull breaks the momentum halfway through. This creation follows the path that the band set aim for a decade ago and I hear a few things and melodies similar to past efforts. To Hell And Back, with its partially Western inspired touch, however breaks the given pattern and therefore enters the entirety as a cool feature, so everything is definitely not replicas of before.

The songs on Heroes generally carry out the standards of Sabaton and the band is somehow striving to create heavy metal experiences to fit people outside the inner circle of metalfans as well. I personally enjoy this album, even if the outcome nevertheless turned out pretty much expected, and I believe that fans of this outfit will too, although it's not quite as epic as its predecessor, Carolus Rex.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
7	3	7	5	7

Summary
7 chalices of 10 - Tobbe