Sabaton - The Art Of War

Published May 28 2008

*=Staff's pick	Sun Tzu Says Ghost Division* The Art Of War 40-1* Unbreakable The Nature Of Warfare Cliffs Of Gallipoli* Talvisota* Panzerkampf Union (Slopes Of St. Benedict)* The Price Of A Mile Firestorm A Secret

Genre	Heavy Metal	Joakim Brodén	Vocals
Tracks	13	Oskar Montelius	Guitar
Runningtime	50 Min.	Rikard Sundén	Guitar
Label	Black Lodge	Pär Sundström	Bass
Release	30 May 2008	Daniel Mullback	Drums
Country	Sweden	Daniel Mÿhr	Keyboard
Similar artists	---

The panzer battalion from Sweden is back with another release, riding on the wave of the past years' success. And I'll be damned if they with The Art Of War have not created their best album so far. The style is unmistakable Sabaton as we have come to know them; riff based and classic heavy metal with quite some epic touches and a lot of focus of the choruses with the characteristic vocals courtesy of Joakim Brodén, but I think they have matured and developed quite a bit to the better in the song writing area.

They set the tone right away with Ghost Division which is a splendid track, pretty mighty and straight forward with a great refrain. The title track that follows is more of the epic kind in a marching tempo and an in your face chorus. With 40-1 they are bringing it back to speed again and this refrain monster is one of my favourites on the album. From here and throughout the rest of the album it is more or less the 'every other fast, every other epic'- formula, which brings a very good balance and flow to the album, even though I personally would like to see a few more slightly faster songs present.

Every song is being tied together by very short stories, or rather words of wisdom taken from the ancient book The Art Of War written by Sun Tzu, which works well and creates a nice mood. The almost constant, yet discrete keyboard in the background creates a rich and spacy sound picture.

The first half of the album is very solid, with Unbreakable as the only song that is perhaps not reaching all the way since it takes several minutes before it gets interesting, but the second half where Cliffs Of Gallipoli together with Union (Slopes Of St. Benedict) is flanking the speedier Talvisota and the mighty Panzerkampf shows Sabaton in their prime. And the finish with The Price Of A Mile, yet again an epic one which relies mainly and heavily on the chorus, and the fast smoker Firestorm rounds things off and leaves you more than satisfied.

As mentioned, there is not much musically that differ from what Sabaton has released before, but with one exception: there is even more focus on epicness and sing a long choruses than before. Sabaton has taken it one step further within the realm of their sound and the result is very pleasant. You should safely be able to buy this one unheard if you already are an initiated fan. It will bring you Sabaton as you know and like them, but with an even better edge to it.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
7	8	7,5	8	8

Summary
8 chalices of 10 - Tommy