Sabaton is back with a second album about World War 1. On the March 4th, Sabaton is releasing their new album ‘The War To End All Wars’. This war ended over a century ago, yet humanity did not learn from their mistakes. With the current war in the east it is not easy to review an album about war. But let’s dive in this album full of historic madness and bloodshed.

Opening track ‘Sarajevo’ is about the start of the World War 1 with the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. A powerful and promising intro with a lot of info. It really drags you into the album. The song has an overwhelming dark feeling and is perfect to lay down this historical event. In case you were mistakenly thinking so: ‘Stormtroopers’ is not about Star Wars. Yes, we probably all thought about it at least. It’s rather about the first shock troopers that would in the future become the foundations of the Blitzkrieg. It starts out with a pumped up solo and really comes down as a blitz. The fast tempo in this song makes it one of my top 3 tracks of the album for now.

‘Dreadnought’ is about a ship what somewhat reminds me of the song ‘Bismarck’. I do not know why, but the music just gives it away that this is about a naval battle or ship. This is a song that will get stuck in your head for the whole day and tomorrow and the day after and,… ‘The Unkillable Soldier’ is the legendary story about Adrian Carton de Wiart, a son of Belgium, with his famous words “Frankly I had enjoyed the war.” This song was released as a single with a pretty epic music video. Listen to it and decide for yourself, I feel it has a very fun melody on it, almost like you are riding a horse. Hannes van Dahl worked his magic on the drums in this one.

‘Soldier of Heaven’ is a tribute to the soldiers who are still up in the Alps, frozen to death or killed by avalanches. Unable to recover their bodies for a century, they have and are still keeping their guard. This song is pure sadness with a real 80’s heavy metal feeling music wise.

‘Hellfighters’ is about The Harlem Hellfighters, which was a mainly African American unit. They always had to prove themselves more than the rest. But this unit kicked ass and brought hell upon the enemy. In this unit Henry Johnson served, nicknamed: The Black Death (go look him up). A song with an awesome solo and simply a very powerful song. The drum and guitars just make you feel like explosions are happening all around you. Really well done piece. ‘Race to the sea’ is all about Belgium again and brings back some old school Sabaton. The song is about the flooding of the river Ypers and keeping the last piece of Belgium free from the German occupier. “See a king and a soldier, They’re fighting shoulder to shoulder” I absolutely love these lyrics! A great song to go with the other Sabaton songs about my country of Belgium.

‘Lady of the dark’ is about Milunka Savic, a Serbian war heroine. She joined the Serbian army disguised as male and it was only after she was wounded that her identity was revealed. This song is the shortest from the album clocking in at 3:42. It is a good song but I kind of feel like I heard it before. I don’t know what exact song but it definitely reminds of another Sabaton song or two. ‘The Valley of Death’ is a bout the British troops attacking the Bulgarian forces in the battle of Doiran , suffering enormous casualties and being defeated in the end.  It is a song with yet another awesome guitar solo in it. Well done Chris Rörland! ‘Christmas Truce’ is about… Well yeah the ‘Christmas truce’. This song was released as the first single for the album and it does not disappoint at all. It is a very sentimental song with a lot of emotions in it.

With ‘Versailles’ we get to the end of World War 1 and is about the treaty of Versailles, which brought that end to reality. It is a soft song and a perfect closure for the album. You feel relaxed at the end of the album. I love it when a band ends the album like this. It really closes off the story.

This album is filled with progression but also the familiar Sabaton sounds. Once again they proved that they are still standing strong. All members did an amazing work writing this album and lyrics. They keep the history alive. Let us not forget all this bloodshed.

For people from Belgium feel free to join the Official Belgium Sabaton Fanclub “Boar Battalion” on Facebook.

Release date: March 4th 2020
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Tracklist:

1. Sarajevo
2. Stormtroopers
3. Dreadnought
4. The Unkillable Soldier
5. Soldier of Heaven
6. Hellfighters
7. Race to the Sea
8. Lady of the Dark
9. The Valley of Death
10. Christmas Truce
11. Versailles