Ah, Sabaton. If you’re reading this you probably already know that this power metal band hailing from Sweden have made a living writing and performing songs about military and warfare history. This is a pretty narrow niche, but one that seems to be growing with bands like 1914 and God Dethroned doubling down on similar topics. After the mixed reception of their last album, I was hoping that they would regroup and come back stronger. On The Great War, referencing World War I, this high concept band narrow their focus even more to a specific war, rather than bouncing through history in search of common themes. This worked well for arguably the band’s best album, Carolus Rex. Let’s see how it pans out in the trenches of turn-of-the-twentieth-century Europe.

One of the things that makes Sabaton work well for me is they play energetic, catchy power metal, but do so without some of the tired themes and higher-register vocals that dominate this style. There is a clap of thunder to Joakim Brodén’s vocals that grounds the otherwise insubstantial sounds that often emerge from this genre. “The Future Of Warfare” kicks things off on this record and the aforementioned thunder is in full force right from the start. Everything one would expect from a Sabaton song is here: classic metal guitar solos, bombastic chorus, choral backing, keys, and drumming to wake the dead. It’s a nice start that embraces what they have done in the past, but also adds new little wrinkles such as some even deeper registered vocals and more.