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01. Night Witches |
Verdict: 7
Sabaton - Heroes Review
In an obvious power struggle within the band four of the members left Sabaton with only two remaining members, Joakim Broden and bass player Pär Sundström. This was in a sensitive time for the band when they were about to release a thematic album regarding their own nation at war. Swedes have a quite strange relationship with their heritage. And it is rarely talked about in public. On top of that they decided to have two versions of the album, one in their native tongue Swedish and one in English. Same songs with (almost) the same lyrics twice... Could that work?
It proved to be successful move, the album was a enormous success in Sweden and for the first time Sabaton became a name with the broader public.
Now the time has come to prove that Sabaton MAC II can deliver under pressure. Actually Joakim stated that he trashed quite a bit of material in the process of writing for Heroes. He really wanted to be sure that the album was good enough.
I have listened quite a bit to this album and in the beginning I was not to fond of it at all. Sabaton is not famous for being all that progressive but the opening of the album just seemed to generic. The melodies just didn't seem to stick.
After a while I found the story of Lauri Törni, Soldier of 3 armies. This guy fought for the Finnish army, the Nazis as well as for the US! That is one wicked tune about a wicked story. Then Far From Fame caught fire in my head. The story of Karel Janousek, a hero that fought on the first as well as in the second world war. I have started to unlock this album from the end.
I tell you, the new Sabaton new album Heroes is a continuance of the art of war rather than a follow up of Carolus Rex.
There is this Ballad called the Ballad of Bull that is a filler. I guess that Joakim wanted to have his Meatloaf moment there but come on...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhmHSAClG1c