A great musical tribute to the people who will always be our heroes of what was known as ‘The Great War’.
With Sabaton now celebrating their 20th anniversary, is there anything they can't or indeed won't do? Their ninth full-length studio album will arrive during the summer festival season in July and it's yet another historical-based release that offers their passionate enthusiasts a brand-new selection of bombastic battle hymns.
This latest effort is entitled 'The Great War' and it features eleven tracks that were all (unsurprisingly) inspired by events during the First World War. Known for their immense respect and regard when it comes to history, Sabaton started recording the album exactly one hundred years after the end of WWI and it took them three months of intense work to complete.
Coming back to my opening question, the band have now started their own Sabaton History Channel on YouTube with multi-media historians Indy Neidell and TimeGhost where they will be able to show the stories behind the wars, battles and heroes that various Sabaton songs are based upon. The new album will be available in multiple formats, including a regular eleven-track release, an eleven-track 'History Edition', a 2CD earbook containing both versions, various coloured vinyl copies of both and a limited-edition 3CD/3LP 'The Great Box Edition' (which contains CDs and LPs of both variants, 'The Soundtrack To The Great War' instrumental CD/LP and other goodies).
As someone who likes to listen to a record from start to finish, the 'History Edition' is absolutely my favourite version. It takes the album's eleven individual track concept and somewhat re-imagines it with nearly five extra minutes of historical stories narrated by a female British actress which link each track together to create a more expansive and informative retelling of WWI.
The first single to be released was 'Fields Of Verdun' and bassist Pär Sundström comments, "We choose 'Fields Of Verdun' to be the first single since we felt it represented the album perfectly, a classic Sabaton Metal song which we cannot wait to include in the future set-lists." The two tracks which I personally enjoyed the most are 'Devil Dogs' and 'The Red Baron', and within the music and lyrics I could almost see the story of events happening as I listened.
The 'History Edition' is unquestionably the one to obtain; do not listen to it on shuffle, just sit back and enjoy this historical story which represents a great musical tribute to the people who will always be our heroes of what was known as 'The Great War'.
Samantha C. Wright
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