[Album Review] The Last Stand by Sabaton - Metal

[TheSociopath]

Track Listing:

Sparta 4:25 7/10

Last Dying Breath 3:26 6/10

Blood of Bannockburn 2:57 9/10

Diary of an Unknown Soldier 0:52 ....

The Lost Battalion 3:40 8/10

Rorke's Drift 3:29 10/10

The Last Stand 3:59 9/10

Hill 3234 3:31 10/10

Shiroyama 3:36 10/10

Winged Hussars 3:54 8/10

The Last Battle 3:13 7/10

 

Sabaton is a Power Metal band from Sweden, all of these songs make heavy use of drums and electric guitars, and more or less most else you would expect from a metal band.

 

The Album starts off with Sparta, predictably about Sparta, fighting Persia. While I love the opening, and the chorus, I feel that some of the verses are slightly weak. 

 

Next is Last Dying Breath, about a Serbs defending their capital in 1915. While I can't point to anything in particular that isn't as good with this one, it just doesn't feel very gripping, even while listening to it. 

 

Following is Blood of Bannockburn, about Scotland trying to drive the English out by sieging Stirling Castle. I, as an ardent bagpipe lover, quite like this one.

 

The Diary of an Unknown Soldier isn't actually a true song, although it does have a very nice rythm composed of sounds that taken individually sound somewhat similar to gunfire. 

 

It leads very nicely into The Lost Battalion. This is the track that I always forget about, even though I actually rather like it while I'm listening to it. It narrates a battle in Argonne during WW I.

 

The next, Rorke's Drift, is my personal favorite out of this album, detailing a battle of approximately 3000 zulus attacking 150 British during the Anglo-Zulu war. This chorus takes forever to get out of my head afterwards, and I rather like that.

 

Next, The Last Stand, is about the defense of the vatican during a mutiny against Charles V.  This was the first track of both this album and Sabaton in general that I heard. The word I best use to describe this song is fluid. On most other songs I can tell what is supposed to be a verse, and it lines up pretty well with the official lyrics. Except for the stanzas seperated by lengthy instrumental sections and the chorus, I can't with this one.

 

Next, Hill 3234, This was the last one of these that I heard, relates the story of 39 soviet soldiers who camped out on a hilltop to control a road, and were attacked by 250 mujahideen during the Soviet-Afghan war. This one actually repeats most of the lyrics completly, not just the chorus. 

 

Contiuning along, Shiroyama, is another of my personal favorites, about the final battle involving Samurai. 500 samurai in 1877 fighting, aparentaly, 3000 rebels. I really like how the story isn't actually told for about half the song. A large part of it is more the result of a old man pondering time. 

 

Next, Winged Hussars, the ottoman empire was sieging Vienna, (1683) and could have taken the city just a few days after relief forces arrived.  This one just doesn't seem quite as gripping as the last two.

 

Finally, the last song: The Last Battle. This one is about how in the final days of WW II, some Americans and Germans joined forces in order to save the lives of some French prisoners against supieror SS forces. This one, while a placed very nicely to cap off the album, is forgettable enough, and as the third song titled "the last/lost something or another", manages to get itself confused even more. 

 

 I would give the album an over all of 7/10. It seems that the general consensus on this album is that if you started listening to Sabaton before their album Carolus Rex, you'll dislike it and see them all as more or less the same song. If you started listening afterwards, you'll like it. However, even though this was my first album from Sabaton, I can defininetly see how the accusation of monotony was leveled at it. I would not reccomend getting this album just to listen to by itself. However, if interspersed with different songs by different artists, I think it would be worth the place in your playlist. 

[Guest]

Sabaton is an awesome band. I had the chance to see them live, they really rock and they really give everything so that the audience has a great time. I agree with the monotony thing, we usually listen to them in a larger mix ^.^

 

2 points for you.

and 1 for me *evil laugh*

[TheSociopath]

points. Coolio.

[Katiora]

and a completed RR task done well