Back to power metal you see. This time, we'll be going the more anthemic side of power metal. Sabaton is a power metal band from Sweden that seem to only have one topic in mind; war and war veterans. Though they generally talk about World War I and II in particular, there are other wars they touch base on, heck I wouldn't be suprised if they ever mentioned The American Revolution or The American Civil War at all.
This is a fairly short album including only 10 tracks of about 40 minutes total. Though when compared to other power metal bands like Blind Guardian or Hammerfall, they have a more realistic and anthemic nature as if it was made to played in war(which would be very cool too). The tracks all range from 3 minutes to 4:30 minutes most of the time and can pack a certain punch when each song is played. A good thing to note is the subject matter, which is a little bit specific to say the least considering it's the war veterans and soldiers of war which then gives us the title here. While some of these stories are maybe a bit hard to follow at times, I say screw that, the music is awesome in its self. Though, I have to give props to the track Inmate 4657, not sure about the numbers, which talks about the life and times of what it's like to be in the Concentration Camp that was set up in Germany I believe. We also get a character who presumably dies at the end and the song begins to end. Yeah, there aren't messing around here. Other songs like Resist and Bite, To Hell and Back, No Bullets Fly and Heart of Iron show a more anthemic side to Sabaton that they're known for. All are good songs and fun to listen to especially To Hell and Back which even starts with what's supposed to sound like a wake up call for soldiers I believe but with a flute. The one problem I can say with not only this album but most of their work, is that it's not all that diverse to me. Not to say I can't pick out one song from the other though, that is easy to do, but maybe at least one epic 10 minute song will do somewhere. Plus they get more time to tell a story if that's what they want to do with it.
I give this an 8/10. I am the Grim Reaper, signing off.