KERRANG! 57JOAKIM
BRODÉN
(VOCALS)How long have you been thinking
about a Great War concept album?
“We’ve had the idea in our minds
since 2008 when we did The Art
Of War – another concept album
where every battle corresponds to
a chapter in the old military text
The Art Of War. We did Cliffs Of
Gallipoli, and The Price Of A Mile,
about the battle of Passchendaele.
Going through that process, we
realised that the conflict could be
an album by itself. When we started
talking about a new album a year
ago, we realised that – 100 years
since the end of the First World
War – the time was right.”How challenging is it to distil that
massive war into one album?
“It almost feels disrespectful, trying
to condense four years of conflict
into 40 minutes of heavy metal. For
every story we were able to tell,
there were 10 we had to abandon.
Going through our own thoughts,fan suggestions and new ideas, we
had 100 ideas before we started.
I wanted to do a song about the
Harlem Hellfighters – he story
of African-American fighters is
incredible – but you can only fit so
many in. Plus, we have to try not
to cover the same ground twice.
When we wrote The Future Of
Warfare – a song about tanks – it
meant that we couldn’t do a song
about the first use of submarines
in war.”With the specific, tragic history of
the First World War, was there a
pressure to make this album darker?
“Yes. Every album is different. On
The Last Stand [2016], we decided
to change the focus of the album
after the music was written. On this
album, the topics we’re covering
have affected the songwriting. This
one definitely has a darker, more
atmospheric feel than the last two.
I’d love to be able to [emulate
the much darker feel] of some
First World War stories, but we’re
Sabaton – we can’t get too dark!”Q&A
“THE TIME IS
RIGHT TO MAKE A
WWI ALBUM...”
JOAKIM BRODÉNSwedish military-metallers SABATON deliver
wartime remembrance on gung-ho ninth album...
“
W
hat passing bells
for those who
die as cattle?”
wondered warrior-
poet Wilfred
Owen in his haunting 1917 elegy
Anthem For Doomed Youth, shortly
before falling himself to the Great
War machine. “Only the monstrous
anger of the guns.” A century and
a year hence, do Sabaton grasp the
baton of remembrance with even
a semblance of that same tortured
subtlety? Of course they don’t.
But to search for understatement
would be to miss the point of this
rampaging ninth album.
The First World War has been
chronicled endlessly since it ceased.
Within metal, its shell-pocked battlefields
have been well traversed by Metallica’s
One, Motörhead’s 1916 and Iron Maiden’s
epic Paschendale. Where previous tellings
understandably fixated on the horror and futility
of mass slaughter, though, this chest-thumping
concept album sees the Swedish power metal
battalion dare to celebrate the world-shaping
machinations, epic upheaval and unimaginable
bravery the conflict precipitated.
Sweeping from general’s-eye overviews on
tactical and technological advancement (The
Future Of Warfare), via whites-of-their-eyes
encounters with individual units (82nd All The
Way), and a surprisingly profound denouement
(The End Of The War To End All Wars), here
Sabaton revel in their assignment. Stories unfurl
with an infectious nerdiness that undulates
between giddy Boys’ Own exuberance and a
museum curator’s painstaking attention to detail.
Veterans of the conflict infamously painted
it as “months of boredom punctuated by
moments of sheer terror”. There’s little of that
kind of dynamism here, with even ostensibly
‘understated’ passages overflowing with
bombast. It’s an immoderation that occasionallyveers into the farcical. A Ghost
In The Trenches, for instance –
chronicling the deadly heroism
of Canadian Aboriginal sniper
Francis Pegahmagabow – eschews
anything like the stealth of its
subject in favour of full-frontal
attack, a roof-raising key-change
and pyrotechnic guitar solos.
But then, when they do tone
it down, such as on the choral
closing rendition of John McCrae’s
heartbreaking In Flanders Fields,
although reassuringly reverent,
fits awkwardly with the earlier
extravagance on display.
When Sabaton hit their mark,
however, there are arterial sprays
of cheesy joy. The Attack Of The
Dead Men – based on the gas-wreathed last
defence of the Osowiec Fortress – pulsates with
doomed purpose to a cataclysmic marching
beat; the title-track is machine-tooled for arena-
sized sing-alongs; The Red Baron overloads on
sheer exuberant chutzpah, like an unhinged
cousin to Maiden’s Aces High. And yes, rhyming
‘Russia’ with ‘Prussia’ is crap, but when they
pair ‘Squadron leader’ to ‘Rote Kampfflieger’ a
couple of lines later, it would take the most dour
history geek not to crack a grin.
The Great War isn’t just a commemoration
of the centenary of the armistice (albeit a year
late), but of Sabaton’s own 20th year. There’s
something perversely fitting about this subject
matter as a benchmark of the Swedish meatballs’
iron-willed, do-or-die stylistic entrenchment.
They remain a laughing stock to some, but
there’s much to be said for not getting stuck
in the beige mediocrity of musical no man’s
land. And, having outmanoeuvred even their
most vociferous haters to the pinnacle of the
European festival circuit, the triumphalism
beating through these songs can be forgiven.
No guts, no glory, indeed. SAM LAWSABATON
THE GREAT WAR
(NUCLEAR BLAST)KKKK