ALBUM REVIEW: The War To End All Wars – Sabaton
The Great War was one of SABATON’s best albums of the last decade, however it was also frustratingly short. Based entirely on events from the First World War, it was a thumping great record of blood and thunder, ideal for anyone that likes their memorable choruses to be historically accurate. But the runtime was less than 40 minutes and it was easy to feel irritated that it wasn’t longer. The individual tracks were epics and what was there was tremendous, but it did feel like SABATON hadn’t fully explored their chosen topic deeply enough.
Given that they’ve now delivered another album with the same theme, they’d probably agree with that sentiment. The War To End All Wars was written and recorded apart from its older sibling, but it still comes across like the second half of a two-disc project. The Swedes aren’t done with the trenches yet.
And quite frankly, if they decide to do a third album in the series, we’d have no complaints because The War To End All Wars is terrific. SABATON don’t do much to play with their established formula and instead refine what made The Great War so enthralling. These tracks are just as macho as their predecessors, but the testosterone-fuelled melodies are catchier, the songs stronger and it’s just generally better across the board. The War To End All Wars and The Great War might be twins, but one of them has more protein in its diet.
It helps that The War To End All Wars has one of the most poignant songs they’ve written in years. Christmas Truce is a track they were always destined to write; a bittersweet anthem about the unofficial ceasefire of December 1914. It was over a hundred years ago but this moment still carries incredible cultural weight and they do a grand job tackling it. It captures the quiet humanity with a haunting piano melody and some genuinely moving lyrics. It’s a ballad of course, it had to be, but it’s a truly gut-wrenching one and when they play it live, there won’t be a dry eye in the house.
It’s not a one-song album though and there are plenty of highlights to choose from. Stormtroopers is a barnstorming war song, reminiscent of long-time fan favourite Ghost Division, while The Unkillable Soldier is a galloping sword-swinger. The best of the lot though is Soldier Of Heaven, an astonishing three-and-a-half-minutes in the mountains of the Italian front. It’s a rousing, adrenaline-pumping song with a chorus that lodges in the brain and is harder to remove than barbed wire twisted around a broken limb.
Mercifully, The War To End All Wars manages to have a decent run-time as well. SABATON have long been guilty of ending things too soon and while it could still do with having two or three more tracks, it doesn’t finish so quickly that you feel short-changed. There’s room to debate whether this, 2008’s The Art Of War or 2012’s Carolus Rex is their best record, but for the first time in ages, it actually feels like they’ve delivered a full album, rather than an extended EP. Plus, it’s got a song on it about a bad-ass Serbian woman who disguised herself as a man and spent four years as a killing machine.
Rating: 8/10
The War To End All Wars is set for release on March 4th via Nuclear Blast Records.
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