Band:	Sabaton
Album:	The Last Stand
Style:	Power metal
Release date:	August 2016

01. Sparta
02. Last Dying Breath
03. Blood Of Bannockburn
04. Diary Of An Unknown Soldier
05. The Lost Battalion
06. Rorke's Drift
07. The Last Stand
08. Hill 3234
09. Shiroyama
10. Winged Hussars
11. The Last Battle
12. Camouflage [Stan Ridgway cover][bonus]
13. All Guns Blazing [Judas Priest cover][bonus]

The hype train for The Last Stand was as swift, powerful, and unstoppable as Jan III Sobieski at the Battle of Vienna. Sabaton and Nuclear Blast ardently touted this album as a new chapter in the band's sonic evolution, a new incarnation of our Swedish pals featuring more experimentation and variation than ever. It's clear that they wanted us to recognize something greater in The Last Stand. But what is it that sets The Last Stand apart?

While Heroes found Sabaton digging deeper, darker, and grittier trenches, The Last Stand embarks on a journey in the opposite direction, brimming with lighter, catchier, and more uplifting melodies than ever. Sabaton has reinvented itself as an even brighter, more melodic, and more epic-sounding force, news which is undoubtedly loathsome to those who already found the band's trademark bombast saccharine and cloying - but to those fans who appreciate the uncomplicated magniloquence that Sabaton exemplifies, or to those who found the last few albums monotonous and shallow, The Last Stand represents revitalization and new possibilities. With a mere key change, "The Lost Battalion" transforms from a dramatic re-write of "Hearts Of Iron" into a triumphant, upbeat hymn that breaks new ground for the first time in ages, and for that reason, I believe that "The Lost Battalion" was the most appropriate choice for the first single. In that song, we can pinpoint the exact moment of transition from old Sabaton into new.

This Sabaton sounds more honest and inspired than Heroes, or even several older albums. Taking as much influence from the Europop of the members' youth as from the standard gamut of metal forefathers, The Last Stand sounds like the album S-ᗅᗺᗷᗅ-ton always wanted to make, but avoided for fear of disconcerting fans; the energy and passion pour through in volumes never before heard on a Sabaton record. Joakim's voice soars higher and more confidently than ever, continuing his steady improvement from album to album (one of my personal favorite aspects of this band), and the cheesiest keyboards to date, much more present than on Heroes, embellish these Brobdingnagian anthems with enough pomp to drown Louis XIV. The album's highly apposite thematic preoccupation, indicated by the title, strengthens the dramatic impact of the musical approach and is likely responsible for some of The Last Stand's resounding success.

It's clear that "Last Dying Breath," "Rorke's Drift," and "Hill 3234" took the brunt of the recycling; any Sabaton fan worth their salt could rattle off the older tracks reimagined in those three. It was inevitable that we wouldn't get a whole Sabaton album without some reincarnations; after all, The Last Stand is a fulfillment of the Sabaton promise, not a repudiation of the band's trademarks. I'm not bothered by filler, especially filler that trumps the Heroes- and Carolus Rex-brand filler. With only "The Last Battle" making reference to World War II (a record low for Sabaton, not counting Metalizer), The Last Stand explores new thematic realms to make up for some of those stale-ish riffs.

Casual listeners may well dismiss this entire album as another in a long, cannibalistic line, but fox-eared fans will detect the many differences, sometimes subtle, that prove that Sabaton worked up a sweat to make The Last Stand shine. Floor Jansen needs to guest on every Sabaton album, because her voice could very well be the whistling of the Winged Hussars themselves. The riffs in "Last Dying Breath" march and batter like Rammstein, but they twang like Mötley Crüe; the drum kit used on "The Lost Battalion," a construction sampling gunfire, grenade explosions, and bayonets ripping flesh for percussive effect, draws the listener deep into the Argonne with one of the most warlike atmospheres Sabaton has yet achieved. "Sparta" is a volcanic song destined to be entrance music for the world's greatest professional wrestler/tank commander/head-of-state, "The Last Battle" amusingly recounts the strangest tale of WWII over a driving dance beat, and the title track has just claimed the position of my favorite Sabaton song with its unflaggingly triumphant lead-in to the final chorus. "Winged Hussars" has Winged Hussars, and I've got nothing else to say about that.

This is power metal for the fan who loves to sing along, but doesn't want to remember too many words. This is music for the fan who likes ideas expressed in big choruses, big chords, and big words, for whom history is an open and endless book with a bitchin' guitar solo wedged in between every few pages. For some, Sabaton's grandstanding is crass, cringe-worthy, or even offensive. For me, Sabaton is triumph, a fathomless wellspring of spirit that replenishes the exsanguinated corpses of textbooks and makes everything I've ever loved about history come alive. Honestly, I can't imagine looking at Sabaton without the lens of historical devotion, so it's fully understandable for somebody disinterested in military exploits to pass up Sabaton. But ask yourself: if a handsomely-mustachioed Swede in reflective aviators and body armor shouting about 189 Swiss Guards, 500 samurai, and 3,000 Winged Hussars doesn't make you want to jump up and down like an idiot and scream about tanks, then what the hell are you living for?

All in all, 1683/1791, would ask to join the Holy League.