Band:	Sabaton
Album:	The Great War
Style:	Power metal
Release date:	July 2019

Disc I
01. The Future Of Warfare
02. Seven Pillars Of Wisdom
03. 82nd All The Way
04. The Attack Of The Dead Men
05. Devil Dogs
06. The Red Baron
07. Great War
08. A Ghost In The Trenches
09. Fields Of Verdun
10. The End Of The War To End All Wars
11. In Flanders Fields

Disc II [History Edition]
01. The Future Of Warfare
02. Seven Pillars Of Wisdom
03. 82nd All The Way
04. The Attack Of The Dead Men
05. Devil Dogs
06. The Red Baron
07. Great War
08. A Ghost In The Trenches
09. Fields Of Verdun
10. The End Of The War To End All Wars
11. In Flanders Fields

Disc III [The Soundtrack Edition]
01. The Future Of Warfare
02. Seven Pillars Of Wisdom
03. 82nd All The Way
04. The Attack Of The Dead Men
05. Devil Dogs
06. The Red Baron
07. Great War
08. A Ghost In The Trenches
09. Fields Of Verdun
10. The End Of The War To End All Wars
11. In Flanders Fields

Well, Mr. ScreamingSteelUS recently did a review of this record. And just like last time with The Last Stand, I'll do one as well. Looking at the scores it looks like he finds this album an improvement over the previous one. Is it though? Yes? No? well? maybe a bit? It's complicated?

This is Sabaton as you already know them. I know I said that last time as well, but hey if Sabaton can recycle melodies and vocal harmonies in every album then I can reuse my words from a previous Sabaton review!

All joking aside, this is one of the things that has become extremely noticeable on the last few releases. It all feels familiar. Too familiar if you ask me. The same song structures over and over again. At some point it's going to get stale for certain listeners. And I feel like one of those listeners.

That said, there are things I really enjoyed on this record like the overly epic intro of the title track (I can't help it, but I love that kind of stuff). The rest of the song I like as well. The lyrics for instance, they feel a bit more personal. "Bullets wear your name"; that line reminded me of a certain other band that I really like, which has a similar line ("Your number's up, the bullet's got your name") in their song "The Longest Day". And I like that approach of storytelling.

Then there are the smaller details that I like. The bridge part of "Attack Of The Dead Men" for instance. The band slows that part down which makes the chorus that follows, sound more impactful. The intro for "The Red Baron" is really nice. Unfortunately though, the rest of the song can't captivate me because it's something that I've heard so many times before from Sabaton. Same goes for "Fields Of Verdun" and most of the other songs. I mean a friend of mine who isn't really much into metal, started listening to Sabaton. So, he hasn't listened to any of their previous albums. And he absolutely loves songs like "Bismarck" and "Fields Of Verdun". So, I'm almost 100% convinced that it's the fatigue speaking when I have a "meh" feeling towards these songs.

And yet, a song like "Seven Pillars Of Wisdom" has on paper the same issues, but I still like it for some reason. What can I say? I'm weird... Production is just solid as always. Similar to the last album in many ways. Which is fine. Drums have oomph, guitars are a little more prominent in the mix than on their last release, vocals are clear, and bass and synthesizer are treated with the utmost respect. I still prefer the style of production from Heroes but this is good stuff nonetheless.

It's the same story for the performance of the band members. Solid work. Nothing more to say.

In the end I can say that this album is made with very solid ideas, but it feels formulaic by now. In short, would I recommend this album to other people? Yes, if you are a Sabaton fan; otherwise I probably wouldn't. I would probably recommend some of their other albums like The Art Of War, Carolus Rex, Primo Victoria, or Heroes.

And yes, that last paragraph is also recycled from my review of The Last Stand. I hope at this point you realise what my biggest issue is with this album. But still, I feel that paragraph is a fitting description of how I feel about this album and the direction Sabaton is heading in general. That said, if there's anything this album has taught is that recycling can still have its fun moments.

As mentioned at the start of the review, Mr. ScreamingSteelUS thought The Great War is better than the previous one. I think it's more or less the same. But yeah, all in all I very slightly prefer this album over the previous one as well.

Oh, one final note, this review is too long according to the guidelines for writing a review on Metal Storm. Which is the complete opposite of the actual album that I'm reviewing which, at less than 40 minutes, is rather short.