Civil War

After the departure of four members of the famous Swedish power metal outfit Sabaton, the four guys decided to hire Stefan “Pizza” Eriksson as bassist from the death and thrash metal band Hell Patrol as well as from death metal band Volturyon and singer Nils Patrik Johansson who is involved in the heavy metal band Astral Doors, the power metal group Lion's Share, the melodic death metal outfit Ruined Soul and the progressive folk metal formation Wuthering Hights.

The new members sound promising and seem to add some diversity to the Sabaton-based sound but this isn’t the case at all on this first sign of life in form of a self-titled EP. The band delivers extremely unspectacular but at least well crafted epic mid tempo power metal with many catchy hooks and lyrics about the usual war topics. The vocals sound a little bit less like Joakim Brodén from Sabaton and rather remind me of Jorn. They are gripping and powerful enough to save this release from being only mediocre.

The band though fails to forge its own identity and sounds pretty much like Sabaton all the time. They offer heavy and gripping stuff like the energizing opener “Rome is Falling” which is probably the best song on here or the slower “Forevermore” which is a hard rock ballad with piano passages and a strong retro touch reminding of commercial heavy metal or hard rock of the late eighties. As a little surprise, the band added a Nelly Furtado cover on this EP with “Say It Right”. The boring pop song by the Canadian artist with Portuguese origins becomes a boring and rather soft metal song that fails to impress and sounds even older fashioned than the original. The track sounds a little bit like a Madonna b-side of the late eighties to my ears, even in the harder cover version.

In the end, Sabaton fans should keep an eye on this band and are probably not going to get disappointed by this release. Anybody else should stay with the original and this new band should definitely work on its own identity and bring in some fresh ideas to get further attention. The EP is not plain bad and rather entertaining but it’s not a good call either.

Originally written for The Metal Observer

When one wishes to deride a particular musical or artistic work as being overly plain or predictable, the most common analogy is to vanilla flavored ice cream. Such a label could be attributed to the recently born project of a conglomeration of former Sabaton members and present Astral Doors vocalist Nils Patrick Johansson, in much the same way as could be the case with the retro-80s heavy metal vibes embodied in the two projects that sprung this one forth. While the overall production quality, and particularly the massive guitar sound and punchy drums suggest a modern mindset, the intermingling of American and British influences from the early to mid 80s (most notably that of Dio) definitely speaks to past glory, and one that makes very little effort and hiding it.

Naturally any vanilla flavored sundae is going to have some syrup, sprinkles and other assorted toppings to go with it, but Civil War doesn't go very heavy on the extras insofar as their self-titled EP is concerned. Occasionally there's a slight nod to early Dream Theater with a fairly compelling though largely simple keyboard solo as heard on the "Say It Right" cover, and perhaps an infrequent guitar solo that bears some similarity to one of Vivian Campbell's tamer works on Dio's "Sacred Heart", but this is a collection of songs that largely try to appeal to an audience looking for things to be catchy and largely free of extended instrumental interludes or showmanship. In short, this is fit for rock radio, though put forth as something that would have been more appropriate circa 1985.

But for all the lack of surprises, Civil War definitely takes the masterful songwriting elements of both Sabaton and Astral Doors, and combines it with the superior vocal abilities of the latter outfit. Songs such as "Rome Is Falling" and "Forevermore" paint a dense landscape of heroism and tragedy, spearheaded by a keyboard drenched atmosphere comparable to what is heard on "Prima Victoria", but with a slightly greater guitar presence. The title song "Civil War" actually comes off as heavy compared to what both connected projects put out, sporting a principle riff that has a slight thrash tinge to it (think the transitional work from early 80s Diamond Head to Metallica's "No Remorse", though played a bit slower). All of this is tied together by an impressive vocal display out of Nils, whose Dio meets Udo howl brings a character of brilliance into what is otherwise a safe and plain musical affair.

It's a bit unclear as to whether this project will be primarily focused on the American Civil War, which is the direction of their soon to be full length debut "The Killer Angels", but they definitely have a winning formula for those who want a collection of easy to digest songs to sing along to while they get a history lesson on 19th century American conflicts both large and small (check "Custer's Last Stand" for the latter department, a song which is the closest thing to a speed metal song on here, though pretty slow compared to what is generally associated with European power metal). It might not rival the triumphant bluster of the Stratovarius crowd, nor the technical flair of the post-Malmsteen world populated by Luca Turilli and Dushan Petrossi, but it's sure to get the lighters in the arenas burning by the thousands.