Attero Dominatus

I have a strong measure of skepticism focused on Sabaton’s alleged greatness amongst current power metal circles, and their 3rd album (or 2nd depending on who you talk to) is the primary source for this uncertainty. I don’t doubt the catchiness, or even the obvious nods to earlier metal conventions which I tend to adore, but the entertainment factor is hit or miss depending on what parts of the band’s limited range of ideas is the point of focus. “Attero Dominatus”, which I would qualify as being the weakest of their efforts, could rightly be seen as a failed attempt to rehash “Primo Victoria” if the songwriting alone were the issue. However, a closer look at the delivery tells a slightly different story.

No matter how one looks at it, this album’s principle problem is that it is actually just a bit too polished for its own good. Apart from Broden’s rough growls, which are still closer to the guttural yet tonal character of “Fist For Fight” than the smoother character that would come in on “The Art Of War”, this comes off in the same sense that Hammerfall’s “Renegade” did in comparison to their first two albums. The dimensions of the sound, from the heavy keyboard presence to the distorted yet highly controlled guitar character, are so smooth that the album starts to sound a bit flat and uneventful, particularly on the supposed faster songs. This is particularly the case on “Back In Control” and “We Burn”, which might otherwise come off as decent references to early 80s Judas Priest, but are rendered limp by the posh production and is not compensated for with any interesting musical twists.

Naturally there are several moments of brilliance to be found on this album, particularly when the band elects to slow things down. Call me crazy, but that classic, down tempo bass line first popularized on Sabbath’s “Heaven And Hell” and rehashed by just about everybody from Queensryche to Paragon can’t help but churn out more classics, and that is what emerges in “Rise Of Evil”. It is more of a plodder than the various homage works that Axel Rudi Pell has paid to the classic Sabbath tune, but it tends to resemble Pell’s riffing style with a slightly more evolving approach, but a similarly mellow tone and a strong tendency for atmosphere alongside a melodic, bluesy lead guitar approach. Another obvious winner is “Angels Calling”, which takes a slightly more up tempo galloping character in the drum and riff work, but otherwise maintains that melancholy atmosphere and gives newly recruited keyboardist Daniel Myhr an opportunity to showcase the band’s latent yet still present Malmsteen/Stratovarius tendencies.

In many respects, this album could be seen as something of a contradiction when looking at the rest of Sabaton’s body of work. It tends to work better when the songs are longer and there is more opportunity for musical development to compensate for a somewhat overdone production. There are some exceptions to be found of course, as the opening title song has a very powerful chorus and a good driving sense to it that injects some much needed passion into what is largely a mechanical endeavor. Likewise, the closer “Metal Crue”, in addition to managing to reference over 30 influential rock and metal bands lyrically, is a solid up tempo celebration of melody and majesty that features Broden in fairly rare form, throwing out a few Halford inspired screams that most probably would not think a guy of his vocal character would be capable of. Unfortunately, a good amount of the middle of this album is left wanting, and may cause otherwise rock solid PM fans to use the skip button once or twice.

This isn’t an amazing follow up, nor is it a genuine flop worthy of being tossed under the bus for the fleeting pleasure of seeing a wasted CD shatter into oblivion. It might be a cliché to say it, mostly because this is where the majority of albums tend to fall, but it lays somewhere in the upper echelon of moderate entertaining albums. It comes off as rock solid at first, but loses its luster fairly quickly and is best left for occasional listens. It isn’t a mandatory purchase, but it is a decent pickup. Perhaps one of the perks of being a solid power metal band is that while you may not reach an ultra-impressive zenith when at the top of your game, when you hit rock bottom it isn’t a terribly long fall.

Originally submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on November 12, 2010.