Coat of Arms

Sabaton. What can we say about them? Are they true masters of power metal that deliver awesome songs about fighting Nazis, or are they putrid wannabes that keep recording their same songs over and over and branding them as new ones? I'm more towards loving their stuff, since I am a big history buff like they are, but I do know that there are some qualities of Sabaton that show that they don't exhibit their full potential. "Coat of Arms" is the best example of their flaws. It really isn't a terrible album, all things considered, (I mean, I do like it), but there are definitely some problems with the music on here.

Have you ever heard a song from a particular band that you feel that you've heard before from another? Yep, you get that feeling when you listen to "Coat of Arms". The only exception is that Sabaton seems to be copying THEMSELVES to create some of the songs on here. It's like they took an older song of theirs, put a coat of paint on it, and then called it a new song. Take for instance "Aces in Exile", a song about foreign pilots from countries taken over by Nazi Germany that join the British Royal Air Force. The lyrics are inspiring, but all of this doesn't really add up, cos the song itself sounds like a complete clone of "40:1". The lyrics are about people from countries that the Nazis conquered standing up to fight them, just like "40:1", The song begins with Joakim and co. singing part of the chorus, just like "40:1", and it's got a catchy chorus and a peppy, upbeat melody.....JUST LIKE "40:1". The resemblances between the two songs are so similar, that the only difference between them is that "Aces in Exile" is at a different tempo than "40:1". That's it. That's the only way to distinguish between the songs.

There are other songs that are flawed like "Aces in Exile", cos they suffer the same problem; they sound almost exactly like other songs that Sabaton has written in the past. The synthesizer riff in the title track kind of sounds like the synthesizer solo in "Ghost Division". Oh wait...it IS the synthesizer solo in "Ghost Division"!! What, could Daniel Myhr's creativity only go so far? What's the deal here? Wait, there's more! The synthesizer solo in "The Final Solution" almost sounds completely like the guitar solo in "Cliffs of Gallipoli", and "Uprising" sounds like a direct clone of the title track of "The Art of War". I mean, listen! There's a slow synthesizer intro that is interrupted by guitars and a slow to mid-paced song with an epic-sounding synthesizer riff, both are also found on "The Art of War". The synthesizer riffs in both songs sound eerily similar to each other, so much so that you'd think that Sabaton would have only needed to change the lyrics of one of their older songs to create a new one! Gee, it must have been quite a slow week for Joakim and the boys, cos judging by some of the songs on here, their creativity must have tanked completely when they recorded them (no pun intended).

However, I did say that the album isn't terrible, though. There are some songs on here that are totally enjoyable. "Wehrmacht", for example, is a mid-paced song with a grinding, crunching, evil-sounding guitar/synthesizer riff that resembles a sort of terrifying, unstoppable war machine bent on conquering and destroying all in its path (which is basically what the subject matter is). It really puts the image of a group of impassive Nazi soldiers goose-stepping to the beat of the song in the mind of the listener, and the fact that the chorus is sung in bass/baritone form only punctuates that image. It's a song that totally describes how powerful and sinister this massive invasion force was. I also enjoyed "The White Death", a song about a Finnish sniper that killed hundreds of Soviet soldiers during the Winter War of 1939 and was incredibly hard to kill. It has an upbeat and galloping riff that captures the mood of how triumphant the guy was in accomplishing the feat of being the most feared sniper in all of the Finnish army. And then there's "Screaming Eagles", my personal favorite song on the album, cos it's one of the most fast-paced songs on it. That fast tempo, combined with the aggressive and desperate-sounding guitar riffs, creates the setting of American soldiers surrounded by Nazis with no reinforcements coming to help them out, which is basically what the song is about; the last major victory the Nazis had before they lost the war.

Just as there are some good songs to listen to on the album, there is also an equal number of songs that are bland and boring cos I've totally heard them before, just in a different form. I consider this album the lowest point in Sabaton's career, cos much of the songs on here aren't as fresh and original as anything from their previous releases. Despite that, there still are quite some powerful and epic songs that you can headbang to on it, so it's not completely ruined or anything. If you don't enjoy the album, like I did, that's fine, cos I can totally understand the reasons for you being dissatisfied with it. It's a good album, but it's not excellent or anything that's super special or one of a kind. It's just an album that isn't the best Sabaton album to date.