Steel Commanders

I've been a heavy critic of Sabaton as of late; seeing the band that got me into metal become an awful, bland, pop-oriented act has been certainly disappointing, and the singles they've released so far this year, 2021, have left me with a sour taste in my mouth. Generic riffing, predictable song structures, repetitive melodies and complexity-lacking songwriting seem to have become the norm for this band, but after listening to this song, maybe, just maybe, there's some hope to be put on this band.

"Steel Commanders" is a song that talks about that one thing Sabaton is associated the most with: tanks. The lyrics are a massive improvement over the ones in their most recent albums, at least in my opinion, as they make mention of different historical figures, battlefields and tank models, in a cohesive, coherent way, managing to tell a story that makes sense, without necessarily dramatizing anything, although that slight glorification-of-sorts of war is still there. When it comes to the music itself, it's very Sabaton-esque, and by that I mean that there's absolutely nothing new here, it's the same old Sabaton, but I'd say the sound here is more in line with Heroes than with their older stuff.

Now, as much as I might want to make this song look like it's a great improvement over their recent crap, it is not a big leap for their songwriting. The song structure is as predictable as it can get: Intro-Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus-Bridge-Chorus. The bridge has a breakdown and then goes into some orchestration while the last chorus creeps its way into the song. The lead riff that plays at the start of the song and after every chorus sounds way too familiar, and it's because Sabaton has developed this niche for having these epic, melodic leads as to create some sort of emphasis or climax in the music, but it becomes as repetitive and boring as the lead-ridden music bands like Avenged Sevenfold make, where they just overuse this style of songwriting so much that you just feel like you've heard it all before. The chorus also feels too familiar, because it also uses the same structure, the same feeling, the same every-fucking-thing than all of the stuff Sabaton has written in the 7 years or so; long gone are the days of songs such as "Stalingrad" or "Attero Dominatus", replaced by these crowded choruses with choirs, backing vocals, and intertwining verses.

The song overall feels like a copycat of their previous stuff, but it's way more enjoyable than anything else I've heard by them as of recent, it would seem like they could probably get out of the hole they got themselves into and become a rather decent, enjoyable metal act again. Now, this is just too optimistic, and I don't expect their upcoming album to have many if any songs like this one, and the reason is because this song is probably a one-off single just as "Bismarck", which wasn't included in their last album and was instead a single released in collaboration with World of Warships, just as this one has been released in collaboration with World of Tanks. Just like "Bismarck", this song will likely not be released as part of their new album, specially given that its lyrics don't focus on the Great War, and so I just think that this is one highlight to be pointed out in the sea of shit Sabaton is swimming in.

I hope I am wrong, and that their new album has more songs like this one, at least so I don't totally lose all hope on this band ever releasing any decent music again, but this is unlikely. For what it's worth, this song is decent enough, but the future of this band looks bleak in my eyes.