The Art of War

A couple years back when seeing the second cinema installment of “The Chronicles of Narnia”, I was taken aback by a particular dialogue where the term “noble contradiction” was employed. By itself this term has a near endless range of possible meanings, but for some reason I always tend to come back to questions of popular vs. side stream culture. From the standpoint of most that are immersed in the former, the music of an otherwise heavily accessible band like Sabaton wouldn’t compute, in spite of its formal conformity to many of pop music’s accepted conventions. But to most who listen to metal, even amongst those who hunger for the super-catchy variety that typified the late 1990s, this Swedish outfit is considered among the most overt examples of flirtation with mainstream sensibilities, and these are the opinions that ultimately matter.

In spite of a few quirks of individuality in the vocal and lyrical department, Sabaton defines itself by sticking to a very strict and basic format. It is, by consequence, very easy music to both get into, and unfortunately also a little too easy to leave behind soon after. In keeping with this, the notion of them putting together an ambitious concept album with multiple chapters carrying a single unifying story seems quite out of character, but this is pretty much what “The Art Of War” attempts. Littered with ambient keyboard sections with narrated fragments from Sun Tzu’s writings by the same name, it puts itself forward as a work of depth and intrigue. However, upon closer inspection there is little aside from this to distinguish this album from its heavily predictable and polished predecessor “Attero Dominatus”.

The important thing to understand is that this is by no means a bad album; in fact, it is loaded with entertaining elements for anyone who likes singing along with a memorable tune while driving. There are few fancy parts, and a lot of recognizable melodies that have been modified from the prototypical 80s Judas Priest or Accept flirtations with Top 40 music for that period. The keyboard parts take on a particular prominence aside from atmospherics and take the helm at many points, most notably on the mid-paced “Cliffs Of Gallipoli”, which was also one of the more noteworthy songs on here from a popularity standpoint. Although there are definitely hints at early 80s Black Sabbath worship going on, the combination of melodies really gets dangerously close to the latest AOR hit, save the heavier nature of the guitars and Broden’s gritty, almost Lemmy inspired vocal character.

But it is important to keep in mind that despite the highly accessible nature of this album, it is still a power metal album. As such, there are plenty of faster and triumphant sounding points to be heard, particularly in the “Screaming For Vengeance” inspired cooker “40:1”, which is also a pretty good lyrical ode to Polish resistance to the Nazis. A criticism could be levied against this band for being a little obsessed with WWII history, but they seem to be able to carry it nicely and even make time to show both the glory and the horror of that particular war, and others in general. However, where the band really pulls it together is on the slower material, particularly on that of the longer songs in “The Price Of A Mile” and “Unbreakable”, both of which demonstrate the band’s ability to turn a really basic groove into a memorable and moving song, though the latter does pick up towards the end in the usual “Heaven And Hell” fashion.

The ultimate problem that faces this band is that their scope of ideas, while showing some variation, is actually very narrow and limiting. While “The Art Of War” comes across as being ambitious and compelling the first few listens, it tends to get stale afterward and needs some time on the shelf to cool off. It isn’t really much of a stretch to say that Sabaton is akin to the AC/DC of power metal, perhaps even more so than Accept was for 80s metal. As such it is a safe bet that if one of this band’s albums agreed with you, this one will too. Just don’t expect any radical leaps in evolution from what was heard on “Primo Victoria”.

Originally submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on March 13, 2011.