Customer Reviews

Art of War

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"The Art of War" (2008) is the fifth album by Swedish power metal band Sabaton. On the whole, it's more of the same here. If you're familiar with their previous work, you know you're getting heavy, aggressive metal, Joakim Broden's deep, gravelly vocals, and historically-educational military-oriented lyrics. There's more keyboard here than we've heard from them in the past, though, and this album sounds more "produced" than their previous ones.

There are thirteen tracks here, but only ten songs. Everything is listenable enough, but nothing is outstanding. Sabaton's previous albums have featured some melodic overlap; there's more of that here, as "Cliffs of Gallipoli" is highly reminiscent of "Rise of Evil" from "Attero Dominatus." One hopes they're not running out of ideas.

This album is interspersed with quotes from Sun Tzu's "The Art of War." It's kind of annoying, but it's not a deal-breaker.

On the whole, "The Art of War" is a solid but unremarkable power metal album from a band that's done better before.

The latest offering from the Swedish metal group Sabaton is awesome. Catchy riffs, powerful yet clean vocal and lyrics inspired by conflicts such as World War I and II. Very talented group who pulls their inspiration from history. Most highly recomended.

Originally released in 2008, The Art of War was the fourth full-length release from Swedish power metal brigade Sabaton, who pair their hard charging melodic heavy metal sound with an obsession with warfare. Running Wild and Powerwolf are the closest points of comparison to Sabaton's sound. Just substitute the songs about pirates (Running Wild) and the devil (Powerwolf) with songs about tanks and old battles.

The Art of War is Sabaton's first full-on concept album. Sure, all their songs are more or less focused on war and battles, but this album looks at various battles in modern warfare through the lens of Sun Tzu's famous treatise on war. Musically, The Art of War isn't much different than the rest of the Sabaton catalog. It's upbeat, hard-hitting power metal with great melodies and martial rhythms. There are a couple of key highlights here, including "The Art of War" and "Cliffs of Gallipoli" that have become staples of Sabaton's high-energy live shows, but aside from some throwaway spoken word interludes the whole album is quite solid.

The Art of War is another solid Sabaton release, and while the band didn't necessarily break any new ground here, you can't help but get into an album like this. It's a strong, hard-hitting, melodic power metal album that should definitely appeal to fans of bands like Running Wild, Powerwolf, Grave Digger, Rage, Hammerfall, Jag Panzer, and perhaps even the militaristic Bolt Thrower.

Edition Notes: Nuclear Blast reissued a "Re-Armed" edition of The Art of War in 2010. The new version features four bonus tracks, including the original songs "Swedish Pagans" and "Glorious Land," a demo version of "The Art of War" and a live version of the Swedish National Anthem. Unlike the other three albums in this "Re-Armed" series, The Art of War does not feature expanded liner notes. The booklet is identical to the 2008 version. The idea behind the reissue was to get the early Sabaton albums, which didn't have the best distribution initially, in the hands of the new fans who discovered the band after they signed to Nuclear Blast. This approach makes perfect sense, and they really have included enough extras here to make it worth replacing the earlier version if you bought it the first time around.

Ok I don't know if this is just the re-armed version or if it's all of them. Anyway, there is a very noticeable echo that is quite apparent on Cliffs of Gallipoli. Listening closely to the other songs, this echo seems to be throughout the whole album but not noticeable enough for me to care. I first heard Cliffs of Gallipoli on youtube watching the music video and listened to it a dozen times before finally buying the album. Wow... This version of this song is crap because of the annoying echo... it's really only noticeable during the slow parts but it's annoying none the less since it's my favorite song on the album. Re-watching the music video again, there does seem to be a slight echo in that too but it seems to have been cleaned up a little and is almost non-existent during the fast parts. So I guess this echo was there from the very beginning. But come on, this is like your 4th release. Surely they could get a better quality album than this. I went back to Primo Victoria and listened to Purple Hearts just to see if they echoed in the older ones or if it was my computer or something but it's crystal clear. What the hell?

Since this seems to be prevalent on all versions of Art of War, I guess there isn't much you can do (unless the original release doesn't have this problem)... and it's too good of an album to pass up IMO. So yes, I would recommend it over all and I only really noticed the echo on that one song. A bummer but, hey... The music on this album is great. I love this band and if you love any of their other stuff, I'd definitely check it out. Just wish it was recorded better or whatever.

Sabaton's Music only gets better with each release, The Art Of war is the best yet! My personal favorite is What price for a mile? A hard hitting song about World War 1, but it brings back for me the bitter memories of the waste of 58,000+ lives that were lost my war, Vietnam. I still don't know what it was all for? The Art Of War has Great Sound, Great Lyrics and a Great Message. I'd recommend it to anybody that loves Great Music.

I first heard Sabaton while watching a YouTube video, the song was 40:1 and it rekindled my love of metal. The music is driving and unlike most metal music - it actually says something. The album is about war (like so much metal music) but the stories within the music are real. The music connects with you, rather than you having to connect to the music. <><> For months now, it is the only music that plays in my vehicle, its that good <><> Get this album!

This is STRAIGHT UP power metal music. The vocals are somewhat gruff, but clearly understandable and in NO WAY screaming or guttural. The theme of the album runs throughout and the vocal interludes are interesting and deal directly with th song.

War-inspired SABATON are back again with another album of War Anthems.
Previous songs of theirs like "Primo Victoria" may seem unbeatable, but there are a few new ones here that come close.

SABATON's strategy to make you buy this album consists of several parts:

1) CONCEPT -- Sun Tzu's "Art of War" is the whole focus of this album and there is a female voice quoting some passages as an intro to some of the songs.

2) DIFFERENT SOUNDS -- I haven't heard the previous SABATON albums, but on this one, the song "The Art of War" sports a catchy techno-sounding beat. I could really see SCOOTER doing a remix of this one. To put you at ease, the techno-sound is merely a side-dish, so to speak. The rest of the song is your typical guitars and anthem-like, sing along chorus.

3) A FEW GOOD TRACKS -- There are 13 tracks on this CD. Three are strictly "Sun Tzu says . . ." tracks by that female narrator mentioned earlier. So of the 10 tracks remaining, I found "The Art of War", "Unbreakable", "The Price of a Mile" and "Ghost Division" to be really really good. A few came close, like "40:1", but the remaining tracks weren't as good as those 4.
For what it's worth, I think "Ghost Division" and "The Art of War" are my favorite SABATON tracks, next to their flagship "Primo Victoria" (really, how do you top a song about D-Day?).

Now that they have assaulted my ears with their music, do I feel that they won the battle? Is this an album worth getting?
Looking at the current price and seeing how I only liked half of the ten actual tracks, the answer is no. BUT you should definitely check out the tracks on an individual basis and acquire the ones you like as MP3 Downloads.

If you like SABATON and are looking for another band that uses war as a central theme, I recommend the heavier-sounding BOLT THROWER.