How do you make history interesting? By fucking singing about it of course!
- "40:1" and "Uprising". Double points if you're Polish, as hearing the words “Warszawo walcz!” will for sure be an amazing experience. For someone not from Poland, his pronunciation is actually dead on. It's the little things.
- "Smoking Snakes": "Rise from the blood of your heroes! / You, were the ones who refused to surrender! / The three, rather died than to flee! / Know that your memory / Will be sung for a century!" Double points if you're from Brazil, since the Portuguese is nearly spot on. A bit off, but it's certainly refreshing to listen to Portuguese spoken correctly by foreigners.
- "The March To War. It plays as the band takes the stage at concerts, practically making it a musical Pre Ass Kicking One Liner.
- "Birds of War". There aren't many songs about Warhammer 40,000 not done by Bolt Thrower or Debauchery, and even fewer about Chaos.We ride on the wind, we ride through the sky
Like unholy birds of war we fly
We bring agony and insanity
Once blessed by the light, now serving the night
And soon cursed by every man on earth
We follow our lust, in no god we trust! - Shiroyama. Despite it being about a Curb-Stomp Battle and the end of the samurai, it's just amazing:Imperial force defied, facing 500 samurai
Surrounded and outnumbered
60 to 1, the sword face the gun
Bushido dignified
It's the last stand of the samurai
Surrounded and outnumbered
Until the dawn they hold on
Only 40 are left at the end
None alive, none survive
Shiroyama - "To Hell and Back", which is not only a great tribute to highly decorated military officer Audie Murphy but is also a contenter for catchiest metal song you will ever hear."Crosses grow on Anzio! Where no soldiers sleep and where hell's six feet deep!"
- "The Final Solution" is this mixed with Tear Jerker. While it describes the worst crime against humanity, it's an awesome antiwar metal piece written in the hope that people can remember the horror of Nazism and never repeat it again.
- "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" details the exploits of Lawrence of Arabia and the Arabian rebels against the Ottoman Empire. It's a badass, absolutely epic song that represents one of the most famous guerilla warfare campaigns in history.As the darkness falls and Arabia calls
One man spreads his wings, as the battle begins
May the land lay claim on to Lawrence name
Seven pillars of wisdom lights the flame! - "Attack of the Dead Men" tells the story of Russian soldiers who, after being exposed to the Germans' gas weapons, decided to make a Last Stand against the German army and kill as many as they could before they died, ultimately repelling them until reinforcements arrived. They were so terrifying that the Germans thought they were fighting the actual undead!
- "Red Baron" is a loud, majestic, upbeat piece which highlights how unstoppably awesome Manfred von Richtofen was, shooting down 80 planes when aircraft technology was still new and they were often more dangerous to the men flying them than the enemy, plus Richtofen was only in his early twenties when he did all of that. He may not have survived the war, but his legend lives on, forever, including in this epic Sabaton song.Man and machine, and noting there in between, the Flying Circus and a man from Prussia
The sky and the plane, this man commands his domain, The Western Front and all the way to Russia
Death from Above, you're under fire
Stained red as blood, he's roaming higher
Born a soldier from the horseback to the skies
That's where the legend will arise... - "Dreadnought", based on the battleships, is an appropriately methodical and heavy piece that instills a sense of the power that the crews must have felt.
- "Hellfighters" speaks of the famed 369th Regiment of the US military, nicknamed the Harlem Hellfighters. Six months of battle, no retreat and they were the first to reach the German border. All to a heavy, almost thrash style that reminds fans of their early work.
- "Defense of Moscow", especially if you're Russian. You don't get much more epic than hearing your country's National Anthem as a guitar solo when you're fighting off invaders trying to storm your capital.
- "First Soldier." The previous EP song, "Father," was very dark and forboading, just like the theme of the EP it's on, "Weapons of the Great War." First Soldier is a complete 180, and the Sabaton effect is in full effect with trumpets and a major chord making you feel like you're French. The subject of the song, Albert Roche, was a farmer who ran away from home to join the French army and became one of France's greatest heroes in World War 1, not unlike another hero of France 500 years prior.
- Perhaps a fitting end to Sabaton's time with World War I, their cover of Motorhead's "1916" shows off Joakim's vocals as the song slowly marches through the story of an unnamed soldier, implied to be at the Battle of the Somme. The music video brings out the heartwarming, awesome and tearjerker sides too. Three awesome parts in the video: First, they got to film at Birmingham's Living History Museum and had many of the reenactors and fans march along with the band. Second, if you can watch through the tears in your eyes, they had soldiers representing almost EVERY song they've ever done, not just the WWI songs, even CGIing airplanes for "Night Witches" and "No Bullets Fly". Third, mixed with heartwarming, they got the two surviving members of Motorhead to participate, with Lemmy there in spirit as they carry his portrait. The tearjerking part is this song doesn't just talk about the nameless soldiers of one war...it's about all the wars, and the fact that many have been lost to history. Sabaton's spot in history isn't just to tell stories...it's to make us remember the men and women behind them.
- In an awesome collaboration with World of Warships, we get "Bismarck
". The song really highlights the terror the Allies felt against the legendary battleship of the same name, with the song aptly calling him "The Terror of the Seas" and "King of the Ocean".
