Sticking to the tried and tested promo / release / tour / promo… cycle, we’re due another Sabaton album about now and duly storming over the hill in a cloud of dust, spitting flame and smashing all in its way is Legends. As with pretty much all of Sabaton’s releases, there’s a theme to this one and from the title it’s pretty obvious what it is!
Eleven tracks feature and five have already been released as singles (opener “Templars”, “Hordes of Khan”, “Lightning at the Gates”, “The Duelist” and “Crossing the Rubicon”) leaving six that you’ve not had the chance to hear yet. I’m going to rattle through them all, and include a little about the background to the songs because, after all, that’s part of the fun of Sabaton! It’s still a little disappointing having almost half of an album released before the LP itself, but I guess that’s how things work these days.
“Templars” sings the praises of the Knights Templar and if you’ve seen the third Indiana Jones film or read any conspiracy novel focused on pretty much any branch of the Christian church you’ll have heard of them. Essentially the “marine corp” of the Church back in the 12th Century, they were put to the wall by King Philip IV of France. By the time of his reign the Templars were more bankers than soldiers and Phil was neck-deep in debt to them. So he had them declared heretics, arrested, tortured and put to death. As you do.
The song’s pretty good and a strong opener, with some nice choral aspects that I’m sure will go down well when Sabaton tour soon with another of their legendary (!) productions.
Genghis (pronounced “Jengis”) Khan wasn’t a nice guy by any stretch, committing the kind of butchery that gives butchers a bad name (“No mercy is shown when the battle is won”), but essentially was a man of his time. As well as killing countless people, he did unite many civilisations under one banner. Perhaps surprisingly he didn’t die in battle, but from injuries suffered when he fell off his horse while hunting. Up to that point, and even while on his sickbed, he still orchestrated the expansion of his empire.
Sabaton’s elegy is a typically pounding number which suits the leader of a massive army. Bass heavy and rhythmic, this is a crowd pleaser in the making.
The first of the songs you’ve not heard yet, “A Tiger Among Dragons”, keeps us over in the East Asia for the tale of Lü Bu, nicknamed the “Flying General”. His story goes all the way back to the 1st Century, so his story is about as “legendary” as it gets with documented history back then being a little threadbare. He rode a horse called Red Hare, wielded a halberd called Sky Piercer and could apparently defeat multiple enemy warriors simultaneously in combat. Not one to mess with.
The song is interesting, and quite staccato with a rhythm that takes a bit of getting used to. It’s an interesting tale, but not the most accessible of songs unlike the track which follows.
The most recent of the four singles details Julius Caesar’s crossing of the Rubicon in 49 BCE, an act which triggered civil war. Undoubtedly the Roman Empire’s best-known leader, and certainly the only one that I can remember Asterix and Obelix meeting face to face, his story is very well documented… right up to and including his assassination five years after the events in this song. “Crossing The Rubicon” is a good number, arguably over-produced in the opening sections but if you’re going to do a song about Julius Caesar then you’re allowed to make it bombastic. Ask Ex Deo… It’s worth noting that the version on the album is not the exact same as the recent single, which featured singer Jonny Hawkins and guitarist Mark Vollelunga of Nothing More.
One of history’s shortest Emperors, to the point where we use his name to mean a hight-challenged person with a bit of an attitude, Napoleon was (in his prime at least) seemingly unbeatable as a military strategist. Like another famous short-arse, this one Austrian, he made a bit of a cockup by trying to take on the Russians which seemed to take the wind out of his sails a bit as he faced defeat after defeat in the following years, leading up to him meeting his literal Waterloo.
“I, Emperor” is a cracking song, an absolute footstomper with an air-punching singalong chorus. Almost every line starts with “I will…”, really reinforcing the ego of the man – arguably justified.
Sticking in France, the breakneck “Maid of Steel” tells of the only female legend on the album – Jeanne d’Arc (or Joan of Arc to us uncultured Brits), often known as the Maid of Orleans due to her part in lifting the siege on that city during the Hundred Years War (which lasted 116 years, but hey). Sabaton’s three minute rampage in her honour is arguably the most “metal” song on the album and harks back to some of their really old material.
Perhaps apt for the October release date of the album, a song about Dracula follows… or rather his arguable inspiration Vlad “The Impaler” Țepeș. No surprises where he got the nickname from, given this was the 15th Century and there wasn’t such a thing as the Geneva Convention (although Geneva was founded in the 1st Century BCE, the Convention wasn’t drafted until a bit after that).
Another slower, heavier song it suits the subject matter though it’s not hugely catchy. I’m really in two minds about this one. It’s a bit ploddy, but with the right visual material I can actually see it working well live. I guess we’ll see if it makes it onto the setlist.
“Lightning at the Gates” and “The Duelist” are the last two singles and play in this order on Legends. The former tells us of history’s most famous elephant importer, Hannibal Barca. Predating Julius Caesar by about 150 years, he was a thorn in the Roman Republic’s side which frankly took some doing during that period of history. The song focuses on his legendary journey across the Alps in 218 BC as part of the Seconds Punic Wars, invading Italy with flipping elephants. A typically Sabaton fist-pumping rhythm underlies the whole song, but otherwise it’s a little too familiar sounding a bit too much like a handful of older tracks.
The band take a trip to Japan to detail “The Duelist” Miyamoto Musashi. Pick a group of Japanese warriors who attained legendary status and you’re bound to pick on the samurai. To be a legend amongst legends takes some doing, and Musashi stood out. Over 60 duels fought and won, including one using only a wooden sword and a single strike. He is also attributed with developing the “Niten Ichi-ryū” style which utilises two swords at the same time. So all those really cool fights in the films? Thank him. Another half-decent song, it’s a great story and tribute but doesn’t quite get me going in the way that others on the album do.
Hannibal isn’t the only African on the album, as the band venture to Egypt to tell the story of Senusret III. The oldest tale on this outing, he became Pharaoh in around 1878 BC treating Egypt and its surrounds like a real life Age of Empires. Expanding borders and investing in construction projects including temples and a canal, he is as well known for the era of relative peace that his conquests led to as for the conquests themselves. Perhaps an appropriate place for the main part of the album to end.
As with a few other songs, “The Cycle of Songs” is a little middle-of-the-road as far as Sabaton tracks go, but still features a great chorus and a great guitar solo. When even your middling tracks are as good as this…
The final song “Tell Seger” is a bit of a surprise and I believe the first time that Sabaton have revisited a historical figure who has already been the main feature of another song. Remember Gustavus Adolphus’s first outing as the “The Lion from the North”? Well, he’s back. And this time in Swedish. Well, Swedish only as the last song was recorded in both Swedish and English. Whether an English version of “Tell Seger” will ever make its way into our ears is anyone’s guess.
Strangely, this one is very “by number Sabaton” like a couple of other I’ve highlighted, but in a much better way. I really like it and it’s a shame I’m going to have to spend 6 months on Duolingo to sing along to it properly.
So. A big release, with some absolute stormers on as well as a couple which, if I’m brutally honest, I felt were a bit “meh”. But as stated earlier that’s a Sabaton “meh” which is still not bad. They’re definitely not scraping the barrel, and the source material is as interesting as ever. I’m really looking forward to seeing how the new songs slip into the live show when they tour in the not-to-distant future.
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Header image by Steve Bright
Legends is out on October 17th
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