There’s a good chunk of songs I enjoyed and a few others that I could do without. Slipknot has evolved over the years to be a little less chaotic and hard as their earlier songs but I think that’s for the better.

I do like how the band plays a lot of the old stuff during their concerts. They know they were built on their older sound and have supplemented it with their newer albums.

I picked up the album at Nuclear Blast’s booth at San Diego Comic Con along with a bunch of others. I’m ashamed to say that even though I’ve been going to Comic Con for almost fifteen years that I have not spent a lot of time at their booth even though many of the artists and bands under Nuclear Blast are my kind of thing (if you haven’t noticed). The album is in three forms: the normal version, instrumental soundtrack version, and the history version. The history version opens each track with a short monologue giving the background for the song.

The Great War leads with “The Future of Warfare” which features one of the most fearsome innovations of the day: the tank. Joachim’s booming voice is backed by an overlapping chorus which, by now, is trademark Sabaton.

There are a total of four singles on the album. “82nd All the Way” is the first single song in track order but the last in single release timeline. It tells the tale of American Sergeant Alvin York, Company G, 328th Infantry Regiment, 82nd Division, and his Medal of Honor action on 10/8/1918 during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.

Track four is titled “The Attack of the Dead Men” and is of the event colloquially referred to by the same name. The Russian fortress of Osowiec held against German attack and even when the German trump card, poison gas, was used the fortress still held if only by luck. The following German assault was routed and ran from what, to them, were zombies. This is one of the strongest tracks on the album and it has already cemented its place in Sabaton’s live set rotation. Expect to here it live if you go to any of the stops on their upcoming The Great Tour. The fast-paced guitars pair with a catchy chorus that sticks in your mind and a killer guitar solo in the back third of the song helps seal the deal. Videos like [this] definitely help sell the song.

The second single is “The Red Baron.” The third is “The Great War” and it is probably the most epic sounding of the whole album with its chorus and orchestral arrangement in the back. The music video for the song featured almost two-dozen singers in the chorus all in military uniforms. The final single in track order but first in release order is “Fields of Verdun.” Honestly at its first release I did not like it that much (didn’t help that Bismarck proceeded it and that was a hard one to match up to) but it’s grown on me.

The final two tracks, The End of the War to End All Wars and In Flanders Fields are a fitting way to end the album. They build to the album’s crescendo before giving way to the chorus-only John McCrae poem.

One word can be used to describe this album: fast. Now, it’s pwoer metal, and fast is something that you hear a lot, but Sabaton albums usually have a mix of slow and fast songs. One problem with The Great War being fast, faster, and fastest, is that some of the songs get lost amongst the rest. I’m not saying that it has to have some droning songs like Iced Earth’s American Civil War epic The Glorious Burder but some variety would be nice. Clear standouts on this album are The Great War and Attack of the Dead Men. If I had to give it a number it’d be a solid 4/5. Previous album The Last Stand had more memorable songs and many were added to the live set rotation which is always a good sign. Time will tell how many are added from The Great War.

Now the soundtrack version of the album is a completely different beast. Mainly instrumental, and orchestral instead of metal, it’s a great accompaniment to the main versions. Nightwish’s Floor Jansen provides her vocals to a few of the tracks this version. This version is 5/5, easily. It helps a lot if you listen to the original version of the album first so you can gain a greater appreciation for the soundtrack version.

tl;dr: Worth a listen. Some of the songs are worth adding to your rotation. The soundtrack version is DEFINITELY worth a listen.

Make sure to check them out on The Great Tour when they come by your town.

Tracklist:

1. The Future of Warfare
2. Seven Pillars of Wisdom
3. 82nd All the Way
4. The Attack of the Dead Men
5. Devil Dogs
6. The Red Baron
7. Great War
8. A Ghost in the Trenches
9. Fields of Verdun
10. The End of the War to End All Wars
11. In Flanders Fields

US dates below:

10/4 Ft. Lauderdale, FL – Revolution
10/5 Tampa, FL – Janus Landing
10/6 Atlanta, GA – Center Stage
10/8 Dallas, TX – House of Blues
10/10 Phoenix, AZ – Van Buren
10/11 Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern
10/12 San Francisco, CA – The Regency Ballroom
10/14 Portland, OR – Roseland Ballroom
10/15 Seattle, WA – Showbox SoDo
10/16 Vancouver, BC – Vogue Theater
10/18 Edmonton, AB – Union Hall
10/19 Calgary, AB – The Palace Theater
10/21 Salt Lake City, UT – The Complex
10/23 Denver, CO – Ogden Theatre
10/25 Minneapolis, MN – Skyway Theater
10/26 Chicago, IL – The Vic Theatre
10/27 Cleveland, OH – The Agora Ballroom
10/29 Toronto, ON – The Danforth Music Hall
10/30 Montreal, QC – M Telus
11/1 Worcester, MA – Palladium
11/2 New York, NY – PlayStation Theater
11/3 Silver Spring, MD – The Fillmore

If you are one of those who prefer the old days of Jinsei x Boku = and Zankyo Reference you’ll likely be conflicted. My introduction to this band was “No Scared” as played for Black Rock Shooter and things have changed between now and then. The tempos are definitely slower and the sound is less energetic than in previous works. Perhaps it is a sign of Taka’s growth; no longer is he the youth he once was and now a lot of things seem more about inspiring and encouraging the new generations. Last year they held a special concert called “18 Fes” and only those age 17-19 were eligible to attend. They put on a hell of a performance of the song “We Are” involving all of the fans present which you can check out below.

With the newer sound some things seem to have been sacrificed. If you’re expecting high-speed shredding guitar work from Toru and Ryota or stellar drumming from Tomoya you might want to look to one of the earlier albums. “Eye of the Storm’s” instrumentals are of a softer nature which do support the lyrics but contrast wildly with albums pre-2015. According to Taka all the band members do have input and do handle the live arrangements so it is not a one-man show. I do wonder how much influence the last few album’s producers John Feldmann and Dan Lancaster have had on the process. They have worked with bands like 5 Seconds of Summer and Bring Me the Horizon album and “Eye of the Storm” definitely sounds like one of those albums.

The band announced that they would be the opening band for the Asian leg of Ed Sheeran’s 2019 world tour so their new sound has led to commercial success. They’ve toured alongside bands like Sleeping With Sirens, All Time Low, Crown the Empire, and 5 Seconds of Summer. In 2017 they were set to play support for Linkin Park before that tour was cancelled due to unfortunate circumstances (we need not mention them). Linkin Park is another band whose sound changed over the years and the vigor of “Hybrid Theory” and “Meteora” gave way to “One More Light.”

As stated earlier they will also begin their touring for the year in America starting on the 19th in Salt Lake City before traveling across the US. They will hit San Francisco on March 20th.

“EYE OF THE STORM” NORTH AMERICA TOUR 2019
2/19 Salt Lake City, UT – The Depot
2/20 Denver, CO – The Gothic Theater
2/22 Minneapolis, MN – Varsity Theater
2/23 Milwaukee, WI – The Rave
2/24 Chicago, IL – House of Blues
2/26 Detroit, MI – St Andrews Hall
2/28 Toronto, ON (CA) – Rebel
3/1 Montreal, QC (CA) – Le National
3/2 Philadelphia, PA – Theater of Living Arts
3/3 Boston, MA – Paradise Rock Club
3/5 New York, NY – Terminal 5
3/6 Baltimore, MD – Rams Head Live!
3/8 Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade
3/9 Orlando, FL – Hard Rock Live
3/11 Houston, TX – House of Blues
3/12 Dallas, TX – House of Blues
3/13 San Antonio, TX – The Aztec Theater
3/15 Phoenix, AZ – The Van Buren
3/16 Las Vegas, NV – House of Blues
3/17 San Diego, CA – The Observatory
3/19 Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Palladium
3/20 San Francicso, CA – The Warfield
3/22 Vancouver, BC (CA) – Vogue Theatre
3/24 Seattle, WA – Showbox SoDo
3/29 Honolulu, HI – The Republik
3/30 Honolulu, HI – The Republik