Sabaton – Legends | soundsfromthedarkside

Sabaton has returned to the frontlines. But will this battle be Legendary or not? Let’s find out.

To this day, Swedish warmongers of metal Sabaton have released ten full-length albums. You could stretch that to twelve if you count the symphonic versions of both their Great War themed albums, but let’s choose not to. Ever since Primo Victoria saw the light of day back in 2005, these guys have been on a meteoric rise, from a small but promising power metal band to a metallic juggernaut selling out stadiums, playing concerts on video game conventions and hosting their own history programme on YouTube, where they take deep dives into the stories behind their songs. Suffice to say that Sabaton is one of the big bands, like it or not, so let’s dive into their newest opus, Legends.

After two concept records about the first world war, the Swedes have returned to delivering songs about random battles, wars and historic figures who waged war, or at least told others to go out there and clash swords with other people. This time, Sabaton decided to focus on the big, historic Legends and whipped up lyrics about Napoleon, Jeanne d’Arc, Genghis Khan and Vlad the Impaler, amongst others.

Now, if you’re thinking to yourself, “damn, that’s something else,” you’d be wrong. Legends walks, talks and sounds like a Sabaton album, with all the highs and lows that come with it. It’s an album that doles out forty-six minutes of perfectly fine, bombastic power metal that’s not going to win over any new fans, nor chase existing ones away. Here you have eleven songs about warfare, some which you have kind of, sort of heard before and nothing particularly new. The bed of keyboards on which all songs are presented is a bit bigger and thicker than the last time around, but the sound stays the same and as a fan, you would not want it any different, right?

I’ve considered myself a fan of the band ever since they blew me away with Primo Victoria and Attero Dominatus back in the day. Sabaton has released great stuff since then and Legends is absolutely fine. If we were to post a top twenty list at the end of the year, chances are good that Legends will find itself somewhere on it. That being said, Sabaton is a Big Mac amongst power metal bands. Easily digestible, metallic fast food and, most importantly, a fantastically fun live band. But although they sometimes release a special burger that’s really, really good, a lot of the menu consists of comfort food; you know what it tastes like before you dig in, you’ll enjoy it, but gourmet metal this is not.

Legends is serviceable. There are some great songs on here like the fast and heavy Maid of Steel, the bubbly and bouncy I, Emperor or Till seger, which is bound to become the new Gott Mit Uns (from their absolute creative high water mark Carolus Rex from 2012), even though it’s already stupidly omitted from the current tour’s setlist. Musically, everything’s fine. It’s eleven new Sabaton songs; some good, some great and some middling, like almost always. I know they can do better. They can also do worse, but in their overall discography, Legends is as unremarkable as its AI cover art. At least it seems like the current tour will be heaps of fun, so even if Legends does not float your particular warship, there’s at least that to look forward to.