Heroes (Sabaton album)
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Studio album by 
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2014 |
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Title (number) |
10 |
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running time |
36:57 |
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Heroes is the seventh studio album by the Swedish band Sabaton . It has been available since May 16, 2014, but has been on Spotify since May 12, 2014. It's a concept album thatdeals withheroes on both sides in World War II . Unlike other albums by the band, the name of the album is not also the name of a song on it.
Heroes is the first album with the Sabaton line-up, which existed from 2012 to 2016, when the two guitarists Chris Rörland and Thobbe Englund and the new drummer Hannes Van Dahl joined them.
General
Heroes , like his two previous albums, was mixed and produced by Peter Tägtgren in his Abyss Studio near Pärlby, the same applies to the sound engineering. Tagtgren was involved in the band's production process even before Carolus Rex . Like the two following albums and World War Live - Battle of the Baltic Sea , Heroes was mastered by Jonas Kjellgren .
Ken Kängström, who was already co-composer on Carolus Rex and later on The Last Stand , was involved on the album as an additional guitarist. The graphic design is by Péter Sallai, the photos for the booklet by Ryan Garrison.
Track list
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All texts are by Joakim Brodén and Pär Sundström .
- Night Witches - 3:01 (Music: Brodén)
- No Bullets Fly - 3:37 (Music: Brodén)
- Smoking Snakes - 3:14 (Music: Brodén)
- Inmate 4859 - 4:26 (Music: Brodén / Tägtgren)
- To Hell and Back - 3:26 (Music: Brodén)
- The Ballad of Bull - 3:53 (Music: Brodén)
- Resist and Bite - 3:27 (Music: Brodén)
- Soldier of 3 Armies - 3:38 (Music: Englund / Brodén)
- Far from the Fame - 3:47 (Music: Brodén)
- Hearts of Iron - 4:28 (Music: Brodén / Englund)
Additional songs in the "Limited Digibook".
- 7734 - 3:33 (music: Brodén)
- Man of War - 3:48 (Music: Brodén / Van Dahl)
Additional songs in the "Earbook Edition".
- For Whom the Bell Tolls - 5:22
- En hjältes väg - 4:26
- Out of Control - 3:36
Additional tracks exist on Spotify in which Joakim Brodén provides a brief explanation of the content and meaning of each song.
Details about the individual songs
Night Witches
The song deals with the 588th night bomber regiment (called "night witches" by the Germans because of the high proportion of female pilots) of the Soviet Air Force. The guitar solos in the piece are all by Chris Rörland .
No bullets fly
No Bullets Fly is about the encounter between Franz Stigler and Charles Brown . In December 1943, the German fighter pilot Franz Stigler risked his life in three different ways (shelling by the B-17 bomber itself, shelling by the German air defense, and execution for high treason) in order to destroy the crew of a badly damaged American B-17 bomber and allow him to return to Britain. He saved five people with it, although he only needed one shot to receive the Knight's Cross . No Bullets Fly is Englund's favorite song on the album.
Smoking snakes
Smoking Snakes tells the story of three soldiers of the Brazilian Expeditionary Corps in Europe who fought despite the sheer majority of German soldiers. Their opponents honored their courage by burying the three. On the death cross they wrote: “Three Brazilian heroes”. Smoking Snakes originally had the working title Heroes and thus held the overall concept of the album together. Brodén composed most of the piece in a backstage area in Glasgow in winter 2012 . However, the remaining part took almost two years to complete.
Inmate 4859
Inmate 4859 is about the life of Witold Pilecki , a soldier in the Polish Home Army who voluntarily went to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp to support the inmates in riots. The piece is one of Rörland's favorites on the album because he used a seven-string guitar for it. Inmate 4859's lyrical theme was already ready for Coat of Arms .
To Hell and Back
The song is about Audie Murphy , one of America's top honored veterans of World War II and author of the autobiography "To Hell and Back". The song mainly describes the horrors of the Allied Operation Shingle . Parts of the refrain are taken from a poem by Murphy.
The Ballad of Bull
The Ballad Of Bull recounts the heroism of Australian Corporal Bull Allen . He ran back to the battlefield twelve times to carry his wounded US comrades to safety.
Resist and Bite
Resist And Bite , the seventh title, honors the “ Chasseurs ardennais ” (in German: Ardennenjäger), a small Belgian infantry formation (approx. 40 men strong). This unit fought so hard that the German advance came to a standstill for 18 days. By using the Motti tactics ( hunting combat ), the commanders of the Wehrmacht assumed that it was part of a French division. The song title is a translation of the motto of the Ardennes hunters: "Resiste et mords", and the Ch.A. a boar in the coat of arms.
Soldier of 3 Armies
Soldier Of 3 Armies tells the story of Lauri Törni , a Finnish soldier during the Winter War. He switched to the Waffen-SS and after the Second World War he fought in the US Army (Green Berets) in the Vietnam War. The guitar solo is from Englund.
Far from the fame
The ninth title Far From The Fame describes the life of the Czechoslovak hero Karel Janoušek , a general who fought against the Nazis and was imprisoned for twelve years by the communist regime in Czechoslovakia.
Hearts of Iron
Hearts of Iron , the last regular track on the album, is about the last days before the fall of Berlin. The commander-in-chief of the 12th Army , Walther Wenck , had the order to unite with the 9th Army under the command of Theodor Busse, to advance towards Berlin and to relieve the city already enclosed by the Red Army . The personally issued and last order of Adolf Hitler was ignored due to the hopelessness of the undertaking and instead it was decided to save the wounded, the civilian population and remaining soldiers from the destructive rage of the Red Army to the West. The army, which had grown to around 118,000 soldiers, accompanied by around 300,000 civilians, fought its way in a moving basin towards Tangermünde on the Elbe and enabled all civilians, as well as all soldiers, to be transferred to the West through retreat battles. The 12th Army capitulated on the west bank of the Elbe and their soldiers went into American captivity, but were later extradited to the Soviet Union. Englund recorded the guitar solo with the first attempt on a Fender Stratocaster.
7734
The lyrics play with the usual prejudices that metal music is evil. For example, 7734 on a pocket calculator that is upside down is “hell” (German for “hell”). The text passage “Do glatem live” is backwards “evil metal god” and the text passage “We are no longer double seven three four, Last two united and two became one, One hundred eleven, We perished in flames” is a little arithmetic game where 7734 becomes the number 777 (“Last two united and two became one”), from which 111 “one hundred eleven” are subtracted, which ultimately results in 666.
Man of War
The song pays homage to the band Manowar and the lyrics consist entirely of different song titles from the band. It is the only song in the band that Hannes van Dahl, from whom the idea for the piece came, was involved in the composition.
Reviews
In the Encyclopaedia Metallum , the album received an average rating of 84% with 7 reviews. With a rating of 94%, the role of the new cast is also rated positively:
“When a band announces a major line up change, one can't help but wonder if the band will ever be the same again. And such was the case with Swedish giants Sabaton when in 2012 all but 2 of the members left, leaving lead vocalist Joakim Bróden and bassman Pär Sundström to pick up the pieces. Thobbe Englund and Chris Rörland were soon recruited as the new guitarists and Robban Bäck as the drummer who left after only one year due to him becoming a father. So as this was Sabaton's first release with new members there was a lot riding on the success of this album. [...]
One noticeable change in Sabaton's music is much less synth-like keyboards and backing choirs, this is most likely due to the departure of their keyboard player Daniel Mÿhr. This change can be noticed on songs such as the incredible Resist and Bite and No Bullets Fly. But it wouldn't be Sabaton without a little bit of keyboards and choir. With Joakim Bróden taking back over keyboard duties you can still get a sense of it on Hearts of Iron and the single To Hell and Back. This album has really impressed me from start to finish and there really isn't anything more I could want from a Sabaton album. It has all the elements you could want; the musicians skill, the production quality, the history, the atmosphere. A very impressive release from a band that was on the edge of disaster. "
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Nuclear Blast Records: SABATON - Heroes (OFFICIAL TRACK-BY-TRACK PART I) , official YouTube video
- ↑ a b c Nuclear Blast Records: SABATON - Heroes (OFFICIAL TRACK-BY-TRACK PART II) , official YouTube video
- ↑ Interview - “Behind the Scenes with the Metal War Historians, Sabaton” , in: vandalamagazine.com , November 10, 2014, accessed July 11, 2017
- ↑ Zdf.de: Die Todesfalle Schlachtfeld Oderbruch ( Memento from December 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), last accessed on July 12, 2018
- ↑ Volksstimme.de: Chaos on the Elbe near Tangermuende ( Memento from October 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b Nuclear Blast Records: SABATON - Heroes (OFFICIAL TRACK-BY-TRACK PART II) , official YouTube video
- ↑ My Heroes - 95% , in: Encyclopaedia Metallum , August 19, 2015, accessed July 15, 2017