The Art of War (Album)

The Art of War
Studio album by
Publication (s)	May 30, 2008
Label (s)	Black Lodge
Format (s)	CD, vinyl
Genre (s)	Heavy metal
Title (number)	13
running time	49 min 28 sec
occupation	Joakim Brodén - vocals Rikard Sundén - electric guitar Oskar Montelius - guitar Pär Sundström - bass Daniel Mullback - drums Daniel Mÿhr - keyboard
production	Sabaton, Tommy & Peter Tägtgren
Studio (s)	Abyss Studio , Pärlby
chronology Metalizer (2007) The Art of War Coat of Arms (2010)

The Art of War ( English for The Art of War ) is the fourth studio album by the Swedish heavy metal band Sabaton .

The lyrics on the album deal with famous battles or wars; mostly they are about battles from the First and Second World War or from the book The Art of War , written by Sunzi , after which the album was named.

General

The Art of War is the first album to be produced jointly by the Tägtgren brothers. Peter Tagtgren did the mixing and joined in during the production process. He doubled the number of channels for the drums to 26.

According to Joakim Brodén , the 13 tracks on the album each correspond to a chapter in The Art of War .

The album was released in three different versions: a standard edition, which only contains the CD, a vinyl and a limited version, which also contains an English edition of the book The Art of War by Sunzi . In 2010 the album was re- released in a re-armed version with 4 additional songs.

The cover was designed by Jobert Mello. The song Cliffs of Gallipoli was released as a single together with the song Ghost Division .

Track list

1. Sun Tzu Says - 0:23
2. Ghost Division - 3:51
3. The Art of War - 5:08
4. 40: 1-4 : 10
5. Unbreakable - 5:58
6. The Nature of Warfare - 1:18
7. Cliffs of Gallipoli - 5:51
8. Talvisota - 3:32
9. Tank combat - 5:15
10. Union (Slopes of St. Benedict) - 4:05
11. The Price of a Mile - 5:55
12. Firestorm - 3:25
13. A Secret - 0:37

additional songs of the "Re-Armed" version:

1. Swedish Pagans - 4:13
2. Glorious Land - 3:19
3. The Art of War (Pre-Production Demo) - 4:48
4. Swedish National Anthem (Live At Sweden Rock Festival) - 2:34

Details about the individual pieces

In the songs Sun Tzu Says , The Art of War , Unbreakable , The Nature of Warfare , The Price of a Mile , Firestorm and A Secret you can hear spoken quotes from The Art of War . These were taken from the LibriVox audio book version, which follows the Lionel-Giles translation.

• Sun Tzu Says : Brief spoken introduction to the album
• Ghost Division : The 7th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht under Erwin Rommel
• The Art of War : Chapter "The sword in its scabbard" from The Art of War
• 40: 1 : The Polish defenders in the Battle of Wizna . 40-1 became a hit in Poland. Sabaton was asked to play the song on Polish Independence Day in Gdansk in 2008. 40: 1 is also used by the Polish mixed martial arts artist Damian Grabowski as an entry anthem.
• Unbreakable : Chapter "Energy" from The Art of War
• The Nature of Warfare : Chapter "Weak and Strong Points" from The Art of War (spoken)
• Cliffs of Gallipoli : This is a song about the Battle of Gallipoli . Brodén had already started working on the piece in 2005.
• Talvisota : The Finnish Winter War
• Tank battle : The Citadel company , especially the tank battle near Prokhorovka
• Union (Slopes of St. Benedict) : The Liberation of Italy and the Battle of Monte Cassino
• The Price of a Mile : The Third Battle of Flanders and senseless killing in World War I in general
• Firestorm : bombing in World War II
• A Secret : Humor degree dealing with music piracy

Additional songs of the Re-Armed version:

• Swedish Pagans : The Vikings
• Glorious Land : Soldiers defending their homeland
• The Art of War (Pre-Production Demo) : Demo recording of the song The Art of War with slightly different text, but with the same topic
• Swedish National Anthem (Live At Sweden Rock Festival) : Swedish national anthem ( Du gamla, Du fria )

Reviews

On metal.de the album was rated nine out of ten possible points: “From the compositional point of view, SABATON outdid themselves this time. Those who can't do anything with the genres will undoubtedly turn up their noses this time as well. But you can never please everyone anyway. For anyone who even remotely likes Power and True Metal, 'The Art Of War', on the other hand, should be seen as a mandatory purchase. "

Floran Schörg rated the album again in the “re-armed version”: “The unbelievably high level SABATON maintains over the full album distance is simply breathtaking. Whether 'Panzerkampf', 'Union - Slopes Of St. Benedict' or 'The Price Of A Mile' - 'The Art Of War' captivates to the end. The bonus tracks of the 'Re-Armed' edition are almost a bit annoying, as they break with the extremely round album concept. Of these, however, at least 'Swedish Pagans' still reaches the level of the original album titles, while 'Glorius Land' is just very nice and the demo version of 'The Art Of War' and the live version of the Swedish national anthem are basically completely superfluous appear."

In a review by Encyclopaedia Metallum , the album was rated 82 out of 100 points, with an average rating of 78%: “ The Art of War is a fine album, musically. Who wouldn't enjoy a bit of catchy, well-executed and sing-along-y power metal every now and then? Especially with such a simultaneously merry and epic atmosphere? The goofy lyrics are perhaps a forgivable misstep, but they are unfortunately hardcoded into Sabaton's template. And they are going to become a burden for the Beast from Falun. Mark old Napero's words here young ones. Napero has seen too much to trust a smiling band of Swedes in such serious matters as the public image of war itself. Sweden has not seen war in two centuries, so maybe they just don't remember any more. "

Web links

• The Art of War . In: Official website of Sabaton
• The Art of War in the Encyclopaedia Metallum
• The Art of War at Discogs
• The Art of War at laut.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Mark Holmes: Interview with Sabaton - 10th December 2009 , p. 1, in: Metal Discovery , dated December 10, 2009
2. ↑ ^{a b} Sabaton Frontman: Under Any Circumstance, If Possible, The Show Must Go On , in: Metal Underground , accessed on July 11, 2017
3. ^ Sabaton - The Art Of War , in: metal.de
4. ↑ Florian Schörg: Sabaton - The Art Of War (Re-Armed) , in: metal.de , accessed on July 11, 2017
5. ↑ Nice stuff ... but VERY close to its best before - 82% , in: Encyclopaedia Metallum , July 6, 2017, accessed on July 15, 2017