Metal Monday - Sabaton

Dug up a couple AMV's of Sabaton songs. Mostly Star Wars themed here, though one is the excellent fan-animated short, and hey, the rest are "stuff blowing up" even if it is from Rogue One, etc.

Music: Sabaton: The Last Stand: Rorke's Drift

Background: 

On January 22nd, 1879, a British force of nearly 2000 men fought a force of nearly 20,000 Zulu warriors in the battle of Isandlwana, and despite the technological advantages, was nearly totally destroyed. 4000 warriors of the reserve broke off near the end of the battle to cut off some of the British forces, and ended up marching onto a small garrison of roughly 150 men called Rorke's Drift.

Burdened down with hospital patients, they could not retreat, and decided to stand, and fight. They fortified the grounds and buildings. After eleven hours of fighting - often hand to hand combat - finally collapsing the perimeter to the stone Kraal, the Zulu forces left as a relief column approached the next morning.

Music: 

One of the scenes near the end of the movie Zulu, one I saw in my childhood, is still burned in my memory. The thin British line, each row taking turns firing, and the carnage at the end, despite the lack of blood a modern production would have used, was staggering.

Too bad it didn't really quite happen that way, and there were a number of liberties taken with the actual facts, but it was still a good movie.

The song starts on a fast pace, switching back to a power-metal run driven more by the guitars than a crushing, steady beat. The style, if anything, made me think more of some older Iron Maiden tracks from Powerslave, mixed with a little Dragonforce. But it's still all Sabaton. This is another track that didn't catch me at first, but ended up growing on me.

Music: Sabaton: The Last Stand: The Lost Battalion

Background:

On October 2 of 1918, near the end of WWI, American forces of the 77th division led by Major Charles White Whittlesey advanced into the Argonne forest as part of a planned offensive. They advanced, reaching their objective at Hill 198, a defensible position, but, the French forces expected on their left flank and the other American forces on their right were stalled, driven back by a counterattack, and so at the end of the day, the 77th discovered it was alone, surrounded, beyond allied lines.

The 77th spent the next day trying to re-establish contact, but could not. Patrols caught all of the messengers sent, and carrier pigeons became the only method of communication.  The Germans, for their part, at first believed they were outnumbered, and did not yet attack until later that day. The Germans had no choice but to take them out - leaving the 77th free to advance into the rear would have been disastrous.

Food was short. Water was only available by crawling under machine gun fire to reach a stream. Supplies intended for them were reportedly dropped on the Germans instead. They could not break free, and could not communicate reliably with allied forces. A mistake in the artillery coordinates caused Allied artillery to fall on them, until their last pigeon, Cher Ami, was sent delivering a followup message, "WE ARE ALONG THE ROAD PARALLEL (sic) 276.4. OUR ARTILLERY IS DROPPING A BARRAGE DIRECTLY ON US. FOR HEAVENS SAKE STOP IT". 

Not even refusing all calls to surrender, but flat out not even replying, the 77th fought with rifle, grenade, and bayonet to hold their strategically critical position, until finally relieved several days later.

Music:

This is actually two tracks. "Diary of an Unknown Soldier"  and "The Lost Battallion" - the first a very short spoken piece that could have occurred anywhere in the Argonne offensive, building up to the driving, slow, heavy drumbeat of "The Lost Battallion", and it's choral - style opening. The song itself is classic Sabaton: grim, steady, determine, with soaring chorals. In tone it fits the unrelenting meat grinder of WWI trench warfare. 

Music: Sabaton: The Last Stand: Blood of Bannockburn

Background:

In 1296 the wars for Scottish independence from England had begun, and in 1304, the English had apparently won. But in 1306 Robert the Bruce ascended the Scottish throne, and re-opened the conflict. In 1314 Edward Bruce, Robert's brother, besieged the strategically critical Stirling Castle, controlling the route north into Scotland. To relieve the fort, and preserve their strategic position, the English assembled a force of 17000 men, two thousand of them cavalry, to crush the Scottish forces roughly half their size.

Where most battles in that time were short, this lasted two remarkable days of fighting, with the Scots finally driving off their superior foe, and leaving the route open for the Scots to raid into northern England.

Music:

While the album has been solid so far, this, this song, is the point it fucking takes off for me. This isn't the relentless gravity and steadily advancing power of "The Lost Battallion" or the title track,  The feel of the melody is of soaring speed - a car racing full out down a winding road, or soaring low over Scottish hills as messengers run to carry the message and the call to war with a celtic and bagpipe flair. Yes, there's faster music around, but this is a relentless, full bore, pedal to the metal rush that I also get out of songs like the live, Show of Hands version of "Red Sector A" by Rush, or "Turbo Lover" by Judas Priest. 

Music: Sabaton: The Last Stand: Last Dying Breath

On October 7th of 1915 a Major named Dragutin Gavrilović addressed his troops. The battalion and small group of volunteers was ragged and battered, having fought for hours against the German and Austro-Hungarian troops in the defense of Belgrade. Shot to hell by artillery, ground down by the Austro-Hungarian reinforcements, they'd fought back close and hard. Putting flowers from a local flower shop on their uniforms and guns, they were preparing for a last stand,

On the day of the decisive battle, they received the Communion in the Ružica church (Little Rose church) in the Kalemegdan Fortress, and then they scattered around Dorćol and the Danube quay, readily waiting for the enemy. They sang to chase away the fear of certain death to which they were led by the speech of their commanding officer Major Gavrilović, who wanted to inspire them and lift their spirits before the upcoming battle.

“Soldiers, exactly at three o’clock, the enemy is to be crushed by your fierce charge, destroyed by your grenades and bayonets. The honor of Belgrade, our capital, must not be stained.

Soldiers! Heroes! The supreme command has erased our regiment from its records. Our regiment has been sacrificed for the honor of Belgrade and the motherland. Therefore, you no longer need to worry about your lives: they no longer exist. So, forward to glory! For King and country! Long live the King, Long live Belgrade!”

Quickly overcome and with Gavrilović injured, they fought so valiantly that General Mackensen wrote: “We fought against an army that we have heard about only in fairy tales, who defended themselves with virtually unprecedented courage. The moment we conquered Serbia hurt us more than her allies.”

He also erected a monument in honor of his heroic enemies, the city's defenders.

The Song

I really didn't like it the first time I listened, but it's grown on me, and I really like it now. It's still not up there with my favorite songs on this album - in large part because it's overall so awesome -  or my favorite songs by Sabaton, but it's confident, driving, and hangs together in lyric and style, and well worth the listen. Given my high opinion of their oeuvre, barely missing that bar is nothing to be ashamed of. The grinding, relentless driving feel well echoes the feel of facing an unending, oncoming onslaught of shells and men.

Sabaton: Last Stand: Sparta

In the fall of 480 BC, Xerxes, avenging his fathers loss to the greeks at Marathon, invaded the greek peninsula again. Various political factors left the city-states unable to field their main armies in a timely manner, so Leonidas, one of two Spartan Kings, took his personal guard of 300 men, their supply train, and in conjunction with some other forces, arrived at, and began fortifying the narrow pass between the cliffs and the sea. Roughly 7000 men faced an army often described in the millions, and even at more modern estimates of 150,000 faced staggering odds. The only hope they had to hold was superior training, superior equipment, and superior position.

In the end, a treacherous farmer led a contingent of the Persian army behind the force. About to be surrounded, Leonidas sent most of the forces away, keeping a force of 400 Thebans, 700 Thespians, and his 300 men. They fought to the bitter, bloody end. The battle lost, the Persians were nevertheless delayed long enough for Athens to be evacuated, and the city-states to gather their forces, turning the tide at the battle of Platea.

Two famous quotes that stay with me are of course, Molon Labe - "Come, then take" in response to a request for the Greeks to lay down their weapons. You want them? Then you come over here and take them from us. The other of course was the famous reply when the greeks were told the arrows of the Persian army would blot out the sun. "Then we shall fight in the shade."

This battle is immortalized. Cheesy as it is, I love the Frank Miller inspired 300 (Victor Davis Hanson has an interesting take...), and there is the outstanding, lyrical, and solidly written "Gates of Fire" by Steven Pressfield. It's also inspired countless other stories, including some aspects of Ringo's  "Troy Rising" series.

So of course, Sabaton, continuing their practice of writing about war and warriors, could open their new album with nothing else, but "Sparta"

It's a great track and a great opener to the album. If I have a complaint, it's that the story of Thermopylae is a bit too complex for the time allowed, and so some of the quotes and images feel wedged in, without context. As it is, it's a nit.

Enjoy:

(And thanks to the Didact for clueing me in to a new Sabaton album coming out, and to Sabaton in general...)