Tag Archives: war metal

(review) Prognan – Nasi Zivoti Vise Ne Postoje

Prognan are from Croatia and this is their brand new opus. All I can say after listening to this one is that I am jaw dropped and just listen to this one over and over again. Well, it is very hard to describe this opus. Let’s start with that it is a concept album about WWI on these places which I can relate to because my greatgrandfather died in trenches fighting for Austro Hungary in the mud, blood and guts of this war in 1917. Music is epic black thrash death metal with some folk influenced vocals and even violin at the end of 28061914 start of the album with assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. Neprijatelj pred vratima shows all aggression of battle, and connects it with epic melancholy almost doomy second half of the song with clean vocals, violin and choir parts being one of my personal favorites on this opus. Lyrics are in Croatian and are fantastic, so if you do not speak Croatian, maybe try to translate them, because you will not regret it. As I understand this opus describes battles between royal Serbian army and Austro-Hungarian-German forces, retreat over the mountains, coming back to war after great losses, and finally coming home to suffer in peace again. The whole album is apocalyptic atmosphere, blast beats mix with sadness and you can almost smell blood, guts and decomposed bodies on no man’s land while listening. Guitar work is epic and fantastic with melodies, but vocals are one of the best in the genre, when growling you understand what is being sung about, but also transform into awesome clean sad voice. There are also folk influenced parts on majestic Golgota. This music reflects thoughts and suffering of ordinary soldier in war. Fantastic album and for sure one of the best Croatian releases in last ten years for sure!

10/10

Bandcamp

(review) Civil War – Invaders (Napalm Records)

Year: 2022

Power/Heavy metal

After the album called Coat Of Arms, drummer, both guitarists and keyboard player of Sabaton left the band and formed another, called Civil War. Swedes continued in a way where they left off with their previous band, but also continued in a bit less melodic and bit more metal oriented harsher war metal style. Lyrics deal with warfare and battles throughout the centuries with some keyboard based melodies on top of guitars like in Dead Man´s Glory which kind of reminds me also of folk metal songs. Musicianship is awesome, especially keyboards, courtesy of former Sabaton man Daniel Myhr. This is the first full length album with new singer Kelly Sundown Carpenter, who replaced Nils Patrik Johansson and sounds high pitched, yet melodic and versatile enough for such music not to be sunken among all the mediocre ones. Songs like Andersonville, Warrior Soul, Battle Of Life or the title song, Invaders are sure to make your old metal warrior´s heart beat faster. This is great metal record by great band.

7,5/10

(recka) Sabaton – The War To End All Wars (Nuclear Blast)

Sabaton sam otkrio sasvim slučajno prije nekih 15-ak godina kada sam jedne večeri gledao onu metal emisiju na Z1 čini mi se koju je vodila Branimira iz Darkendome, tada su prikazali spot 40:1 i odmah sam se zaljubio u bend i nekoliko godina poslije ih i gledao 2010.na odličnom koncertu u Zagrebu sa Alestorm kao predgrupom. Ovi Šveđani su izdali svoj deseti studijski album. Imali su promjena u postavi benda, ali konstanta su vokal Joakim koji je nekada svirao klavijature u počecima benda i basist Par koji drže ovu ratnu mašinu u funkciji i konstantnom napadu.

Kada kažem napad, to je upravo to, Sabaton, za one koji ne znaju, svira war metal, u biti melodični, himnični power metal sa ratnom tematikom i tekstovima, melodičnim gitarskim riffovima, refrenima kao stvorenim za pjevanje uz njih na koncertima i sve to začinjeno Joakimovim grubim, ali melodičnim glasom koji savršeno paše i pjeva sve bolje kroz godine, kao staro vino. Kao i na prošlom, tematika ovog albuma je uglavnom Prvi svjetski rat i klaonica bitaka koje su se dogodile u tom mračnom dobu ljudske povijesti. Na ovom albumu Sabaton ponovo ima omjer bržih i poletnijih pjesama, kao i onih sporih teško kotrljajućih himni koje podsjećaju na tenk koji gazi sve pred sobom u deset pjesama ovog albuma. Meni osobno su uvijek više pasale brže pjesme, pa su mi Stormtroopers, The Unkillable Soldier recimo među favoritima ovog albuma. Mada, Soldier Of Heaven je također odlična, pjesma koja govori o borbama u Alpama, pa i na području Tolmina, Boveca i Kobarida u Sloveniji gdje se održavaju Metal Days festival i Punk Rock Holiday. Uvijek mi je taj aspekt Prvog svjetskog rata bio nekako najzanimljiviji i najviše ga volim proučavati. Race To The Sea je sporija stvar, ali govori o belgijskom otporu nadbrojnijoj njemačkoj invaziji, a još jedan od favorita ovog albuma meni je Lady Of The Dark, nekako tipična Sabatonska himna. Zasigurno meni jedan od kandidata za top deset albuma 2022.