Sabaton

Returning with a largely revamped lineup, Swedish power metallers Sabaton narrow their thematic focus on their seventh studio album, Heroes. Rather than tackling the large-scale battles they have in the past, the band focuses their lyrics on individual feats of wartime heroics…

In the beginning of its career, Swedish power metal sextet Sabaton was considered the next big thing in the metal scene. Nowadays, the band has become a synonym for predictable repetition appealing only to occasional metal fans during the festival season. One has to wonder at what point the band reached its turning point. In hindsight, this climax is obviously the moment when the two guitarists, the keyboarder and the drummer simultaneously left the band that was then painfully reconstructed by the remaining bassist and singer. The last record released by the classic line-up was Carolus Rex, marking both the band's greatest hour and its last peak so far…

You might call it impeccable timing. SABATON have long been the metal world's great guardians of military history, and the underlying message behind the Swedish band's many tales of armed conflict has always been abundantly clear…

Vikings and metal tend to go together very well, and the idea of combining the two has obviously been made popular by the likes of Swedish melodic death metal band Amon Amarth and German power metal band Rebellion, and now a new challenger has arrived to prove themselves worthy of fighting for Odin. That band is Brothers of Metal, from Sweden, and they have unleashed their debut Prophecy of Ragnarok, which is not only an incredibly addictive power metal album, with varying influences from other genres and a ton of different exciting elements, but it also happens to be perhaps the very best Viking themed metal album I’ve ever heard, as the band takes familiar ideas and mashes them together perfectly, while also managing to create their own distinct sound that really has to be heard…