✦✦✧✧ The only thing new about this album from Swedish extreme metal war historians Sabaton is that this suite of songs literally tells different specific stories from the First World War. I guess they just never got around to talking about the Christmas armistice in Bastogne until now. Hate on them all you want, but I think that’s actually kinda dope.

✦✦✧✧ Do you like well-produced power metal that deals with warfare? Then you already know about Sabaton, and this album gives you more of what you’ve come to expect. For the rest of us: this is sortakinda epic symphonic Eurometal with awkward vocals but tasty guitars. The most entertaining part of this album (about World War I) is just how literal the lyrics are; for proof, you need go no further than such songs as “In Flanders Fields,” “82nd All The Way,” and of course “The Red Baron.”

★★☆☆ Very middle-of-the-road beerhall metal. It’s fun, but the whole album sounds like you’ve heard it all before… because you have.