Coat of Arms

Great band, great CD. Read more

I am really enjoying this one from Sabaton. I'm stuck on two songs: Midway & Screaming Eagles. Midway relates the Naval engagement that turned the tide of the Pacific War and halted the Japanese advance across the Pacific. Screaming Eagles is the real hit though. The American 101st Airborne are holding down the besieged town of Bastogne against the pounding attacks of Hitler's Army in one of the most iconic confrontations of the Battle of the Bulge. And the song has it all...including the famous American reply to the German demands for surrender: Nuts! The only thing left to memorialize these American heroes is setting their epic struggle to pounding power metal. That's what you will get with this album! The other songs are good too, and Metal Ripper is a lot of fun to crank up the volume and rock out to! Solid album all the way! Read more

"Coat of Arms" (2010) is the fifth album by Swedish power metal band Sabaton. Sound-wise, it's more of the same, which is perfectly fine with me. If you're familiar with their previous work, you know you're getting heavy, aggressive metal, Joakim Broden's deep, gravelly vocals, and historically educational war-themed lyrics. "Coat of Arms" is more musically interesting than Sabaton's previous release, "The Art of War." There isn't a whole lot of variety (not that we listen to metal for variety), but the melodies are better and, refreshingly, there's nothing obviously lifted from any of their previous works. On the whole, this is quite a solid album, and there's a decent chance it's my favorite Sabaton CD. Highlights include "Uprising," "The Final Solution," "Aces in Exile," and "Saboteurs." Read more

As always, the first and greatest appeal of Sabaton, at least to me, is the history lesson condensed down into a song and usually doubled-down in terms of sheer badassitude. This makes it double the entertainment, for anyone who really reads a history book knows it is a greater horror story than anything Hollywood can produce. As normal, the song breakdown: Great songs: Coat of Arms pushes a 300 theme as well as tells of defensive feats from WW2, Midway covers some of the major naval combat action, Saboteurs speaks of a daring commando raid by the Brits against the Nazi nuclear arms program, and White Death shows the greatest sniper in human history, Simo Hayha. Special Mention to The Final Solution, as this is a history lesson no man should ever forget. Good Songs: Uprising and Scream Eagles are both epic, but just barely knocked out of the top of the line. Aces In Exile is also a good history lesson, but a bit faster than their average; you'll need to listen a couple times to get the whole narrative, probably. Wehrmacht is a slower and altogether more depressing look at the soldiers of the Third Reich. Metal Ripper (End track) is a good piece of Heavy Meta, a song constructed of other songs or concepts. Average songs: None on this album. Bad songs: This is Sabaton we talk about. No such thing as a bad song in their arsenal. Read more

First of all, the title is not meant to be a slight. I really really like the two afor mentioned CDs, and this one as well. It was good throughout the first play, but it got really good after a few listens. Midway, The Final Solution, and Coat of Arms are the stand-outs for me. I could have done with another track or two, instead of the instrumental pieces as the end; however, this is still an extremely solid piece of work. For some reason the songs from P.V. have resonated with me more than these (so far). If you like good metal, then you need to purchase this CD. You won't regret it. Read more

Awesome, as always! :D I, for one, love the mix of instruments they use, up to and including keyboards, string instruments, whatever they feel the need to use for the sake of the music and the lyrics and the theme(s). A few things I recognized, being a history buff (and having relatives who were WWII veterans; I remember their stories), but I'm always discovering new things when I listen to a new (for me) album of theirs. :) Collecting Sabaton, even in reverse chronological order, is still very rewarding! I started with /The Last Stand/, then /Heroes/ (a WWII concept album), then /The Great War/ (WWI; their most recent release), then /Coat of Arms/ here, then /Primo Victoria/, and /The Art of War/. I can hear them getting even better as time goes on, to the point where I'll trust just about anything they come out with next, and probably get it not, perhaps, sight unseen, but without even really needing to hear anything from it...though listening to them (and watching their official videos on YouTube) is always a joy. :) Do glatem live, pojkar! LB Read more

Power metal is the melodic remedy for those headbangers tired of psychotic grunting and sludgy down-tuned guitars that have become so cliched as of late. Sabaton are the proud heirs of the glory days of the MWOBHM bands, especially Iron Maiden and Saxon. But far from being a nostalgic band, Sabaton include choral backing vocals and keyboards along with tempos that remind one of Rammstein without the sexual perversion. "Coat Of Arms" is about WWII, historically accurate and thrashes along as well as any band out there. Plus, we get stinging lead work, understandable vocals that are actually sung for a change. Fans of Maiden longing for the earlier rawer days should be on the prowl for this band. Unfortunately, it seems the back catalogue is quite expensive at the moment, but perhaps going to the band's website or Nuclear Blast's webpage will offer earlier work at a more affordable price for stateside fans. These guys will be around for a while, and maybe they'll help steer some of their brethren toward a more melodic approach. Not that I don't love bonecrushing metal - it just seems too many bands, especially deathcore and metalcore all sound like they were run off a copier at Kinko's. Not good. Read more