SABATON – Attero Dominatus

Formed in 1999 by five young Swedish warriors, Sabaton was ready to set out to conquer the Power Metal throne. In 2000 as a test of the market, they released a compilation of demos called Fist For Fight, 600 copies were pressed and they all sold out within weeks. In 2005 their debut album Primo Victoria saw the day. It did well on the Swedish charts and they did sell out shows in Sweden and Germany. Sabaton began work on their sequel in January 2006. Attero Dominatus is a follow up and a final chapter of the era that started with their first album.

Sabaton has toured with major Power Metal acts Edguy and Dragonforce on a seven week long sold out tour. Now, Sabaton is ready to attack Europe with a headliner tour.

Attero Dominatus starts with the title track, a World War II epic, with nice lead guitars, and the songs sets the standard for the album: fast guitars, thundering drums, and rough vocals that sound like Lordi, and on the chorus a choir is used as backing vocals.

”Nuclear Attack,” the second song on the album, has a killer riff, and yet another WWII theme. It’s a song about the B-29 named Enola, dropping the bomb over Hiroshima, the event that ended the war. Again, the song has great lead guitar, but already on the second song you get tired of Joakim Brodéns demanding vocals. “Rise Of Evil,” a promising intro, has dark and Maiden-like bass and guitar riffs, then it develops into a Stratovarius kind of song. Not that Sabaton doesn’t have a unique sound, because they definitely do, but then again you can easily pick out where their influences come from.

”In The Name Of God,” is a filler track with an insanely pompous chorus, but still features great lead guitars! The fifth track out is “We Burn,” and it has a killer opening, then has an explosion of drums into a riff that could be from Sonata Arctica … and one of the strongest tracks on the album.

”Angels Calling” starts out soft with keyboards like a Nightwish song, which sets a nice mood, then the guitar comes in and the song kicks off … actually it is a boring song, with the weakest riffs on the album. “Back In Control” is a song about the Falkland War and Margareth Thatcher (iron maiden) — “Orders from the iron maiden, get the islands back” — A cool Rocker, with a great chorus, and again fabulous guitar solos. Next out is “Light In The Black.” Sabaton has a great knack for powerful and pompous (not always a bad thing) choruses. This song is no exception — killer chorus, a killer solo, and an all right verse.

The final song on the album is “Metal Crue,” blending 29 other Metal acts in the lyrics — you don’t know whether or not to laugh or cry. It is a nice gesture, but in the end it comes out as a not that serious of a song.

Sabaton’s Attero Dominatus is a Power Metal album that is well-polished, but because of a lead vocal that gets to you after two songs, and often poor lyrics, the album takes a fall. Despite great guitar work, the album is nothing more than average. But, there are some great tracks here like “Attero Dominatus” and “Back In Control.”

Band members

Oskar Montelius – Guitar
Daniel Mullback – Drums
Pär Sundström – Bass
Rikard Sundén – Guitar
Joakim Brodén – Vocal
Daniel Mÿhr – Keyboards