The Art of War (Sabaton album)

The Art of War
Studio album by Sabaton
Released	May 30, 2008
Recorded	Abyss Studios, Sweden
Genre	Power metal
Label	Black Lodge Records
Producer	Tommy & Peter Tägtgren
Sabaton chronology
Metalizer (2007) The Art of War (2008) Coat of Arms (2010)
Singles from The Art of War
""Cliffs of Gallipoli"/"Ghost Division"" Released: May 30, 2008
Re-Armed edition
Front cover of the 2010 reissue

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Jukebox:Metal

The Art of War is the fifth album by Swedish power metal band Sabaton.

The lyrics of the songs are about famous battles or war, mostly based on the battles of World War II or based on the The Art of War by Sun Tzu, for which the album is named.

Track listing

1. "Sun Tzu Says" – A short introduction to the album. – 0:24
2. "Ghost Division" – The first real song on the album, about Rommel's tank division during the invasion of France. – 3:51
3. "The Art of War" – About defeating your enemy without fighting, based on chapter three of the Art of War ('Attack by Strategem'). – 5:09
4. "40:1" – About The Battle of Wizna. – 4:11
5. "Unbreakable" – About Chapter five in the Art of War ('energy') – 5:58
6. "The Nature of Warfare" – An instrumental setup track, commmenting on chapter six. – 1:19
7. "Cliffs of Gallipoli" – About the Gallipoli campaign in World War I. – 5:52
8. "Talvisota" – About the Finnish Winter War during World War II. – 3:32
9. "Panzerkampf" – On the The Battle of Kursk. – 5:16
10. "Union (Slopes of St. Benedict)" – About the battle of Monte Cassino during World War II. – 4:05
11. "The Price of a Mile" – On the Battle of Passchendaele and the senseless slaughters of World War I. – 5:56
12. "Firestorm" – Strategic bombing. This song also corresponds with the chapter of The Art of War entitled "The Attack by Fire". – 3:26
13. "A Secret" – A short outro track for the album (Also containing a humorous message to the listener, informing them that an illegal download has been detected, and spyware has been released onto their machine.) – 0:38

Re-armed edition bonus tracks

1. "Swedish Pagans" - About the Vikings - 4:13
2. "Glorious Land" - About the Battle of Warsaw in 1920^{[citation needed]} - 3:19
3. "The Art of War (Pre-production demos)" - 4:48
4. "Swedish National Anthem (Live at Sweden Rock Festival)" - 2:34

Different versions

The Art of War was released in three different versions, a standard edition containing only the CD, a vinyl version and a Limited Edition. The limited contains the full-length CD and the book The Art of War by Sun Tzu. The limited edition comes in a DVD case with alternate artwork. All preorders from the official Sabaton homepage also included the single, Cliffs of Gallipoli.

Album line-up

• Joakim Brodén – Vocals
• Rickard Sundén – Guitars
• Oskar Montelius – Guitars
• Pär Sundström – Bass
• Daniel Mullback – Drums
• Daniel Mÿhr – Keyboards

Interesting details

"40:1" became a hit in Poland and Sabaton was asked to perform it on the Polish Independence Day celebration in Gdańsk in 2008. "40:1" is also used as an entrance song by Polish mixed martial artist Damian Grabowski.

To date, the Swedish national anthem from Sweden Rock '09 (found on the Re-Armed edition) is the only song on which bassist Pär Sundström has contributed vocals.

They used the Amazon translation of the Art of War for the spoken parts throughout the album^{[citation needed]}.