''The Art of War'' is the fourth album by Swedish heavy metal band

Sabaton A sabaton or solleret is part of a knight's body armor that covers the foot. History Fourteenth and fifteenth century sabatons typically end in a tapered point well past the actual toes of the wearer's foot, following fashionable shoe shapes o ...

. The album is based on the ancient Chinese military treatise, ''

The Art of War ''The Art of War'' () is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the Late Spring and Autumn Period (roughly 5th century BC). The work, which is attributed to the ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu ("Master Sun"), is com ...

'' written by General

Sun Tzu Sun Tzu ( ; zh, t=孫子, s=孙子, first= t, p=Sūnzǐ) was a Chinese military general, strategist, philosopher, and writer who lived during the Eastern Zhou period of 771 to 256 BCE. Sun Tzu is traditionally credited as the author of ''The ...

in the 6th century BC. It consists of 13 chapters, each of which describe a different aspect of warfare, and is considered the definitive work on military tactics and strategies of its time. The tracks on the album correspond to each chapter of treatise. The lyrics of the songs are about famous battles or war, mostly based on the battles of the

First First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

and

Second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...

World Wars where Sun Tzu's tactics were applied. The second track and first full song of the album, "Ghost Division", is notable as the song Sabaton usually plays first in live concerts, ever since the album's release.

Production

The Swedish national anthem from Sweden Rock '09 (found on the Re-Armed edition) was the only song on which bassist Pär Sundström has contributed vocals until 2012, when the line-up change required Sundström to step up to the microphone on a more permanent basis. Spoken quotes from

's ''

'' can be heard in songs such as "Sun Tzu Says", "The Art of War", "Unbreakable", "The Nature of Warfare", "Cliffs of Gallipoli", "Union (Slopes of St. Benedict)", "The Price of a Mile", "Firestorm" and "A Secret". These quotes are taken from

LibriVox LibriVox is a group of worldwide volunteers who read and record public domain texts, creating free public domain audiobooks for download from their website and other digital library hosting sites on the internet. It was founded in 2005 by Hugh Mc ...

's audiobook version of the book, which follows the

Lionel Giles Lionel Giles (29 December 1875 – 22 January 1958) was a British sinologist, writer, and philosopher. Lionel Giles served as assistant curator at the British Museum and Keeper of the Department of Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books. He is ...

translation. At time of writing, "Unbreakable" was intended to describe a particular historical

guerrilla warfare Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or Irregular military, irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, Raid (military), raids ...

action; however, songwriters Joakim Brodén and Pär Sundström have since forgotten which one they were thinking of.

Track listing

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

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 ''The Art of War'' is the fourth album by Swedish Heavy metal music, heavy metal band Sabaton (band), Sabaton. The album is based on the ancient Chinese military treatise, ''The Art of War'' written by General Sun Tzu in the 6th century BC. It ...

. In 2010 The album was re-released with other early Sabaton albums under their new label in a "Re-Armed" version that included several new bonus tracks.

Personnel

Joakim Brodén Joakim "Jocke" Brodén (born 5 October 1980) is a Swedish-Czech musician who is the lead vocalist, keyboardist and occasional third guitarist of the Swedish heavy metal band Sabaton. He and bassist Pär Sundström formed the band in 1999. Earl ...

– vocals * Rickard Sundén – guitars * Oskar Montelius – guitars *

Pär Sundström Pär Sundström (born 8 June 1981) is a Swedish bass player. He and Joakim Brodén are the last remaining founding members of heavy metal band Sabaton. He is also the band's manager and one of the band's lyricists. Life Sundström was born in ...

– bass * Daniel Mullback – drums * Daniel Mÿhr – keyboards

In popular culture

"40:1" became a hit in Poland and Sabaton was asked to perform it on the

Polish Independence Day National Independence Day ( pl, Narodowe Święto Niepodległości) is a national day in Poland celebrated on 11 November to commemorate the anniversary of the restoration of Poland's sovereignty as the Second Polish Republic in 1918 from the ...

celebration in

Gdańsk Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...

in 2008. "40:1" is also used as an entrance song by Polish

mixed martial artist Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on striking, grappling and ground fighting, incorp ...

Damian Grabowski Damian Grabowski (born May 12, 1980) is a Polish mixed martial artist who last competed in 2019. A professional since 2007, he has fought in the UFC, Bellator, Konfrontacja Sztuk Walki (KSW), and M-1 Global. Biography Grabowski is a multiple Bra ...

. The title track was featured in the Sabaton Soundtrack DLC for the grand strategy game

Europa Universalis IV ''Europa Universalis IV'' is a 2013 grand strategy video game in the ''Europa Universalis'' series, developed by Paradox Development Studio and published by Paradox Interactive as a sequel to ''Europa Universalis III'' (2007). The game was rele ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Art of War, The 2008 albums Sabaton (band) albums Albums produced by Peter Tägtgren