SABATON is Swedish Heavy Metal band formed in 1999. Veering often into Power Metal, thematically and musically, they've written 10 full-length albums on war, battles, and military heroes. Weapons Of The Modern Age has one new track and five songs from the two previous albums, collecting songs about persons who elevated new tactics in the theater of war, giving this a loose conceptual feel. The disc was unleashed on the public on September 30, 2022, via Nuclear Blast Records.

The disc opens with "father," the new track. After a piano intro, the drums usher in the guitars, bass, and choir. Joakim brings his signature grit, accompanied by rolling R's to a simple drum beat coupled with a matching bass line for the first verse. The chorus gets bigger, then the second verse drops back, though it has some guitar added. Lyrically, the song covers the creation of the Haber-Bosch Process, a method of manufacturing a fertilizer that would allow for better crop yields, but instead was used to further chemical warfare, killing millions. Sometimes, the greatest advances are used for the most horrendous atrocities. Humans are very creative at building new ways to kill as many as possible as fast as they can.

"The Red Baron" did the same for aviation in war. He advanced the use of aircraft and led the charge for incorporating planes into the strategic concept of battle. Musically, the organ is the first thing you hear, sounding a bit like a J. S. Bach fugue. Those shift to more of a Hammond style organ for the main body of the song. More gritty vocals and Power Metal guitar work over a chugging rhythm that propels the song through the air.

Planes helped rule the air and supported the seas, however, the "Dreadnought" became the powerhouse of the waters. Faster and equipped with more heavy weaponry, they ruled the seas and shifted the balance of power on the high seas. Again, it was an invention that changed the way war was waged. Here, we get a song about these revolutionary ships with a fairly simple rhythm and some killer guitar work, including a nice, melodic solo. The composition is heavy and intimidating, much like the battleship the song is about.

For a bit of a faster track, we move to "The Attack Of The Dead Men." The guitars are solid and the keys have an almost electronic theme to the lead, but a haunted quality to the main keyboard sounds. If you want to know about the lyrics, read the story on the SABATON website. It is a wild read, the stuff of legend. The rhythm is good, supporting some really nice lead guitar work through the solo and into the tandem work through the interlude.

"The Future Of Warfare" is another bombastic track, with the keys giving it a bit of a Symphonic/Power Metal feel. We again stick with World War I, where some of the most brutal, yet effective, tactics were initiated. Many of those were furthered over the next few wars, going from chlorine gas to mustard gas, then on to napalm. Aircraft got more sophisticated and ships were improved for speed and range of weapons. It all began between 1915 and 1918.

The disc wraps with "Stormtroopers," one of the fastest songs on the album. The vocal delivery is rapid-fire and full of everything you expect, grit, angst, and power. The choir adds a lot of size the feel of the song, paving the way for some epic guitar work and the drum/bass combo are in top form for this track. The blitzkrieg was an extension of the advances in airborne warfare. Aircraft paved the way for an overwhelming assault by land forces.

All of these songs explore something that advanced the ability of militaries to gain an advantage over their enemies. SABATON does not write only about the winners or losers, they write about the people who made war everything it is today. Without "the Red Baron," there would be no fighter jets going Mach 7 with the ability to fire missiles into buildings they cannot even see. Without the "Father" of gas, there would have been little success killing that effectively in the trenches.

SABATON highlights the successes and the failures, neither celebrating or lauding mass slaughter. Instead, they document history, which mankind seems to forget over and over, because we repeat it, over and over. Though there is only one new song on this disc, it does bring together a collection of songs that tell the tale of how we got to where we are now.