Hello everybody I’m Francesco and today I will tell
you about one of my favourite albums in the metal music world: “The last stand”
by Swedish band Sabaton.
This album is about famous last stands in history; a
last stand is for definition a battle where a small defensive force holds
apposition against a much more powerful attacking force.
There are ten songs in this album, and I would like to
talk about each one of them.
The first one is “Sparta”; it’s about the battle at
the Hot Gates (“Thermopylae” in English and “Thermopylon” in ancient Greek). In
this last stand there were about 5, 000 Greek hoplites led by king Leonidas of
Sparta and his 300 Spartans against 500,000 Persians of Xerxes I. It took place
in August 480 b.C. and lasted three days. The Greeks fought bravely but a
traitor called Ephialtes showed to the Persians a way back to defenders. A lot
of Greeks retreated covered by Leonidas and his 300 men, who fought until they
were killed by the Persian horde.
The second song is “Blood of Bannockburn”. The battle
of Bannockburn took place in Scotland in 1314. It was fought between the Kingdom
of Scotland (strong of 10,000 warriors) and the Kingdom of England (strong of
25, 000 ones). The Scots were outnumbered but they destroyed the English
cavalry with their heavy formations, pike phalanxes called “Schiltrons”. Then
they rushed against the English infantry and won. The Kingdom of Scotland was
finally free from the English rule.
The third song is “Diary of an Unknown Soldier” and
it’s a very short audio with the memories of an diary of an anonymous WWI
soldier.
The fourth song is “The Lost Battalion”. It’s about a
battalion isolated by German forces during WW1 after an Allies’ attack in the
Argonne Forest. They were 541 when they were trapped; only 194 were rescued
after six days of fights in the trenches.
The sixth song is “The last stand”. It talks about the
heroic last stand of the 189 Swiss Guards during the Sack of Rome in 1527. In
that year the German Emperor ordered to his mercenaries, the terrible
Landskenechts to sack Rome. They were close to capture the Pope, but the 189
got in the way and died to make the Pope get time to reach Castel Sant’Angelo, a fortified castle in
Rome.
The seventh song is “Hill3234”. The battle of the Hill
3234 was fought between 39 Soviet soldiers and 300-400 Muslim rebels. They were
told to hold their line under the Soviet control and they won the battle. Eleven
of them died in the battle, holding that hill until they were killed. The other
induced the enemy to retreat and then they were finally saved.
The eighth song is “Shiroyama”. The rebellion of Saigo
Katsumoto was (in 17th century) a symbol of honour in Japan. A group of Samurai
became fighting against the Emperor of their country because their important
role in feudal Japan was being replaced by British and American forms of
Government. The rebellion lasted for years when the two armies decided to fight
in the battle of Shiroyama. The Samurais were outnumbered sixty to one, and
they were using katanas (a typical Japanese sword) while their opponents were
using rifles. The Samurais charged against their enemies and killed a lot of
Japanese regular soldiers, but they were stopped by the heavy and technological
weapons bought from America. Saigo Katsumoto died and the rebellion was settled.
The ninth song is “Winged Hussars”. In 1529 the
Ottoman Empire tried to subjugate Est Europe (Austria, Kingdom of Bohemia and
Walachia). Vienna was sieged. The Christians inside the city were hungry and
outnumbered fifteen to one. While Muslim soldiers were trying to climb Vienna
walls, the Winged Hussars appeared, charged from North and broke the siege,
winning the battle. The Winged Hussars were a group of elite horsemen from
Poland; they were (and are) called Winged Hussars because the Hussars were the
typical cavalry of the XVI century and Winged because they used to wear wings
to scare the enemy.
The tenth and last song is “The last battle”. Its text
is about the battle for the castle of Itter, in the Austrian Alps. It was one
of the latest and strangest battle of the Second World War, because it was
fought five days after Hitler died and twenty American soldiers and 15
anti-Nazi Wehrmacht soldiers defended the castle against 100 Waffen SS’s
stormtrooper. The American commander “Jack” Lee survived and won the battle, but
unfortunately the Wehrmacht (regular German Army) soldiers’ chief Gangl died.
After some days the Allies won WW2 and the hostages into Castle of Itter (some
ex leaders of the occupied countries) helped to re-build devastated Europe.
OK, I know it may sound like a history lesson, but …
problably it is! You can learn a lot listening to metal music too. If you enjoy this kind of music, you must listen
to Sabaton’s “The Last Stand”.
If you want, you can write in the comments below about your favourite musical bands. I’d love to hear from you. Thanks for reading!
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