Saturday, 26 October 2019

SABATON: THE LAST STAND OF METAL ROCK



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 fifth song is “Rorke’s Drift”. This battle took place during the Anglo-Zulu War (1879) to control and submit the Zulu Empire in South Africa. The English defenders had to defend the station of Rorke’s Drift. They were 155 facing 4000 Zulus armed with spears, shields and old fire weapons. The defenders were successful, and they repelled the African army. 17 garrison soldiers died, but they killed 351 tribal warriors.

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!


Francesco Giammei

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