Sabaton - The War to End All Wars – The Movie, Military Museum Scotland, Linburn Estate, Wilkieston, West Lothian 8th November 2023

It's clear that the band really do care about the grim but heroic real-life stories that feeds their songs and the lasting legacy arising from them. They have carefully timed the film’s release to coincide with Armistice Day / Remembrance Sunday and, even better, they have reached out to military museums around the world and offered them the opportunity to set up exclusive premiere showings on their premises to draw music fans in, raise much-needed funds and bring attention to their permanent exhibits.

The on-screen animation is very effective and there is a continuous narrative theme running through the film that brings it all together. The music, of course, is excellent and reflects Sabaton’s signature story-telling style allied with dramatic power metal stylings. The film and album reflect something of a deeper-dive into lesser-known tales from The Great War; I certainly was not familiar with the exploits of King Albert of Belgium and Adrian Carton de Wiart VC among others. They take an even-handed approach too and include songs from a German perspective and ‘The Valley of Death’ which tells the story of heroic Bulgarian resistance against British forces. Having laboured through the dreary works of the war poets at school, I definitely found this brand of visual and lyrical story-telling, with optional head-banging, to be a far better medium for education and the film itself was both entertaining and thought-provoking.

One of the most memorable and better-known film segments covers the orchestrated track ‘Christmas Truce’ which depicts the famous no-man’s land football match between foes in 1914 (No VAR and I don’t know the score but I imagine Germany won on penalties). Of course, the next day it was back to ‘bring your sons to the slaughter’ and, as we know, it didn’t turn out to be the war that ended all wars after all and we’ve got more than enough proof of that in the world just now. I don’t think Sabaton will be running out of fresh war stories to inspire their songs any time soon but theirs will always be an important quest. Of course, re-telling these tales must inevitably glorify war to some extent but more-so, these are inspiring and life-affirming tales of heroism and bravery amid the horror and, especially importantly at this time, they also serve to honour the fallen.

The full list of 15 UK venues is included below but Rockfiend attended the Scottish showing at The Military Museum, Scotland which is located just West of Edinburgh and which turned out to be an undiscovered gem housing a fascinating collection of armed forces memorabilia including models, uniforms, weapons and custom exhibits inside the building with tanks, trucks and trenches outside. Some UK venues have showings scheduled into next week and I believe some band members may be scheduled to attend selected performances. Scottish fans will need to move quickly though, as the weekend performances are already sold out and only a handful of tickets remain for the last available show on Thursday 9th November.

Black Country Living Museum, Dudley Bodmin Keep – Cornwall’s Army Museum, Bodmin CMSM Combined Military Services Museum, Essex Heugh Battery Museum, Hartlepool Military Museum Scotland, Kirknewton National Museum of the Royal Navy Hartlepool, Hartlepool Royal Air Force Museum London, London Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum, Woodstock South Wales Aviation Museum, Barry Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome, Essex Royal Welch Fusiliers Museum, Caernarfon The Staffordshire Regiment Museum, Staffordshire The Tank Museum, Dorset York Army Museum, York