In current year, ‘Legends’ is a fairly apt descriptor for Swedish crew Sabaton— somehow, their triumphant explorations of warfare throughout history have become the face of modern power metal, with the band managing to headline all-manner of festivals across Europe and beyond. Their success is no accident, coming off the back of highly consistent studio releases: the five-piece have their sound absolutely nailed down at this point in their career, churning out hit after hit over the last decade. Perhaps ‘churning’ is a little too accurate, if anything— on ‘Legends,’ Sabaton’s descent into self-parody continues.

Even if Brodén and company have managed to wriggle their way out of their obsession with the two world wars, this is still undeniably your typical Sabaton affair. The band’s focus on muscular bravado is as inescapable on ‘Legends’ as it ever was, becoming the lens by which we see each tale of heroism— hell, this new album is practically drowning in bombast. Symphonic elements swirl around a number of the record’s largest moments, layering choral vocals behind the hooks of tracks like ‘I, Emperor’ and ‘Templars:’ even on the part of Sabaton themselves, ‘power’ really is the name of the game. Singer Joakim Brodén favours his lower register for much of the record’s runtime— never his strongest attribute, it must be said— which tends to have him sounding more like a rumbling foghorn than it does an inspiring leader. His performance on ‘A Tiger Among Dragons’ and ‘Impaler’ is steeped in melodrama, even by this band’s particularly lofty standards.

So yes, Sabaton’s latest album sounds big and imposing: were you expecting anything else? It must be said that, even compared to records like 2019’s ‘The Great War’ or 2022’s ‘The War To End All Wars,’ ‘Legends’ manages to take that larger-than-life sound and strip the joy from it, wading through some of the group’s most lethargic material to date. Sabaton make few attempts to bring any kind of speed to their newest project, with even the gallops of ‘Maid of Steel’ failing to capture the skittish energy that made a fan-favourite like ‘Night Witches’ so electrifying. Instead, the group’s 2025 album plods its way through mid-tempo number after mid-tempo number, only growing increasingly ridiculous with every attempt. If any listeners found the band’s previous output to be needlessly theatrical and formulaic, ‘Legends’ will make absolutely no attempts to change your mind: by contrast, it seems determined to drive that exactly feeling home.

Once again, Brodén and company have written the same album they’ve been recreating for the past decade— there are no flashy new tricks or inventive twists being employed here, leaving these eleven tracks as the bottom feeders of the Sabaton discography. Taken in isolation, there’s nothing offensive about the peppy guitar leads of ‘Hordes of Khan,’ the marching rhythms of ‘Lightning at the Gates’ or the Survivor-esque blasts of ‘A Tiger Among Dragons:’ really though, how many times can we be expected to enjoy this same material, recycled over and over again? Though the band are finally exploring historical set-pieces outside the 20th century (with some tales going back as far as the Ancient Egyptians), Sabaton have a unique knack for homogenising every time period: through their eyes, the varied exploits of Genghis Khan, Vlad the Impaler and Miyamoto Musashi are all boiled down into the same tired ‘victorious’ message.

With a crop of tracks as one-note as these, picking favourites feels like the roll of a dice: even despite our general distaste for the record, there is the odd moment of power metal fun to be had here. Lead single ‘Templars’ has the benefit of kicking the album off, meaning that its ridiculous spectacle feels somewhat fresh— even if it came later in the track list though, its unique rhythmic choices and ever-present momentum would make it a standout. Sabaton have a real problem with their verses on ‘Legends,’ often stripping them of guitars and leaving them feeling pointlessly barebones and uninteresting: if you’re going to return to these songs, it’ll be for their momentous choruses. ‘Crossing the Rubicon’ generates some real force in its largest moments, no doubt aided by the always-reliable guitar work of Rörland and Englund— ‘The Cycle of Songs’ is similarly thrilling, even if the cut does little to earn its six-minute runtime.

It’s when a chorus doesn’t land for you that Sabaton are left without a leg to stand on: there is nothing else here to interest you. ‘I, Emperor’ is positively monotonous, beating your head against its static drum beat until you’re begging for the end— the band attempt to spruce up their barebones writing with a sea of choral vocals, but there’s just no disguising how laughably underbaked the cut feels. Closer ‘Till Seger' isn’t as egregious as that, but is probably what ChatGPT would spit out if it were trained on the entire Sabaton catalogue: even among an entire record full of recycling, this is the song going straight to landfill. Once again, the majority of this material will probably click for any fans of the band, but that’s almost a given when the writing and presentation are this formulaic: honestly, the greatest shock that ‘Legends’ has in store is simply that it doesn’t have the word ‘war’ in its title.

Sabaton roll out an album like Starbucks unveil a new seasonal drink: dependably, repetitively, and dripping with corporate oversight. The group have their style of militaristic power metal down to a science at this point, following their instructional manual religiously on ‘Legends:’ they make very few mistakes, but only because they seem so terribly afraid of taking any risks. If you like Sabaton, you will probably enjoy their newest album— it is, after all, the power metal equivalent of bottled still water.