The Art of War is the fourth album by the Swedish power metal band Sabaton.
The album is based on the ancient Chinese military treatise, The Art of War written by General Sun Tzu in the 6th century BC. It consists of 13 chapters, each of which describe a different aspect of warfare, and is considered the definitive work on military tactics and strategies of its time. The tracks on the album correspond to each chapter of treatise. The lyrics of the songs are about famous battles or war, mostly based on the battles of the First and Second World Wars where Sun Tzu's tactics were applied.
Since the album's release, the song "Ghost Division" has served as the opening song for most of Sabaton's concerts.
Contents
Production
The Swedish national anthem from Sweden Rock '09 (found on the Re-Armed edition) was the only song on which bassist Pär Sundström has contributed vocals until 2012, when the line-up change required Sundström to step up to the microphone on a more permanent basis.
Spoken quotes from Sun Tzu's The Art of War can be heard in songs such as "Sun Tzu Says", "The Art of War", "Unbreakable", "The Nature of Warfare", "Cliffs of Gallipoli", "Union (Slopes of St. Benedict)", "The Price of a Mile", "Firestorm", and "A Secret". These quotes are taken from LibriVox's audiobook version of the book, which follows the Lionel Giles translation.