Ace Audio: "To Hell and Back" - Sabaton

War has always been a subject in music, especially since the Vietnam war in the 1960s and the protest shootings, giving us some of the most notable protest and anti-war songs. A lot of these songs focus on the inhumanities of war, how we are doing wrong and should spend more time with loved ones. Not to bash songs like "War Pigs" or "BYOB", but they really only look at one part of war, enter Swedish power metal band Sabaton and their song "To Hell and Back".

Where many war songs talk about things like the bombings and attacks on innocent people, this song talks about a different victim, one that is often glossed over by the public. The soldiers themselves, often they return to their home country, they just want to go home and spend time with their families, only some of them can't and many of them suffer from PTSD, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and it really messes people up.

This is the angle the song looks at and it is much better off because of it, because if it didn't it probably would have fallen by the wayside to songs like "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due" and others like it. The song itself is based off of the life and writings of Audie Murphy who fought in World War II and is a well known sufferer of PTSD, the title of the song is a reference to his autobiography of the same name, which I haven't read, but it's been made into a film, which I haven't seen. War is not really my interest when it comes to history.

The song is also a really good song if we take out the meaning. Even though the meaning of a song is highly important, to me it isn't the be all or end all of a song. There are songs I like that have very little important meaning and songs I despise that have fair and well-meaning messages.

The song itself is really well made, with some great instrumentals and an awesome guitar solo, and it even includes some whistling, which opens the song. The lyrics also add to the song, with one of my favourite lines being "Let them fall face down if they must die/Making it easier to say goodbye" which says far more than "War/What is it good for?/Absolutely nothing!".

In my opinion, this is one of greatest Heavy Metal songs of the decade, while it isn't in my top ten, it is in my top twenty favourite songs. I don't want to here more songs about he evil of war on the countries we attack, but more on the horrors that it has on the people who fight the war, they need our help just as much as the countries do.

I'm the Entity of Darkness, and not every victim of war dies in battle.