Top 5 Sabaton Albums

Well fellow Otaku & Metalheads, it’s the last day of the Summer Of Sabaton.

This was a fun little summer event. Sure, I had taken a break last month to talk about my dearly departed friend Isabelle, but she’s just as badass & metal as these glorious swedes, so I think it’s okay. At the beginning of August, I took a look at the last 2 releases from these guys (Carolus Rex & The Great War), but to conclude things for this event, I wanted to talk about the Sabaton albums that you need to listen to, and to add to your musical library. In my view, these are all essential, but everybody is going to have their own opinion, and I think that’s okay if you ask me. So, without further delay, here are the top 5 Sabaton albums you have to own. Let’s begin.

5) Metalizer (Song)

I might have said this in my review back in June, but I feel kinda bad for Metalizer. Sure, the audio & production quality leave a little to be desired, and it somehow feels older than even Primo Victoria, but there’s just some kind of odd charm to it. Much like Against The Law from Stryper, this record acts as a window into Sabaton’s distant past. Long before the band became known for mixing historical warfare & Power Metal, they came across more like a typical Power Metal band that sang about typical metallic things, and yet it’s still tons of fun to listen to. Thanks to the Metalizer re-release, we have both the original Fist For Fight version, and the updated one released in 2007. While it’s not uber essential, Metalizer shall forever remain a curiosity that pops into my head from time to time.

4) The Great War (Song)

As much as I enjoyed The War To End All Wars from 2022, I gotta admit that the band’s first venture into the history of World War 1 is the one that I enjoy just a little more. Not only did it mark the second time I ever saw the band (Hint Hint), but taking things in a darker direction was surprising to me, but oddly welcome at the same time. From the introduction of tanks, to the tale of Francis Pegahmagabow, and concluding with the tragic poem of Flanders Fields, Sabaton hit surprisingly hard with this release. If anything, it would be a crime to not have put the record on the list, especially since the album turns 5 not that long ago. If you like the band more on the darker side than the serious side, The Great War is for you.

3) Primo Victoria (Song)

It wouldn’t be right not to include the band’s first official release on this list. Though it doesn’t sound or feel as dated as Metalizer, you can definitely tell that it’s almost 20 years old. Even with that fact, it’s still a great starting point for Sabaton, as well as their historically charged Power Metal. From the opening track about the D-Day landing, to the 1st of three Heavy Metal tribute songs, there’s a surprising medley of tunes to get into. Hell, there was even coverage of Operation Desert Storm & Operation Iraqi Freedom, the later of which just under or over by the time that this album came out. With it turning fully 20 in March next year, I can only hope that the boys do something special to celebrate the occasion.

2) Carolus Rex (Song)

Like I said in my review at the beginning of the month, Carolus Rex is my least favorite of the band’s discography. The one step towards seriousness turns me off somewhat, but I cannot deny the incredible levels of quality that Sabaton put into this release, nor can I not ignore it’s legacy. In the 12+ years since it’s release, many of the songs off of the record have been played the world over, and even in America the legacy of one of Sweden’s most iconic kings is well known. As for how it performed in their native country.....quadruple platinum status after being on the Swedish charts for 326 weeks (This is taken from my review, btw). Don’t think I can say anymore than that.

1) The Last Stand (Song)

And here it is. The no. 1 Sabaton Album you should have in your collection. I admit that The Last Stand makes it here because it was the first ever record I ever bought & listened to, so I confess that there’s a bit of a bias here. Even so, it’s hard not to appreciate what the band was going for here: taking a similar page from their prior record Heroes, they tell triumphant tales of some of warfare’s most iconic last stands, and the men that went through them. Regardless of whether they won or not, each song fills you up with positivity & get you moving for quite a while. On top of that, they were touring this album all the way back in 2017, and that was the first time I ever saw them live....so that will always stick with me.

And this was the top 5 Sabaton albums you should listen to. Most of the choices I picked for this list are quite standard listening from the band, but they’re so good & iconic it’s hard to disagree. With that everyone, the Summer Of Sabaton is truly done, and we’re not too far away from the beginning of the Fall season. However, September is not too far away, and with that something special is coming. See you soon!

Album Review: Sabaton's The Great War

The Summer Of Sabaton’s end is just about here fellow Otaku & Metalheads.

It’s definitely been an interesting ride this year. I covered their releases from 2006 to 2008 in June, and took a brief break last month to show off the book that my sadly departed friend Isabelle had tried to write. Already in August on the 1st, I reviewed their ode to their home country & one of it’s most iconic rulers in Carolus Rex, and now we turn our attention to World War 1. The first truly modern war in history, the scars left by all of the shelling & gas is still very apparent if you know where to look, and still sends a chill up the spine. Fast forward to 2019, and the band finally decided to enter the Western Front with what is possibly the bleakest record they’ve ever done. Also, with it turning 5 years old last month on the 19th, it seemed only right to celebrate it’s shellshocked birthday. So, get on your gas mask, fix your bayonet, and prepare to go over the top to check out my review for The Great War. Let’s begin.

Background
The beginning of 2019 marked a busy period for the band. On January the 8th, Sabaton announced the creation of Sabaton History, which was a cooperation between Indy Neidell, TimeGhost History and the band themselves. The youtube channel documents the history of the events behind the band’s songs and the songs themselves, with the channel being created on the 7th of February. Then a few months later of the 22nd of April, the band released a standalone single "Bismarck", in a collaboration with the company Wargaming and their game, World of Warships. A few weeks prior to this on the 2nd of April, it was announced that a new concept album about the First World War would be released a little later on in the year. Entitled as The Great War, it would go on to be released on July the 19th, 2019, and have 3 singles before it came out: Fields of Verdun on the 3rd of May, The Red Baron, on the 13th of June, and on the 27th of June, the title track for the album came out.

The Great War received mostly praise upon release. Metal Hammer's Holly Wright gave it 4/5 stars, praising it as "a rip-roaring, riff-addled march towards victory, coaxing influences from folk and power metal that sounds remarkably upbeat for an account of bloodthirsty mass destruction", The Guardian's Dave Simpson rated it 3 out of 5 stars, saying he preferred the History version, which precedes the songs with voiceovers describing the events the songs are about (I didn’t review the History version), and Loudwire named it one of the 50 best metal albums of 2019. Some nice praise right there if you ask me.

Basic Description
The trenches brought to life.

No matter what stage of warfare they cover, these beautiful swedes all manage to find a proper balance between immense respect of the history in question, and knowing how to have fun with it. Even on The Great War, that balance between respect & fun is still very apparent, and it never wavers at any point. With that said, this release is the darkest that Sabaton has ever done. Outside of an exception or two, this album really feels like they managed to somehow resurrect World War 1 & it’s overall bleakness a little over a century after it concluded in 2019. From the mud, to the drumfire from the artillery, and the devastation from all of the fighting, they really crafted a record that’s as devastating to the ears, as it was to the soul.....silly as that last part sounds.

Best Track
I said it when I updated the overview, and I’ll say it again here: Attack Of The Dead Men is the best damn song on the album. Detailing one of the most horrific battles of the early parts of WW1, the band managed to craft what is quite possibly their first ever horror song. The atmosphere is thick & corrosive, the vocal work has the vibe of an officer giving orders, and while the instrumentation is powerful, there’s this uneasy feeling that creeps into your body as the song plays, letting go only when the final note plays. The band has definitely crafted tunes that’ll make you feel a little uneasy, but Attack Of The Dead Men is the first time they’ve ever creeped you out.

Attack Of The Dead Men

Worst Track
Like I said when I updated the overview back in 2019, but The Great War is shockingly dark for a Sabaton album. Granted, this is Sabaton we’re talking about, as there’s still plenty of upbeat energy to find, but just the fact that they went dark in any capacity is very surprising. Even Carolus Rex, as serious as that release was, knew when to let a little light in. Outside of that, the only thing I could complain about would be it’s length, or rather how the length feels. Coming in at 38 minutes & 27 seconds, the record is on the smaller side of lengthy, but when I listen to the whole this it feels like it goes by faster than that. I don’t know why, as when I listen to individual tracks I don’t get this feeling, but when I listen to The Great War in it’s entirety for some reason I do.

Other
If you’re curious about listening to this album, then click on the link below:

The Great War

Overall Impression & Rating
The Great War is good. Damn Good. In addition to charging into WW1 history without a scratch, it also was a great way to close out their time in 2010s. Darkness not withstanding, Sabaton showed that they were just as comfortable using the history of the war to end all wars as effectively as everything else they’ve used prior, they also laid the groundwork for them to come back to a prior subject matter in 2022....but I already covered that last year (Read Here). Regardless, The Great War was the band stepping into some new shoes, and walking around without missing a beat. Definitely something to listen to if you’re looking for something different from these guys.

The Great War gets a 9.5 out of 10.

And that was my review for The Great War. Definitely a little less approachable when compared to their prior output on account of the seriousness, but still an absolute blast to listen to when the mood hits. Now ladies & gentlemen & everything in between, the Summer Of Sabaton has come to an end. However, join me at the end of the month for one last little thing. See you then!

Album Review: Sabaton's Carolus Rex

The Summer of Sabaton continues & ends this month fellow Otaku & Metalheads.

I took a break last month from covering these steely swedes to show off the book that my sadly departed friend Isabelle tried to write, as I considered her just as badass as the band. Now that I’m done looking at her book, it’s time to get back into looking at the remaining albums I haven’t looked at yet, and today’s review is an interesting one. Released in 2012, it would go on to be one of if not their most popular album they’ve ever released. So popular in fact, that it got a re-release in 2018 & sold insanely well in their native Sweden. And yet, it’s an oddity for me....but we’ll have to wait for that in just a little bit. In any case, get on your blue & yellow uniform, pray to god and country, and enjoy my review for Carolus Rex. Let’s begin!

Background
With Coat Of Arms helping Sabaton storm into the 2010s, it seemed like it would be smooth sailing for the band. Once it reached 2012 however, that was not the case, as guitarists Oskar Montelius and Rikard Sundén, drummer Daniel Mullback and keyboardist Daniel Myhr left the band, leaving Joakim & bass player Pär Sundström as the soul original members (Joakim confirmed this in March of 2012). The band members that left would go on to form the band Civil War alongside vocalist Nils Patrik Johansson and bassist Stefan Eriksson, while Sabaton brought on Chris Rörland and Thobbe Englund on guitar, and Robban Bäck on drums, and once Sabaton 2.0 was completed, they got back to work on the record they were working on, and on the 25th of May in that year, their ode to their home country of Sweden was released, and it’s name was Carolus Rex. A few months later in November, Robban took a break from touring due to becoming a father, and was replaced by Snowy Shaw as touring drummer, who in turn was replaced by Hannes Van Dahl in November 2013 (Prior to the replacement, Van Dahl worked as Shaw's drum technician while drumming for the band Evergrey).

The reception for Carolus Rex was absolutely wild. On the 18th of September in 2012, it would sell over 30,000 copies (20,000 copies is needed for a record to be certified gold in Sweden), in March of 2013 it was certified gold in Poland, and just a few months later in June of 2013 it would be certified platinum in Sweden with 40,000 album sales, making it the "most successful Swedish heavy metal album ever" according to Sabaton. Flash forward to the 28th of September in 2018, and it would be given quadruple platinum status after being on the Swedish charts for 326 weeks, a number of limited edition versions and merchandise were created to celebrate the occasion, and were set for release on the 30th of November, 2018, on the day of the 300th anniversary of the death of Charles XII. Finally, in 2019 Metal Hammer magazine would declare Carolus Rex to be the 20th best power metal album of all time (Read Here).

Basic Description
My least favorite Sabaton album.

Right away, fans of the band will have done a double take so hard, their necks will snap. Let’s get this out of the way: Carolus Rex is not bad. Far from it. As their second release in the 2010s, it manages to eclipse the excellent Coat Of Arms in so many ways. The instrumentation is grander, the vocal work is epic, and the history that’s covered is something you don’t often hear about. Swedish history is interesting, especially when it comes to the various rulers of the monarchy. However, the reason why this album is my least favorite.....is because I think they take themselves too seriously. To play devil’s advocate, I understand why they were kinda serious, as Sabaton were showing their love towards the country of their birth, and it’s glorious past. Even so, it is surprising that they were more serious than normal, but luckily that would not last long (Read Here).

Best Track
In a bizarre twist, my favorite track actually has nothing to do with the story that the band is telling, but instead is a bonus song. Available only on later releases, their cover of In The Army Now stands out when compared to the main bulk of Carolus Rex, especially when you find out that it’s a cover of a cover. It was originally released by Bolland & Bolland back in 1981, and would receive it’s first cover in 1986 by British rock band Status Quo. Sabaton’s take on the song is far better than the prior two: Bolland & Bolland’s original comes across as weirdly dream-like in terms of vibes, and while Status Quo adds in a little bit of militaristic feels, it still comes across like a dream. This version goes full-blown military, complete with militaristic instrumentation, and serious vocal work from Joakim that’s really unusual for those who are newer fans of the band. It definitely stands apart from all of the other songs, and that’s why it’s my favorite track & the best track on this CD.

In The Army Now

Worst Track
Like I said above, Carolus Rex doesn’t have a single bad song on it. From beginning to end, you’re treated to a fascinating story about one of the most interesting kings in history, and it’s quite the story. Again, my only fault with it is that it takes one step towards being too serious, and losing sight of the history/fun balance. The Great War from 2019 would have a similar issue....but I’ll talk about that next week.

Other
If you’re curious about listening to this album, then click on the link below:

Carolus Rex (w Bonus Tracks)

Also, I should say that I reviewed the English version of the album. While it’s cool that the band performed in their native language for the record (And live as well), something about hearing it in my language let’s me understand it better.

Overall Impression & Rating
Carolus Rex is a fine feather in Sabaton’s cap. While I do think the move towards being a little more serious is odd (But understandable), it doesn’t ruin just how good all of the songs on Carolus Rex are, and it is a genuinely good listen to. Even though it’s not my absolute favorite record of theirs, I still can’t deny that it does get me going a little. Definitely something to enjoy if you’re in the mood for some Swedish!

Carolus Rex gets an 8 out of 10 for me, but I can easily understand why most if not all fans give it a 10 out of 10.

And that was my review for Carolus Rex. Again, it’s not my favorite Sabaton, but I recognize the level of quality & respect for the history is speaks of. So, join me next week for when we’ll enter the Great War for the second time.....for the first time. Until then, take care!

Tribute To Isabelle: Part 7 (Epilogue)

 

And with this fellow Otaku & Metalheads, my tribute to my departed friend Isabelle is complete. This last part are the chapters she made summaries for, but never got around to finishing. Still, it would be wrong to leave it off the table, and thus here is the final part. It felt only right to cover this as well.

Summary of Chapters 6 Through the Epilogue

Chapter 6:
    - After the fall of Corregidor the Japanese had more time for the STIC people. Under the badgering of Earl Carroll and the Central Committee, they grudgingly consented to provide a per capita daily allowance of P.70, but steadfastly refused to recognize the Geneva Convention. They ordered Earl Carroll to head the Finance and Supplies Committee, to which they would turn over the cash for the purchase of food and other necessities. To do justice to his new duties, Carroll resigned as Chairman of the Central committee and persuaded the new Japanese commandant to allow the STIC people to elect a new committee. This was done and, as chairman, the commandant chose a 20 year veteran of the Orient, Carroll Grinnell. He had to cope with the influx of new prisoners from other islands, as well as the civilians and nurses captured on Bataan and Corregidor. In the scramble for accomodations, the camp interpreter, Ernest Stanley, took up residence in the commandant’s office. My father, like many others, built a shack on the campus in which to find a semblance of privacy during the day. Our neighbor in Shanty Town was Jack Percival, an Australian newsman, who was part of the group that met daily to listen to the short wave radio secreted in camp. The first good news he reported, the U.S. victory at Midway, was disputed by the STIC people, who found Japanese claims of victory more credible.

Chapter 7:
    - By June 1942 the STIC people deemed any kind of release, including virtual house arrest, preferable to being locked up with 3500 other people on 54 acres. A release committee succeeded in having many of the old, the young, and the sick taken care of outside. Two repatriation ships returned a couple of hundred internees to Shanghai. My best friend left on the second one, leaving me the only child in Room 46. The gate became the lifeline of the STIC people through which their Filipino friends could supply them. The continued loyalty of the Filipinos was a thorn in the Japanese side. When they closed the gate, Grinnell had to accept harsh conditions to have it reopened: inspection of all packages, censorship of all notes, and total absence of contact between the bearer and STIC people. To achieve the last condition, the Japanese forced the internees to build a sawali wall inside the iron railing fronting the campus. The STIC people were so angered by the sawali fence that they overwhelmingly defeated Grinnell at the next election of the Central Committee, and voted for Earl Carroll. The commandant overrode the internee vote and appointed the committee himself, retaining Grinnell as chairman. This accentuated the rift between Grinnell and Carrol, who differed about the role the STIC people should play in the war. Grinnell opted to support the guerrillas by smuggling money to them; Carroll felt this endangered the camp and refused to participate. By October it was clear that U.S. troops, rumored to be fighting in the Solomons, had no hope of freeing us for Christmas. A committee was formed to plan and execute holiday preparations, complete with a visit from Santa Claus.

Chapter 8:
    - In the first half of 1943 prisoners were constantly being brought to Santo Tomas from other islands. Crowding reacher intolerable proportions when the camp population approached 5000. The Japanese had always wanted to move the camp out of Manila, where it was a constant reminder to the Filipinos of America. Several sites had been rejected and finally the Japanese insisted that the camp be moved to the Philippine Agricultural College at Lost Banoos, sixty miles from Manila on the shores of Laguna de Bay. It was smaller than Santo Tomas, there were no buildings capable of housing prisoners, and the water supply was inadequate. The Japanese ordered 800 able bodied men to go there and build barracks for 7000, so that all civilian enemy alines could be concentrated in one place. The exodus of the 800 left Santo Tomas with a shortage of men for hard labor. In September 1943, 151 STIC people and one infant were exchanged via Goa for 150 Japanese caught in the U.S. Involuntary departures from camp occurred sporadically as the Japanese eliminated anyone who had worked for military organizations or carted off to Fort Santiago people suspected of helping the guerrillas or of having strategic information. Camp informants were suspected of tipping the Japanese off to such people, and gradually the collaborators became known, and they were shunned. The few who returned from Santiago went directly to the camp hospital and would not break the promise of silence extracted by the Japanese.

Chapter 9:
    - in the second half of 1943 Grinnell stepped up his aid to the guerrillas. Stanley strengthened his bonds with the Japanese and became particularly friendly with Tojo, a Japanese interpreter. Carroll established contact with Luis Alcuaz, secretary to the Dominican rector, who agreed to help Carroll get supplies for the camp. Deficiency conditions, childhood diseases, including polio, and an epidemic of dysentary broke out. I was hospitalized with dengue fever. The nurses of Bataan and Corregidor serve the camp well. Japanese doctors tried out an experimental plague vaccine on all the STIC people. Recipe mania swept the hungry camp. A group of prisoners arrived from Davao, including my father’s friend Umpsted, with news of that prison camp. In early November 1943 a force 8 typhoon devastated the shanty areas and flooded the city, causing much hardship.

Chapter 10:
    - In November 1943 Red Cross relief supplies arrived in Manila. STIC labor details were sent out to help men from Manila’s military prison unload the ship. We learned of the removal of most military prisoners, including Jack Littig and Harry Morton from the islands to slave labor camps in Japan and elsewhere. We also learned that the Japanese were taking what they wanted of the relief supplies for their own use. When our share of the supplies arrived in camp, it did not match the manifests which the labor detail had stolen. A near riot ensued when the Japanese began inspecting the individual comfort kits, opening perishables and ripping the labels off canned goods to see if there were messages hidden on the back. They took all cigarettes out of the comfort kits and generally ravaged them. Grinnell had his hands full negotiating a settlement. My father helped to solve the problem of distributing supplies of which there were not enough to go around. 207 STIC people are transferred to Los Banos. The children who had been released to the care of the Holy Ghost nuns were reinterned at Christmas time.

Chapter 11:
    - In January 1944 the Imperial Japanese Army took over the camp. The Central Committee was abolished and a three man Executive Committee appointed by the Japanese. Again Grinnell was chosen as chairman. Instead o a monetary allowance the army provided food, whose quality and quantity immediately degenerated. The camp labor details had to be restructured to handle the army’s food deliveries. Carroll remianed in charge of supplies and had to activate his smuggling contacts to get food. Grinnell continued to raise money for the guerrillas, be he had to reorganize his conduits, as the army systematically isolated the camp from the outside. The package line was discontinued. When all enemy aliens out on release were re-interned, accommodations had to be reorganized. Shanty owners were allowed to move into their shanties. This meant that I could live with both my parents. Stanley was forced to move out of the commandant’s office but continued to hang around the Japanese and to share any food they offered. He occasionally used his influence with the Japanese to help individual internees who appealed to him. 500 more internees were shipped to Los Banos, most volunteering because there was more food at Los Banos.

Chapter 12:
    - As the Army continued to isolate the camp from any possible contact with the outside, they forced the STIC people to build a barbed wire fence twenty feet inside the university wall. Any shacks between the fence and the wall had to be torn down. Instead of garbage being picked up inside the camp by a city truck, it had to be carted to a side gate where the city garbage men loaded it into the truck. One enterprising group of garbage men developed an ingenious smuggling operation out of this near-contact with outsiders. Unfortunately the Japanese soon caught on. Searches for the secret radio intensified. My father refused to join the group which had to resort to taking the radio apart after each use and hiding the parts with different men each night. The Japanese confiscated all cash at this time. Dad buried some in a corned beef can. Some prisoners began bribing Japanese sentries to get extra food. The Japanese counted complaints about the food with orders to do more gardening. In all areas of forced labor, Lieutenant Abiko became the commandant’s enforcer.

Chapter 13:
    - American air raids began on September 21, 1944. There was a scramble to build air raid shelters. My dad dug one under our shack at a cost of ten pounds of body weight. Food dwindled to 700 calories a day, even when the Executive Committee decided to begin using the reserves built up over the years, thanks to Carroll’s foresight. I had to quit getting my meals in the children’s kitchen where the best food was served, because the Japanese decreed that children over ten were to be treated like. Adults. Resentment against Stanley, who was now viewed as a collaborator, became widespread, as he continued to get food from the Japanese. The Japanese began storing military supplies on the campus. The Executive Committee protested that this violated the civilian status of the camp. Lieutenant Abiko continues to abuse STIC people who, he felt, were shirking. 150 more people sent to Los Banos, further reducing the labor force at Santo Tomas.

Chapter 14:
    - by Christmas 1944 there was neither energy nor matter with which to celebrate. During a search for the camp radio, the Japanese discovered evidence of Grinnell’s smuggling operations to the Guerrillas. He and three of his assistants were arrested and removed from camp bu the military police. Requests for news of them were denied. The commandant ordered Dr. Stevenson to change “starvation” as the cause of death on a death certificate. He refused and was confined in the camp jail. The food situation became critical as reserves ran out. School was discontinued. The secret radio confirmed MacArthur’s landing on Luzon, January 9, 1945. The Japanese began demolishing their military stores in greater Manila. The Japanese in camp began to slaughter their animals. The children gathered at the Japanese kitchen, drawn by the smell of roasting meat, and were forbidden to return. The garrison packed and seemed about to evacuate the camp sevel times. Stanley continued his affiliation with the Japanese, even though it was obvious that they would not be the winners. Thus he saw on the Commandant’s desk the order to vitiate MacArthur’s return to Manila by killing the STIC people en masse.

Chapter 15:
    - Stanley got the Japanese interpreter, Tojo, to help him use the radio transmitter in camp to broadcast an appeal to MacArthur to reach Manila before February 6, the date set for our execution. This broadcast was made on January 30. The same day MacArthur ordered three units to race for Manila, promising to decorate the one that liberated Santo Tomas. A First Cavalry Combat Team, with Company C of the 44th Tank Battalion–500 men–raced the seventy miles through occupied Luzon to reach the camp the night of February 3. For forty-eight hours they held the camp against 20,000 Japanese marines barricaded in Intra Muros, the old walled city of Manila. Then reinforcements began to arrive. The Japanese garrison of Santo Tomas took 200 internees hostage in the Education Building, and Japanese marines began shelling the camp from Intra Muros. Abiko was mortally wounded by American fire and badly treated by a group of STIC women. The Japanese set the city afire and began mass atrocities against the Filipino population of Manila.

Chapter 16:
    - Stanley was revealed to be a British secret service agent who had worked behind the scenes to help the camp for the whole time of internment. He negotiated the release of the hostages and helped organize the Japanese safe conduct to their lines. Tojo, with his wife and twelve children, surrendered to the Americans in camp and was rewarded for his help. The bodies of Grinnell and his three assistants were found beheaded in an empty lot in the city. Carroll was honored for his service to the camp. More STIC people were killed by Japanese shelling than died during the entire three years. Many also died of irreversible effects of starvation. Los Banos was liberated in a daring raid.  The repatriation process began with the flying home of the nurses of Bataan and Corregidor who had served heroically in the camp hospital. The rest of the STIC people were confined to Santo Tomas for a month, while U.S. troops battled the Japanese in house-to-house fighting for control of the city, thus reducing it to the second most destroyed allied city of World War II.

Epilogue:
    - My family and I were returned to the United States on the troop ship USS Admiral Eberly in 1945, crossing the Pacific unescorted at the height of the Japanese kamikaze attacks. A three week voyage brought us to Santa Barbara, where we began again to learn to be free.

I hope you didn't mind this little adventure into the past of my friend, and I hope it was illuminating. In just a few days, we're heading back to the Summer Of Sabaton, so things will perk up a bit. See you soon!

 

 

 ***

If you didn't read any of the prior chapters, here are some links to those: 

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Convention Review: Connecticon 2024

Connecticon 2024 is in the books everybody!

I may have said this in a prior review, but Connecticon & other conventions are a quasi-spiritual experience for me. For a single weekend, the horrors of the world are completely held at bay by the convention center, as well as the legion of convention goers that frequent it. This year was especially important for me, as something pretty bad took place in my life earlier this year, but I’ll get to that later in the review. Suffice it to say, I had a damn good time, so let’s get to it! Here is my review for Connecticon 2024. Let’s begin!

Good Points
The Hartford Marriot has been a perfect venue for Connecticon ever since I started going all the way back in 2009. Outside of one fault (More on that below), the entire complex is filled from top to bottom with things for any of our needs. The Starbucks in the lobby was particularly nice this year, and I don’t know if it was because of when I got there, but the baristas were exceptionally on point this year & got orders out fast. There’s also the Bar, the tiny store by the front desk, and the restaurant, which always has a nice breakfast buffet in the morning & much cheaper this year as opposed to last (22 dollars this year as opposed to 37 from last year if I recall correctly). There is also the pool on the highest floor of the hotel, but I never use it on account of not being able to swim. It’s a nice little place pack with quite a lot!

Dealer’s Room & Artist’s Alley as usual was stuffed to the brim with various vendors & artists peddling their wares. Outside of 2 shocking omissions this year (More on that in the “Bad Points” section), Connecticon 2024 might have had the most vendors and artists. So much so, that for the first time I’ve been going in 15 years, there were a few of them on the floor of the convention center on the top floor, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in the decade & a half of going. There was an absolute horde of things to purchase, but this year I didn’t because of a MTG pre-release in just a few days (Bloomburrow baby!), and yet I came home with a small but nice selection of stuff.

Panels & Events are always varied for Connecticon, and this year was no different. AMVs, Idol Groups, Cosplay Chess, and Cosplay Deathmatch (Which was incredibly on point this year) were just some of the events that took place. The guy that ate the entire Costco chicken last year came back, and this time he had an opponent to go up against. Panels were all over the place, but in a good way. From learning how to make your own Kandi bracelets, to optimism in Dr. Stone & the game Celeste, and John St. Jon’s Sexy Late Night Panel (Which is tons of fun if you’ve never gone to it), the convention continues to hold it’s motto close to it’s heart: “Everything But The Kitchen Sink”

Cosplay Championship Wrestling continues to be a highlight of Connecticon, and one that I love very much. Since their in convention debut in 2021, the various wrestlers embody the characters of comics, gaming, anime, and manga, & the end result is nothing more than a fun time. What the group lacks in spectacle, they more than gain in terms of connecting with the fans & providing an intimate experience for about an hour. 2024 was particularly a delight, as we had some new characters enter the ring, and engaged in some damn good fights. Definitely look forward to what CCW brings the convention in 2025!

And finally, I want to touch on the Food Truck festival that happens right by the convention center, and I don’t think I’ve done this in any prior review. Good on Connecticon staff to host the event just as a horde of some of the best damn street food I’ve ever had, and I think just about everyone else will agree! There’s stuff for meat eater, fish lovers, and vegans as well! Not only that, but there are also a couple other vendors as well selling some nice stuff, and some music from a live performer or two. Everything there wasn’t horrifically expensive, and the quality was fantastic, so I might go for the food trucks almost exclusively in future events.

Okay Points
So I only have one thing to place here, and that was the locked-off escalator in the main lobby of the hotel. Both ends were locked off, and at no point during the weekend did it open back up. Now, it doesn’t cover the longest distance, and as such isn’t the biggest dent in the con’s armor. On the other hand.....

Bad Points
It was incredibly frustrating that it was closed! If there was an announcement that the hotel shut it down before the convention, then I never saw it. On top of that, it made the Sunday rush to leave frustrating, as me & my group has to go around & through some groups of people. Like I said above, it doesn’t make a big dent, but it is frustrating.

The thing that did make my blood boil was near non-existent presence of manga sellers, and the non-existence of anime sellers! Camp Anime was the only stand where I understood why they didn’t have manga (One of the sellers said that it was easier to move figures than a horde of books), but the other 2 I found only had a small selection, and had nothing of what I was looking for. As for anime’s non-presence in the dealer’s room, I have no clue, and I admit I was kinda mad. If any convention goer or convention staff member has the answer, then please leave a comment, as I would genuinely like to know why.

Other
So, this section is going to be a bit personal, so bear with me.

If any of you have been paying attention to my blog since this past March, then you’ll know that my friend Isabelle passed away 6 days before her 90th birthday. I originally began working for her to get money for this very convention, and obviously that wasn’t the case this year (Technically this happened last year as well, but not as bad). For almost 15 years, she always wanted to know what it was like, as while she wasn’t a geek herself outside of liking the Harry Potter books, she was always curious about my hobbies, and I always told her what happened. The con this year was bittersweet, as it’s the first one that I can’t tell her about or show off the stuff I got in the dealer’s room. If anything, it hurts a lot that I can’t say anything or show anything to her, but that’s life sadly.

Final Thoughts & Rating
This year’s Connecticon was one of the best. Faults & annoyances not withstanding, I had a fun time with what was set up for me and all of the other con-goers. All of the panels I went to were great, all of the events I watched were great, and the food trucks this year brought their A-game. If this level of quality can be maintained, then I definitely look forward to what’s next.

Connecticon 2024 gets a 9 out of 10.

And that wraps up my review for Connecticon 2024. A damn fine Connecticon if there was one, and I can only imagine what the rest of them this decade will be like. With that said, I got 1 last tribute post about my friend Isabelle to put up, and then the Summer of Sabaton will conclude in August. See you then!

Tribute To Isabelle: Part 6 (Chapter 5)

Chapter 5

    By the end of May we knew that our status as prisoners would not soon end. Three events forced this realization on even the most optimistic, dwarfing my eighth birthday, even in my mind.
    On March 20th the Manila Tribune electrified us with the news that MacArthur had fled Corregidor. Many rejected this out of hand, saying that Mac would never abandon his troops. However, rumors, known to originate from the secret short wave radio, which daily monitored the news on KGEI in San Francisco, soon convinced us that MacArthur had indeed landed at Bachelor Field outside Darwin, Australia on St. Patrick’s Day, proclaiming, “I shall return.”
    Some felt abandoned, but most rejoiced that MacArthur was now in a position to lead the American Army back to rescue us. It remained for the pessimists to remind us that the fleet necessary to escort the troops across the Pacific had been sunk.
    In spite of the loss of MacArthur’s presence, there was still the reassuring noise of battle from Corregidor and the knowledge that Bataan still held.
    On April 10 the Tribune headlines read: “TROOPS ON EASTERN FRONT OF BATAAN OFFER SURRENDER.” “Propaganda!” responded most internees. But succeeding days brought more Tribune stories and, finally, pictures of General King surrendering and of captured Americans. We tried every possible interpretation to avoid the truth, until the secret radio reported President Roosevelt’s words, “Bataan has served it’s purpose.”
    In Room 46 I watched in awe as Eleanor and Connie Farnes wept in agony over the fate of Eleanor’s fiancé. The ladies would come to the pair, and wrap an arm about them. But no one could console them, for there was nothing consoling to say. “Maybe he escaped,” was the best anyone could do, but that was cold comfort to anyone who knew the jungles and mountains of Bataan.
    Daddy went for long walks to work off the stree of not knowing Jack Littig’s fate. Everywhere worried faces streaked with tears spoke wordlessly of anxiety for husbands, brother, fathers.
    A week after the fall of Bataan, eight civilians who had been captured there were interned in Santo Tomas. They were able to tell us that the army nurses and other key personnel had been evacuated to Corregidor, but few of the STIC people got news of loved ones from the newcomers, for there were 78,000 troops defending Bataan. We did learn “...the battling bastards of Bataan; no mama, no papa, no Uncle Sam;...no pills, no planes, no artillery pieces. ...and nobody gives a damn.”
    The STIC People began to wonder....
    Late one afternoon just as I was setting out for the supper line, an old friend we hadn’t seen for months came slowly up Duck Egg Drive where my father had constructed a shack for us to spend the day in the northwest quadrant of the Santo Tomas campus, now called Shanty Town. Alice Morton was a striking woman. Slim, of medium height, she was impeccably groomed, even in captivity. Her progress was slowed by her two-year-old son, who had to be carried. Ricky always looked badly, but his appearance now was alarming. His arms and legs were more spindly than ever, making his oversized head seem enormous. And he was absolutely white–white haired, white skinned. His blue sun suit hung on him, and his blue eyes were black rimmed. Alice’s eyes were dark-circled, too. Her husband, Harry had been on Bataan. She greeted Daddy and sat Ricky on our floor, looking beseechingly at me. I abandoned my supper plans and sat beside Ricky, putting my arm around him to support his head. Alice and Daddy spoke quietly, but I had no difficulty hearing as I rocked Ricky and hummed a nursery tune.
    “How can I find out if Harry made it?” asked Alice.
    “I’ll put out some feelers,” Daddy replied.
    They spoke for some time, Alice dabbing her eyes, Daddy sounding calm and reassuring.
    When the Loudspeaker announced that supper was being served, Alice rose, shook Daddy’s hand and carried Ricky back to the Annex where mothers with young children were now quartered.
    “Where did your Mother put that laundry bag?” asked Daddy.
    I dragged it over and Daddy up-ended it on the floor, shaking out a pile of soiled clothing. He fished in the pocket of a pair of tan trousers and retrieved a crumpled slip of paper. He could not send notes inquiring about friends through the normal censored channels and resorted to the list method of communicating with our former cook, Braulio, who had tracked us down and came to the gate twice a week to get our laundry and to bring us food and other necessities, which Dad was already systematically stockpiling. A crumpled list in a pocket could be disclaimed as communication. Dad added “Harry Morton” under “Jack Litting”, recrumpled the dirty slip of paper and replaced it in the pocket of the shorts.
    The fall of Bataan freed Japanese men and material to concentrate exclusively on Corregidor. We could hear the new artillery bombardment mounted against the Rock from Bataan. Day and night Japanese planes buzzed over Manila on their way to bomb and strafe the tiny island. Each day that U.S. forces held out heartened us. “Mac still has his foothold in the Islands,” the adults told each other with forced cheerfulness.
    On May 6 at noon the crescendo of explosions from the Bay area began to diminish. An hour later silence descended on the city. Gloom settled over the STIC people. The next day, our fears were confirmed: Corregidor had fallen.
    On may 9th General Homma formally entered Manila, signaling his conquest of the Philippines.
    Ear Carroll and the Central Committee sighed and prepared for a long siege.
    Stanley was seen conversing with the Japanese in their own language.
    Grinnell began setting up a conduit to the guerrillas.
    One enterprising STIC lady went out to her garden plot and planted some pineapple tops she had been saving. “I’ll have pineapples in two years,” she told her friends grimly.

Tribute To Isabelle: Part 5 (Chapter 4)

Chapter 4

    Santo Tomas Internment Camp was more ling a prolonged camp-out than a prison until the middle of February. By then there were over 3500 of us–Americans, British, Dutch, Burmese, Poles, Swedes, and many other Allied Nationalities–squeezed into three university buildings.
    Thursday, February 12 began like any other camp day. The Loudspeaker, recently installed by the camp engineers, woke us at 7 a.m. with a recording of a popular tune. It was cleaning day and the forty occupants of classroom 46, where Mother and I still resided, stripped bedding from cots or desks or petates in preparation for the weekly bedbug purge. Mother fetched boiling water from a huge cauldron in the new kitchen while I took the slats from our iron cots to the newly created shower room. There we douses them and a fine harvest of bed bugs evacuated their flooded homes.
    By then it was eight and, while the slats dried, Mother and I got breakfast from the kitchen shed, built by the STIC men with lumber and equipment supplied by the Red Cross. I hated the cracked corn mush that was served, but had been warned under dire penalty that I was to eat it, so I did.
    Afterwards we reported back to Room 46 to be counted by Mrs. Rimmer, our room monitor. While we waited for the totals to be tallied, we made up our cots.
    When the Loudspeaker failed to announce the end of roll call, Mrs. Farnes came over to chat. With her in room 46, were her two grown daughters, whose high heels and lipstick and tragic expressions I greatly admired. Mrs. Farnes told Mother how her older girl, Eleanor, was desperately worried about her fiancé, who was fighting on Bataan. Connie, the younger, shared her sister’s anguish, but Mrs. Farnes was more concerned about her two teenage sons, in a men’s room on the floor below.
    The usual thirty minutes for roll call turned into fifty. A man from the Executive Committee came round, asking all the room monitors to count their people again. Still the totals did not tally. Then the Japanese sent a party of their own, which ordered us out into the hallway to be counted. When they left, speculation began in earnest. “Has someone escaped?”
        Two re-counts later the Loudspeaker ordered the adults to their camp jobs and the children to school. The delay was not explained, which fueled rumors galore: there had been a mass escape from the gym; Earl Carroll had joined the guerillas in the hiss; the Executive Committee had vanished en masse.
    During siesta, screams shattered the silence in the Main Building. They emanated from the Japanese barracks room, next to the commandant’s office on the first floor. The two-foot-thick walls of the building could not contain the cries of agony. Mother tried to distract me by reading the story of the Cat That Walked by Himself, that would not be tamed, and that went his wild lone way. Still the screams made chills run up and down my spine.
    The screaming lasted for nearly three hours, generating more rumors.
    The truth circulated after supper. One Australian and two British merchant seaman had gone over the wall after roll call the previous evening. That was no great feat, for the wall was only ten feet high, lightning on the inside was nil, on the outside sporadic and dim at best. The Japanese sentries could not cover every inch of the wall, and nor could the internee night patrol, which had been set up to enforce curfew and the no-liquor, no-sex rules.
    The trio of seamen were strangers to Manila, stranded when their ship sank in the bay. Not knowing the streets and having no contacts, the sailors floundered toward the shore, where they planned to sail to Australia. Just after noon, five miles north of Santo Tomas, then ran into a patrol of Japanese M.P.’s, who returned them to camp at 2 PM.
    Earl Carroll, bolstered by his newly discovered interpreter Ernest Stanley, and the room monitors of the two men were summoned by Commandant Tomayasu.
    “How,” the Commandant wanted to know, “could three men be missing for so long without their absence being noted?”
    “They must have gone right after the evening roll call,” Carroll replied through Stanley. “Until the next roll call there is no way to know if a man is missing.”
    “You must find a way,” snapped Tomayasu. “This time I have been able to intercede with the military police to treat them leniently. Next time this will be impossible.”
    At 5 p.m. the three sailors, beaten almost insensible, were removed from camp in a police ban.
    The executive Committee composed a message read over the Loudspeaker at roll call that night, explaining what had happened and ending: “The commandant is very angry that his cooperation should have been requited in such a manner, and has stated that any recurrence will result in death for the escapeeps and very stringent restrictions for the internees. It is, therefore, very important that each person interned here take every possible precaution to prevent another escape.”
    One man was not on hand to hear this message. Goldie Goldsborough had escaped. An old Manila hand, married to a Filipina, he had sons with the guerrillas. Camp consensus was that he would join them in the hills, and that the Japanese would increase the promised punishment for everyone.
     Whether this second escape hardened the resolve of the Japanese military authorities, no one ever knew, but on February 14 Commandant Tomayasu told the Executive Committee that the three sailors had been court martialed and sentenced to death. The Executive Committee made every effort to have the verdict reconsidered, submitting a petition to the military authorities and trying to get officials of the Churches and the German community to intervene. Permission to contact friendly outsiders by telephone was refused.
    On Sunday, February 15, at 11 a.m., the Military Police sent a bus to camp to collect witnesses. Tomayasu designated Earl Carroll as Chairman of the internees’ Central Committee, Ernest Stanley as camp interpreter, Charles E. Stewart and Gerald H. Pedder as the room monitors of the escapees, and Father Griffiths, an Anglican clergyman, to attend the execution.
    A bus took the internees and the commandant’s party to Manila’s South Police Station, where the condemned men had been jailed for the past three nights. The trio, hands tied in front, were herded onto the sidewalk, then prodded aboard the bus. Their faces lit up at the sights of the five internees. It was obvious that the sailors did not know their fate.
    Speech being prohibited, the trip proceeded in silence. Blakey Laycock, the forty-three-year-old Australian, was the first to notice the white armbands worn by three of the soldiers. He paled and slumped in his seat as if the wind had been knocked out of him. He had recognized the armbands for what they were–blindfolds. Britishers Henry Weeks and Tom Fletcher, both in their late twenties, took longer to notice them, but by the time the bus reached the Chinese Cemetary, they, too, realized that they were to be executed.
    Laycock, Weeks, and Fletcher were lined up on a flat spot in the cemetary. Commandant Tomayasu read their sentence, which a Japanese interpreter translated. Father Griffiths calmed his own distress enough to speak to the men of the life of the spirits, and the efforts of the Committee to save them. Finally, he offered to take messages to their families after the war.
    “My wife,” gulped Weeks, “we’d only been married a month when I left London. She may have had our child by now. Couldn’t that be considered?”
    Without waiting for the formality of Stanley’s translation, Tomayasu, palms upraised, shrugged impotently.
    Weeks, his hands still tied, groped for his hip pocket. Tugging awkwardly, he extracted his wallet.
    “Her address’s there,” he mubled, as a soldier took the wallet and handed it to Griffiths.
    Fletcher was too distraught to speak intelligibly, but Laycock was not.
    “On what grounds are we being executed?” he demanded.
    Stanley translated this time, and the Commandant replied, “For trying to escape.”
    “Well then, how about a cigarette?” said the Australian.
    Tomayasu acquiesced. Carroll produced a pack of Lucky Strikes and put one in each man’s mouth. As he was lighting Laycock’s, a Japanese guard stepped forward and lit the other two.
    The condemned men smoke in silence. Aside, to Carroll, the Commandant expressed his dismay over the whole episode, which blemished the record of his exemplary, cooperative camp. He reiterated his hope that there would be no more escapes for the good of the whole camp.
    Too soon the cigarettes were smoked. Guards shoved the trio toward their common grave, a ten-by-four foot hole about four feet deep. Laycock, Fletcher, and Weeks sat on it’s edge, dangling their feet. Soldiers blindfolded them, Laycock’s protests not withstanding.
    Three soldiers took up positions on the opposite edge of the hole and from four feet aimed 25-caliber automatic pistols. On the first round Fletcher and Laycock fell on their faces. Weeks followed on the second volley. Groans rose from the grave. The soldiers emptied their pistols into the tangle of bodies. Still the groans came. Carroll started for the grave but Stanley restrained him, whispering, “You will lose face.”
    Tomayasu sighed and said, “It is a shame my men did not have rifles.”
    The soldiers half covered the moaning men with dirt, then waved over the Filipino grave diggers. Whether the groans ceased or were merely muffled by the earth Carroll could never say.
    Father Griffiths performed the last rites, while the Japanese stood at a distance. Then the party withdrew. Just before he boarded the bus, Carroll looked back. Two soldiers where laying branches of bougainvilles on the grave.
    The story of the execution spread like a rip tide through Santo Tomas. The children turned the trio into heroes, but the adults speculated on the consequences. They were not long in coming. Commandant Tomayasu ordered camp rules to be strictly enforced, and he cancelled all passes for internees with personal business in the city. He promised that the next time anyone escaped, his room monitor would be executed. Strangely, no mention was ever made of Goldsborough’s escape.
    In public the Central Committee charged the men of the night patrol with escape prevention as their top priority. In private Earl Carroll questioned the reversal of Tomayasu’s promise of clemency. Obviously the commandant did not have the last word; the military was all-powerful in Manila now.
    The execution belied Japanese assurances that we were being held in protective custody. STIC ceased to be a lark and became a life and death game to be played, not only against the Japanese, but also against one’s fellow prisoners, who were now perceived as having the power to imperil others.