sabaton tour bus

Sabaton took over a Swedish island in the dead of winter and it was as crazy as it sounds

What happened when the world's biggest power metal band invaded a tiny Swedish island?

Stand on Visby’s rocky beach and gaze out across the roiling sea, and it’s easy to imagine a fleet of wooden ships heaving into view over the horizon, bearing an army of snarling invaders ready to subjugate its inhabitants, or worse. 

Dating from the Viking Age, this picture-postcard medieval town is the biggest settlement on the Swedish island of Gotland – a hunk of rock measuring 100 miles by 30 miles, located halfway between mainland Sweden to the west and Latvia to the east. Visby has been fought over down the centuries by the Swedes, the Danes, the Hanseatic League and more, and it has the ruined city walls to prove it. 

Another army has invaded Gotland today. This one numbers just five people, and furs and armour have been replaced by puffer jackets and beanie hats to protect against the fearsome wind battering them. They’ve been standing with their backs to the waves for the last 15 minutes for a photoshoot, and the cold is getting to them.

Sabaton may be the most successful Swedish metal band of the 21st Century, but they clearly haven’t inherited their ancestors’ hardy genes. “I think we’ve done enough,” says the band’s usually laidback bassist and Joint Chief Of Staff Pär Sundström tetchily. “We have a show to play.” 

A gig is fairly unusual in Gotland. In a few hours, Sabaton will play the local ice hockey arena, the fourth gig of a 20-date tour of some of Sweden’s furthest-flung outposts. The last vaguely famous rock group to come to Visby were Swedish glam-metal C-listers Hardcore Superstar. That was in 2021. The next one is… well, there is no ‘next one’, beyond a few low-level Swedish bar acts. 

“We called the people who ran the venue and said, ‘We want to do a show,’” says Pär, grumpiness gone. “They said, ‘When?’ and we said, ‘February.’ They said, ‘Why would you want to be here in February? Nothing happens!’” 

So why do you want to be here in February? “Why not?” he says, with the grin of man who has made it this far without other people telling him how to do things, and isn’t about to start listening to them now.

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A 2,000-capacity ice hockey hall on a windswept Baltic island is a long way from the kind of places that Sabaton normally play these days. In April, they kick off a full European tour with four UK arena dates, featuring support from Babymetal and Finnish panto-metallers Lordi. 

“We’re only the third Swedish band to headline Wembley Arena, after Abba and Roxette,” says singer Joakim Brodén proudly, as we sit in the lobby of the waterfront hotel that has been commandeered as a temporary barracks by the band and several of their 50-strong crew and entourage. 

They arrived here yesterday via ferry from the Swedish mainland. This is a scaled-down operation by their standards: just the three articulated trucks and two tour buses carrying the band, their equipment and their stage set. The crew for their upcoming UK shows and the European arena tour that follows currently numbers 141, including drivers, caterers and the people who take care of the laundry. 

Visby itself is a beautiful town. A cathedral whose origins date back to the 13th century looms over cobbled streets and charming old buildings. Crumbling fortifications and the ruins of churches offer glimpses of past glories and the fates that befell them. Still, the people who said that nothing happens in Visby in February weren’t lying. Aside from the odd bar and restaurant, pretty much everything else is closed. 

This the first time Joakim has been to the island, but Pär came here regularly as a teenager. Every summer, Visby holds one of the biggest medieval events in Europe, its population of 24,000 swelling to upwards of 100,000 for one epic week of fighting, jousting and drinking. The young Pär’s interest in live action role-playing drew him to medieval re-enactment circles, which in turn brought him here as a teenager. 

“I came here for several years,” he says, sitting on the tour bus a couple of hours before the show. “I didn’t know anybody, I came over on the ferry on my own. There was so much going on. There were knights jousting in the moat next to the walls. It’s a party island in the summer. I’ve spent more than a month of my life here, but I’ve never been sober before.” 

History and location aside, Visby is a typical stop-off on this tour. Eighty per cent of Sweden’s population of 10 million lives in the lower third of a country that measures almost 1,000 miles from top to bottom but just 300 miles at its widest point. Most bands play Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö and maybe a couple of other medium-sized cities in the south and call it a tour. This run of shows is the polar opposite of that. 

The idea was to bring the Sabaton show to people who might not otherwise be willing or able to travel see them. The first gig of this leg was in Övertorneå, a tiny town in the far north of the country on the border with Finland. The population of Övertorneå is 1,900, and 1,500 turned up to the gig. 

“Nothing has ever happened up there on that scale,” says Pär. “It was lovely, we had the whole city backing us up.” This is actually the second leg of a similar, 30-date tour of off-the-beaten-track Swedish towns that Sabaton played in 2022. According to Pär, that original run was a direct response to being unable to tour internationally during the pandemic. They decided to do this second leg the day they played the final show of the first run. 

“It was the best tour we’ve ever done,” says the bassist, who lives in Cyprus for much of the year. “We did it after being locked in for so long. That last night was emotional, people were crying. I didn’t want it to end.” 

By the time this second leg finishes, they’ll have hit such second- and third-tier towns as Kiruna (pop. 20,000), Eskjö (pop. 9,000) and Uddevalla (pop. 35,000). As the band’s de facto manager, Pär took a hands-on approach, working with their booking agent on everything from routing the tour to booking the venues – something that keeps costs down, and also allows the band to retain control over what they do. 

“It’s a lot of work,” he concedes. “But at the same time you get so much out of it. We’ve got no one telling us, ‘No, you shouldn’t play in this place or that place, you can’t do this or that.’ It’s the way we’ve done things for our entire career.”

Rock and metal bands can follow one of two career paths these days. The most familiar, and clichéd, path is to take the traditional swashbuckling approach, heavy on the sex’n’drugs’n’rock’n’roll, hoping charisma and the odd half-decent tune can magically translate into record sales, streams and YouTube views (spoiler: it rarely does). The other is to recognise the music business for what it is – i.e. a business – and approach it accordingly. 

In Sabaton’s case, this has meant everything from teaming up with videogame company World Of Tanks to launching a range of band-branded of underpants. This way of doing things may lack rock’n’roll’s traditional pirate glamour but, as Sabaton have proved, it’s far more likely to result in a successful and sustained career (in fairness, it does help that they write epic tunes with the kick of a howitzer too). 

This tour is part of that approach. It’s hard to think of any other band who would spent several weeks schlepping around the backwaters of Sweden, but then Sabaton seem to relish challenges – and Pär Sundström especially. Like Gene Simmons in camo trousers, the bassist has essentially willed his band to success. 

The most unlikely thing about Sabaton’s upcoming UK tour isn’t that Babymetal are supporting Sabaton in the UK – there’s a long-standing mutual respect there, with the Swedes supporting their Japanese counterparts in Tokyo in 2018 and Joakim appearing on Babymetal’s 2019 song Oh! MAJINAI . 

No, the most unlikely thing is that Sabaton are headlining multiple arenas in Britain in the first place. The idea of a power metal band playing such large venues in the UK would have been unthinkable in 2006, when they first toured the country as unknown openers on a three-band bill featuring Edguy and headliners Dragonforce. 

“I’d never heard of them before we played with them the first time,” says Dragonforce guitarist Herman Li, talking to Hammer from his adopted home of LA via Zoom. “The UK media wanted nothing to do with the kind of music we both played, but I could see they had something about them.”

Sabaton were never Mötley Crüe, though they had fun on the road. They’d guzzle vodka and Red Bull then wonder why they couldn’t get to sleep. “We were in party mode, going out every night after the show, trying to find an afterparty with the fans,” says Pär. 

There were moments of drunken foolishness, naturally, like the time Joakim and Pär crashed on a fan’s couch after getting turned away from a party in a hotel after a gig in Glasgow. As if it wasn’t bad enough waking up the next day to a row between the fan and his wife, who wanted to know who the hell these hairy Swedes were and why they were sleeping on her floor, they realised that their bus had left for the next gig in Inverness without them. Cue a wallet-emptying £280 cab ride to ensure they made the show on time. For musicians as ambitious as Sabaton were even back then, that kind of behaviour simply wasn’t sustainable. 

“There’s nothing wrong with having a great party after every gig when you do 15 shows a year, but all of a sudden you find yourself doing 170 shows in 12 months, and it’s not so smart anymore,” explains Joakim. The tipping point for the singer came during a gig in the late 2000s. “I was super-hungover and I was puking between the songs,” he says. “That was when I thought, ‘No, I can’t do this anymore.’” 

Even before that, Joakim and Pär had realised that the old rock’n’roll clichés weren’t conducive to a career in the increasingly tough post-Napster world of 2000s metal. “Even on that first tour, Pär had a laptop,” says Herman Li, whose band toured with Sabaton for a second time in 2009. “I was pretty much managing Dragonforce, and we’d both spend all our time looking for somewhere we could plug in and get online. No other musicians apart from us were doing that at that point.”

Some things haven’t changed. Anyone stepping into Sabaton’s dressing room at the ICA Maxi Arena today will be greeted by the sight of five men tapping away on their laptops. No one is vomiting in the corner or falling face-first into a pile of drugs; instead guitarist Chris Rörland is working on designs for new guitar picks. The vibe is less ‘Bacchanalian rock’n’roll orgy’, more ‘slightly odd IT company who are a month behind on the office rent’. 

Something stranger is happening a few doors down. Half a dozen people wearing assorted olde worlde costumes are sneaking into a small storage room. There’s a woman dressed in a flowing peasant dress and a couple of guys in what look like handmade tunics. Someone else is in the regalia of a medieval Christian priest, replete with robes and crucifix. In the middle of them all is a man in a chair, having black warpaint applied to his face. 

These are a bunch of local medieval re-enactors who have been roped in to spring a surprise on the support band, Hulkoff, by lining up behind them onstage and dancing at the conclusion of their set. 

“It is a big deal that Sabaton are playing Visby,” says one of the re-enactors. His name is Richard, and he’s a big fan of the band. “It’s weird that they’ve come here now, because no bands come here in the winter. But I’d say there are plenty of people here who will come to the gig who don’t like metal but know Sabaton.” 

Much of Sabaton’s popularity in their homeland stems from 2012’s Carolus Rex, a concept album inspired by the 18th-century Swedish king Charles XII released in both English- and Swedish-language editions. The latter was novel enough to reach beyond the boundaries of the metal scene, ultimately ensuring a tour like this can happen now. 

“In Sweden, there are enough people who aren’t metalheads who would come to our shows, but I don’t think there are too many countries like that,” Joakim reasons. “Finland, maybe, but nowhere else. Not the UK.” 

Sabaton’s high profile in their home country has its downsides. In January 2023, Swedish Sceptics Association, an organisation founded in the early 80s and dedicated to promoting the veracity of scientific research, announced that they were honouring Sabaton with their Enlightener Of The Year award in recognition of the band “[combining] its artistic work with public education” - a reference to the factual accuracy of their lyrics and videos. 

Yet within days the organisation announced that the award was being “reviewed”. It transpired that they had been made aware of an interview Pär had given after playing Crimea in 2015, in the wake of Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula. “If you go to [Crimean city] Sevastopol, you hardly feel they feel occupied,” the bassist told Sweden Rock magazine in 2016, adding, “All these years they’ve felt like Russians but treated like a small piece of Ukraine.” 

Unsurprisingly given recent events, this unearthed quote caused a media furore, prompting Pär to issue a statement saying that his original quotes were referring to “how I experienced the situation there and then”, adding, “That someone invades or occupies another country is against international law.” 

It was a clear response, but one that could have gone further in condemning Vladimir Putin’s illegal occupation of the country. This may be coloured by the fact that Sabaton have a sizable Russian following. “Yeah, we have a lot of fans in Russia,” says Pär now. “But we have a lot of fans in Ukraine too, and I can see from Spotify they are listening to our songs while their country is at war. I have friends on both sides, fans who are being called up to fight. A lot of fans [in Ukraine] have asked us to write about this battle.” 

And will you? “Not now. It’s a current event, we don’t write about active politics. Maybe in the future, but now not now. It’s extremely heavy.” 

The Swedish Sceptics Association completed their review and decided to stick to their original plan and give the band their award. “When the media in Sweden write about Sabaton, they get shitloads of traffic,” says Pär. “Five guys singing about war, wearing camouflage, it was the perfect thing to write about. It’s a storm in a teacup.”

Sabaton have a warehouse containing all their old stage props. This includes their very first stage set, a riser with ramps, pillars, ladders and room for drums and keyboards that they bought from a long-forgotten Swedish band and was used for three shows and the video for 2009’s single 40:1 . “It looked huge when we got it,” says Joakim. “Today, it’s like, ‘OK, not so big.’” 

Their most famous prop is the two-ton tank that’s been used as a riser used by drummer Hannes Van Dahl since 2015. There are actually two tanks, nicknamed Walther and Audie – the former after German WWII General Walther Wenck, the latter after decorated US soldier-turned-Hollywood actor Audie Murphy, subjects of the Sabaton songs Hearts Of Iron and To Hell And Back respectively. 

Two tank risers may seem like overkill to some, but it enables the band to send one ahead to the next gig in classic military fashion. The tank(s) will naturally be part of their upcoming arena shows, but Pär and Joakim are cagey about what else the gigs involve. The bassist dangles the words “theatrics” and “drama”. 

“We want to bring in a bit of real acting,” he says. “We want to bring in real humans to the show to illustrate the subjects of the songs a bit more.” 

There’s no tank here in the ICA Maxi Arena and certainly no actors hamming it up, just museum-style figures dressed in the livery of Caroleans – 17th- and 18th-century Swedish soldiers – dotted between the pillars that circle the stage and Sabaton themselves. This is a scaled-down performance by Sabaton standards. 

“It doesn’t make sense financially to bring all that stuff on this tour,” says Joakim. “But we’re giving people a different kind of Sabaton show.” 

The 2,000-odd Gotlanders here tonight don’t seem to miss the heavy ordnance onstage. The arrival of a band whose last four albums all reached No.1 in the Swedish charts is a big deal. 

“The last band I saw play here was Europe about 10 years ago,” an audience member named Anna tells Hammer. Her sparkly high street top and high-heeled boots would put her in a very small minority at a regular Sabaton gig, but the crowd here is split 60-40 between people who look like metal fans and people who don’t. 

“I knew the name Sabaton, but I’m not that familiar with their music. He likes them, though,” she adds, gesturing to her boyfriend, whose Sabaton-branded tricorn hat suggests he’s very much in the metal-loving 60% of this audience. 

The presentation may be stripped down, but anthems such as The Lion From The North , The Red Baron and Bismarck remain as brilliant and bombastic as always, even if half a dozen songs and all of Joakim’s between-song banter is delivered in Swedish and goes over our heads. Still, their gig, their rules.

An hour after the show, the arena has emptied and Sabaton’s crew are packing up their gear. The band themselves are in various states of undress backstage, the prospect of a 6am alarm call to catch the ferry back to the mainland hanging over them. There are three more weeks of this tour left before it winds up in the city of Lund, a bustling metropolis of 90,000 people. 

“And then there’ll be no more places left for us to play in Sweden,” booms Joakim, only half joking. And after that? There’s one more standalone single scheduled around the UK tour in April (Joakim and Pär refuse to say what it’s called, though the singer says it will “surprise people”), plus a movie (they’re equally tight-lipped about details for this). 

The follow-up to 2109’s The Great War and its 2022 companion, The War To End All Wars , is a way off yet, but it’s unlikely to complete a World War I-themed trilogy of albums. 

“I’d be surprised if we never touched WWI again, but I’d also be very surprised if our next album was another WWI album,” says Joakim. 

And what of a potential collaboration with their soon-tobe touring partners Babymetal? It’s a rare moment where Joakim and Pär don’t present a united front.

“Musically, it would be hard because of what we do and what they do,” says Joakim. “It can be done, definitely,” counters his bandmate, “we just need to find the right time.” All of that’s in the future. Gotland has been taken, but there are more far-flung towns to conquer, more audiences to pound into submission, and anyway, those tanks won’t roll themselves out of storage. It’s all quiet on the Baltic front right now, but that peace won’t last.

Stories From The Western Front is out now via Nuclea

Dave Everley has been writing about and occasionally humming along to music since the early 90s. During that time, he has been Deputy Editor on Kerrang! and Classic Rock , Associate Editor on Q magazine and staff writer/tea boy on Raw , not necessarily in that order. He has written for Metal Hammer, Louder, Prog, the Observer, Select, Mojo , the Evening Standard and the totally legendary Ultrakill . He is still waiting for Billy Gibbons to send him a bottle of hot sauce he was promised several years ago.

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Sabaton – TOUR TIPS

In this Tour Tips segment, Pär Sundström and Joakim Brodén of the metal band, Sabaton, give you their tips for being on tour.

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In this Tour Tips segment, Pär Sundström and Joakim Brodén of the metal band, Sabaton, give you their tips for being on tour. You can check out the feature, after the break.

1. Pack light! I don’t know how many laps around our planet I’ve lugged stuff around in my bags that I very rarely used if even used at all. If you don’t know that you’re gonna need something for sure, leave it at home. The things that “might be useful, would be nice to have” etc are only gonna make your back ache as you’re carrying it in and out of tour buses and hotels.

2. Remember why you’re there in the first place The show is what’s important, there will be time enough time to drink, party and do stupid shit on a tour without compromising the show by getting drunk before, or during the show. Not that I mind a good drink or doing the stupid things (some of my best memories from over a decade of touring falls into this category [laughs]), but not to the extent that the show is affected

3. Be on time Respect everyone else by being on time for soundchecks, bus call or lobby calls etc. Why would your sleep/personal time be worth more than anyone else’s?

4. See something, do something Make sure you get out of the hotel, the venue or the tour bus whenever you can. Being on tour can be hell or a wonderful thing depending on what you do with it. Stay inside and you’ll end up in a tour bubble being miserable, tired and probably drinking yourself to sleep. I’ve made that mistake several times and it’s not a good place to be. Get out there, take a walk in the city, visit a theme park, visit a museum, go swimming or go for a run, anything… just get the fuck away from things and make sure you don’t miss the world happening around you!

5. Have fun! Sounds obvious, but it’s very easy to forget when things are getting crazy busy with the band/career/family etc. Remember why you started doing this in the first place, being on tour is like being on a roller coaster, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, very high highs, and very low lows. Get used to it and enjoy the ride. ;)

SABATON 2017 North American “The Last Tour” Date w/ Leaves’ Eyes & Battle Beast: 4/20 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Trocadero 4/21 – New York, NY @ Playstation Theater 4/22 – Worcester, MA @ The Palladium – New England Metal & Hardcore Festival 4/23 – Clifton Park, NY @ Upstate Concert Hall 4/25 – Montreal, QC @ Club Soda – SOLD OUT! 4/26 – Quebec City, QC @ Imperial De Quebec 4/27 – Toronto, ON @ Opera House 4/28 – Cleveland, OH @ The Agora Ballroom 4/30 – Louisville, KY @ Diamond Pub Concert Hall 5/1 – Chicago, IL @ Concord Music Hall 5/2 – Minneapolis, MN @ The Cabooze 5/3 – Winnipeg, MB @ Park Theatre 5/5 – Edmonton, AB @ Union Hall 5/6 – Calgary, AB @ The Palace 5/7 – Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theatre 5/8 – Seattle, WA @ El Corazon – SOLD OUT! 5/10 – San Francisco, CA @ Regency Ballroom 5/11 – Anaheim, CA @ City National Grove 5/12 – Tempe, AZ @ Marquee Theater 5/14 – Englewood, CO @ Gothic Theatre 5/16 – Dallas, TX @ Trees 5/17 – San Antonio, TX @ Alamo Music Hall 5/18 – Houston, TX @ Scout Bar 5/20 – Tampa, FL @ Orpheum 5/21 – Charlotte, NC @ The Underground 5/22 – Silver Spring, MD @ The Fillmore

Keep up with the band on Facebook !

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Sabaton is a Power Metal band from Falun, Sweden that have a strong lyrical fixation on war history and the nature of battle. Though the group formed in 1999, it was not until the mid 2000s that the group broke out of their cult status to reach a wider audience.

Though the band did not put out their debut album until 2005 they began recording as early as 1999. Sabaton’s recording sessions took place in The Abyss studio where noteworthy doom metal bands like Children of Bodom, Overkill and, Dispatched have recorded. The band’s recordings attracted a couple of record labels, one of them being the Italian label, Underground Symphony. This label issued the band’s first commercially distributed album, which was the 1999-2000 compilation, “Fist for Fight”. The album was largely seen as a promotional tool as it was released with the intent to get people excited about the band’s upcoming albums.

Sabaton’s first official LP was supposed to be their 2002 recorded album “[[]]”; however, it was shelved for 2 years and eventually discarded. The band finally put out their second album and first commercially released LP entitled “Primo Victoria”. The band signed on with the label Black Lodge for this release and would go on to put out their next album “Attero Dominatus” through this label. At this time the group recruited keyboardist Daniel Myhr for the band. This allowed the group’s previous keyboardist/singer, Joakin Broden, to take full reign over vocals.

In 2007 Sabaton released “Metalizer”, which was an accumulation of their early demo recordings and their previously unearthed debut album. The band’s follow up record was based on the book “The Art of War” by the Chinese military leader Sun Tzu. The group was increasingly getting more recognition and by 2009 they were playing festivals such as Atlanta’s ProgPowerUSA and Bloodstock ’09 in Derby. They also toured throughout Europe during this time, which included a 18 show stint in the UK supporting DragonForce. The band’s next album “Coat of Arms” came out on 2 October 2010 and peaked at No. 2 on the Swedish Albums Chart. It’s lyrics were heavily inspired by World War II and its closing track “Metal Ripper” was an instrumental piece paying tribute to a long list of the band’s musical influences.

The band experienced a crucial line-up change in 2012, with four members leaving, making singer Broden and bass player Sundström the only remaining members. The newly comprised band released “Carolus Rex” in 2012 and went on a large scale North American tour in the Spring of 2014.

Shortly afterwards Sabaton put out their commercially successful album “Heroes”, which debuted at No.1 on the Swedish Album Charts. The group has built a substantive reputation for themselves in the metal community, particularly one in their homeland in which they host their own festival. In addition to touring extensively around the globe the band also has an annual cruise called ‘Sabaton Cruise’ that embarks every November.

Live reviews

I attended Sabaton’s concert in the UK in 2023. The concert was amazing. The drummer (Hannes) and guitarists (Tommy, Chris, Pär) are all extremely talented. I also love Joakim’s voice. I think that Sabaton are actually even better in person!

Sabaton are very sweet people who really care about their fans and know how to interact well with their audience. The audience was encouraged to join in on songs like The Red Baron and Swedish Pagans. The talks in between songs by band members were interesting, well-humoured and friendly. They also took feedback from data they had previously collected from fans who wanted them to play older and faster songs so they played Into The Fire.

The showmanship was amazing. There were coloured lights and confetti, fire and smoke and of course the tank that Hannes sits on to play the drums. The screen behind the band made it easier to see the band but also showed cool visualisers for some songs. During some songs there were even people on stage playing some of the people from the songs, for example, there was a guy in a red plane for The Red Baron and a guy playing a scientist (Fritz Haber) for Father. For Christmas Truce everyone turned their phone lights on and it was beautiful.

When they went off the stage, there was still a lot of hype and everyone shouted “SABATON! SABATON!” and their encore was 3 songs but after that Man Of War played through the speakers when Sabaton were done performing. There was also a really amazing breakdown after the performance when they were saying goodnight before Man Of War started playing through the speakers.

Also, Sabaton have earplugs as part of their merch for only £10. They are very high quality and they made the concert not sound too loud but at the same time I could hear everything easily and the audio quality was fantastic. Also, the earplugs are very comfortable. They are also washable and reusable.

I would absolutely love to see Sabaton live again and I would highly recommend their concert for any other fans!

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"If you have ever been to a Sabaton concert you know you are going to rock out. Based out of Falun, Sweden, Sabaton is a power metal band who gets their audience energetic right from the start. Everyone was crowded in the front by the stage so we could get as close to the action as I wanted. I didn’t mind being packed tightly with my fellow concert goers as we danced and head-banged our way through each song. Being close to the front I was able to experience the thrill of the pyrotechnics used by Sabaton. The lights and fireworks are synced perfectly with the flow of their songs. \tMost of the lyrics of Sabaton’s are based on war and battle. Though they have a definite hard rock sound Joakim Broden has a very lyrical sound to his voice. As Chris Rorland and Thobbe Englund rock out on their guitars Broden’s lyrics are very fluid and melodic in many songs. The look of the band also adds to the experience. With many of them possessing a head-banger’s dream of long locks, they show you how to rock out. If you have never been into head-banging before, they will make you want to try it! The concert is non-stop rock and when it is over you will leave wanting to see them again. The energy from the band and crowd is unbeatable. One of the best metal concerts of all time!"

There is a chorus of metal hungry attendees engaged in conversation about the support acts this evening as the lights begin to fade out gradually, to the sounds of orchestral swells filling the speakers and of course this huge room. The audience’s response is that of a predominantly male cheer as if they’re about to go to battle.

On stage, appears a band from Sweden called Sabaton who kick off the evening with the sound of a very distorted guitar playing the opening bars of “No Bullets Fly” which is taken from their most recent album, “No Bullets Fly”. The reaction is a mixture of more battle cries with the movements of a circle pit beginning to take shape, sweeping people from the sidelines into it gradually getting bigger – all of which is completely encouraged by vocalist, Jaokim Broden.

Sabaton have a whole lot of material to get through this evening as they fill this set only with the very best material from their career that has, despite being fifteen years long, seen seven studio albums.

Heroes on tour, with relative dates, were announced by Sabaton and as soon I saw a concert in Milan I managed a couple of friends to come with me and we booked the tickets right away. It was an event that we couldn't miss.

The tickets came fast, February unfortunately not.

Once we were in Milan we went to Alcatraz, were Sabaton, Delain and Battle Beast played. We didn't know the building but in the end the location was very cool.

What about the concert? Simply awesome! Battle Beast started the event with power, turning on the audience. Than Delain played. When it was Sabaton's turn the crowd drove crazy.

Sabaton played with power and passion. Sound very good and the show between one song and the other very entertainfull. The big tank on stage with the drums on it fantastic idea.

Hope to have them again in Italy and really looking forwards to the next concert.

I recommend this band, no matter where they play.

This was a very nice show! I knew neither of the two acts playing before Sabaton, but they opened up well! The venue is one of the larger ones in the Netherlands, and it was completely packed with people!

First up: Twilight Force had a lot of energy and were clearly having a lot of fun on stage, with a bunch of antics while still playing good music. Their fantasy speedmetal was a nice way to get in the mood.

Next up was Accept. They had quite a large large scenery built up on stage, which was impressive and fit their more serious heavy metal.

Sabaton was a crowd success from start to finish. I don't think the audience skipped a single song for singing along! The stage was twice as large as Accept (they removed the back wall for this) and looked impressive. The band played really well and importantly played a lot of classics as well as some newer songs.

If they are in the Netherlands again, I'm definitely going again!

A great bill with Kreator opening up for Sabaton. And Kreator absolutely killed it. Great live show. The sound was fantastic and the band was tight and on point throughout. The crowd was amped, very fired up from the first note to the last. A violent pit moshed in front of the band in the strong metal venue. Kreator, one of the Teutonic Big 4, are a must see. Great live metal band.

Sabaton isn't really my style of metal, but the crowd loved them and they put on a very strong show. Very interactive with the audience, and there is plenty of fist pumping, clapping along, and singing along to the chorus.

The 2 bands together made for an awesome show.

Yesterday, I had the chance to experience Sabaton live, for the second time! First, I saw them two years ago on the festival Rock in Vienna. It was a great performance!

And yesterday, they surprised me again. It was unbelievable! The equipment was very authentical, the huge panzer in Front of the drums and the other one on the left hand side of the stage shot up. Additionally, they prepared a great fire show!

Furthermore, the audience never stopped jumping and singing, the atmosphere was awesome.

They made really funny jokes and the all time joke "noch ein Bier" must not lack.

Overall, it was a fantastic concert!

Honestly one of the best shows I've ever been to. Both Sabaton and Hammerfall killed it. Insane energy all night, with a constant pit all night long and crowdsurfers too.

Both bands sounded great live, and played a perfect mix of old and new songs. Venue was pretty solid too. A little old, but the well-sloped floor with great visibility and amazing sound made it all worth it.

Enjoyed every minute of the show. Would definitely go see them again Even got to meet, shake hands, and get photos with Hammerfall for free after the show :)

Sabaton are a really good band to see live because they really interact with the crowd or audience and they feed off the interaction. Rather than worrying about the amount of money they make and the size of the venue they care about what the crowd thinks about their music and like the crowd to be involved in the song choice. They also have a lot lf humour and despite their limited English vocabulary they are still able to communicate with the crowd. Despite their crudeness they are really friendly and passionate about their music.

Great Show,very theatrical, good pyrotechnics,amazing performance from the entire band Sabatons vocals are insanely powerful live.

Sabatons crowd makes up half the show everyone at the London show was singing along to practically every song and other fans where generally friendly.When it came to the pit it was how it should be bloody insane as a 5'3 Woman there is nothing i appreciate more than when mosh piters don't go easy on me i got bashed around like no ones business and it was fucking awesome.

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• April 19, 2024 Setlist

Sabaton Setlist at Prudential Center, Newark, NJ, USA

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Tour: The Tour To End All Tours Tour statistics Add setlist

• Song played from tape The March to War Play Video
• Ghost Division Play Video
• The Last Stand Play Video
• Swedish Pagans Play Video
• The Red Baron Play Video
• Bismarck Play Video
• Stormtroopers Play Video
• Carolus Rex ( Swedish ) Play Video
• Shiroyama Play Video
• The Attack of the Dead Men Play Video
• Primo Victoria Play Video
• Soldier of Heaven Play Video
• To Hell and Back Play Video
• Song played from tape Dead Soldier's Waltz Play Video

Edits and Comments

8 activities (last edit by Archieship12 , 19 May 2024, 15:11 Etc/UTC )

Songs on Albums

• Ghost Division
• Swedish Pagans
• The Attack of the Dead Men
• The Red Baron
• The Last Stand
• Soldier of Heaven
• Stormtroopers
• Carolus Rex
• To Hell and Back
• Primo Victoria

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Prudential Center

• Sabaton This Setlist Start time: 7:30 PM 7:30 PM
• Judas Priest Start time: 8:55 PM 8:55 PM

Sabaton Gig Timeline

• Dec 26 2023 Tegeraarena Leksand, Sweden Add time Add time
• Apr 18 2024 Toyota Presents the Oakdale Theatre Wallingford, CT, USA Start time: 7:30 PM 7:30 PM
• Apr 19 2024 Prudential Center This Setlist Newark, NJ, USA Start time: 7:30 PM 7:30 PM
• Apr 21 2024 Santander Arena Reading, PA, USA Start time: 7:30 PM 7:30 PM
• Apr 24 2024 Cross Insurance Center Bangor, ME, USA Start time: 7:30 PM 7:30 PM

45 people were there

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Sabaton Announces Departure of Guitarist Tommy Johansson

Sabaton has officially announced the departure of their long-time guitarist Tommy Johansson . The announcement, made earlier today through a heartfelt statement on social media, marks the end of Johansson’s seven-year tenure with the band. Johansson, who joined Sabaton in 2016, has been a key figure in the band’s recent successes.

The band’s statement expressed a deep sense of mutual respect and camaraderie. Despite his departure, Sabaton assures that the transition will be smooth, with Johansson staying on board until a new guitarist is fully integrated into the band’s lineup.

After 7 amazing years in the band, our guitarist, Tommy, has decided to leave Sabaton to pursue his own path. We wish him nothing but the best on his journey. We have been a close family and we will continue to support him in the adventures that await him in the future. Tommy joined the band in 2016 but he has been a close friend of Sabaton ever since our first meeting at the end of a concert in 2005. As a valued member of the band, he has contributed to countless immortal memories. Tommy’s departure from Sabaton will not be effective immediately. He will stay on to ensure that all goes smoothly with the handover to our next guitarist. While a small part of his large heart will always remain within Sabaton, we all know that he must follow his dreams. Even though we will not wake up daily in the tour bus next to him, we are sure that our paths will cross again many times in the future, both on and off the stage. Fly on your wings and strings brother!

Johansson’s own words mirrored the sentiment of his bandmates. He shared his reasons for leaving, citing the need to pursue his heart’s calling. He expressed immense gratitude towards the Sabaton community for their support since his debut and assured fans that his journey is far from over, with plans to continue touring with his other project, Majestica, and various other musical endeavors.

After 7 glorious years of Heavy Metal, I have decided to step down as the guitarist of Sabaton. This has been the hardest decision I’ve ever made in my entire life. As many of you may know, I do a lot of things outside of Sabaton. I play with another band, perform with various artists, and have a career as a singer that I’ve put aside for years to focus on Sabaton. After doing this for seven years, I feel it’s time to start following my heart. This means I will no longer tour with my brothers in Sabaton and will not meet all you lovely Sabaton supporters on the upcoming tours with the band. I will never quit playing music. I’ll still be touring with Majestica and other projects, but not on the same level as Sabaton of course. I am sure I will meet you lovely fans on the road again in the future. My brothers in Sabaton and the best crew in the world will forever be my second family and I will miss spending time with all these wonderful people. We had so much fun together every day. I’ve come to learn so much about life, about music and about touring that I wouldn’t have learned anywhere else. A massive thank you to all you lovely Sabaton fans for accepting me as the new guitarist in 2016. I am certain you will accept the person who takes over after me. All the best to you all and I’ll see you again soon!

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SABATON Announces Return Of Guitarist THOBBE ENGLUND

Swedish metallers SABATON have been rejoined by guitarist Thobbe Englund . This news comes hot on the heels of Tommy Johansson 's departure announcement less than a month ago.

Thobbe originally joined SABATON in April 2012 and amicably parted ways with the band in July 2016 to focus on his personal life and expand his creativity. Eight years later, he's back and ready to hit the global stage once more. Watch the official announcement video below.

Englund recorded two studio albums with SABATON , namely "Heroes" (2014) and "The Last Stand" (2016),and assisted with the songwriting of some very popular songs including "Shiroyama" and "Fields Of Verdun" , among others.

On his return, which is effective immediately, Englund declares: "Words can't express how ready and how excited I am to jump back into SABATON . It feels like I was on a short holiday. The time is right, love is in the air and the best is yet to come!”

SABATON bassist and band manager Pär Sundström comments: "This is a full-circle moment for SABATON and we are beyond excited to have Thobbe rejoin the band. He's a talented guitarist, songwriter and a kind guy who we have a lot of fun with. We didn't even need to hold auditions with other guitar players. All that was needed was to spend New Year's Eve together to know that the time was right for Thobbe 's return."

Echoing Pär 's sentiments, SABATON frontman Joakim Brodén states: "This decision was a no-brainer for us as a band and for Thobbe . He knows the drill and is the perfect fit. This is a great outcome, and we think everyone is going to be psyched about the news! The time is right. Welcome back, brother!"

Meanwhile, SABATON drummer Hannes Van Dahl adds: "Who? Thobbe f***ng Englund , that's who! The man is back! I'm happy to once again share the stage with one of my best friends! Welcome back, brother!"

And finally, fellow SABATON guitarist Chris Rörland says: "I'm beyond excited and happy for the return of the king! We've had so many good times together, both on stage and off stage. It's gonna be great to share the stage again. Welcome back and welcome home my brother! Love ya!"

SABATON is currently preparing for a 19-show U.S. tour with heavy metal legends JUDAS PRIEST , which kicks off on April 18 in Wallingford, Connecticut and wraps up on May 22 in Syracuse, New York. The five-piece band is also currently in the studio working on its 11th studio album.

SABATON 2024 is:

Joakim Brodén - vocals Pär Sundström - bass Chris Rörland - guitars Thobbe Englund - guitars Hannes Van Dahl - drums

When Johansson announced his exit from SABATON on January 20, the band said in a statement: "After 7 amazing years in the band, our guitarist, Tommy , has decided to leave SABATON to pursue his own path. We wish him nothing but the best on his journey. We have been a close family and we will continue to support him in the adventures that await him in the future.

" Tommy joined the band in 2016 but he has been a close friend of SABATON ever since our first meeting at the end of a concert in 2005. As a valued member of the band, he has contributed to countless immortal memories.

" Tommy 's departure from SABATON will not be effective immediately. He will stay on to ensure that all goes smoothly with the handover to our next guitarist.

"While a small part of his large heart will always remain within SABATON , we all know that he must follow his dreams.

"Even though we will not wake up daily in the tour bus next to him, we are sure that our paths will cross again many times in the future, both on and off the stage.

"Fly on your wings and strings brother!"

Tommy added in a separate statement: My dear friends! After 7 glorious years of Heavy Metal, I have decided to step down as the guitarist of SABATON .

"This has been the hardest decision I've ever made in my entire life.

"As many of you may know, I do a lot of things outside of SABATON . I play with another band, perform with various artists, and have a career as a singer that I've put aside for years to focus on SABATON . After doing this for seven years, I feel it's time to start following my heart. This means I will no longer tour with my brothers in SABATON and will not meet all you lovely SABATON supporters on the upcoming tours with the band.

"I will never quit playing music. I'll still be touring with MAJESTICA and other projects, but not on the same level as SABATON of course. I am sure I will meet you lovely fans on the road again in the future.

"My brothers in SABATON and the best crew in the world will forever be my second family and I will miss spending time with all these wonderful people. We had so much fun together every day. I've come to learn so much about life, about music and about touring that I wouldn't have learned anywhere else.

"A massive thank you to all you lovely SABATON fans for accepting me as the new guitarist in 2016. I am certain you will accept the person who takes over after me.

"All the best to you all and I'll see you again soon!"

Tommy Johansson is a well-known name, given his role as the longtime guitar player in SABATON . But before he joined the Swedish war machine, he had his own band REINXEED . His touring activities with SABATON slowed down the creative process for REINXEED but the group returned in 2019 — seemingly out of nowhere — with a 10-track album titled "Above The Sky" and a brand new name, MAJESTICA . The album saw Tommy taking on vocal duties, something he last showcased as TWILIGHT FORCE 's stand-in singer throughout autumn of 2017.

SABATON 's follow-up to 2022's "The War To End All Wars" album is tentatively due later this year via Nuclear Blast Records .

SABATON recently released the animated movie "The War To End All Wars" , which tells the stories from the "The War To End All Wars" album. It begins with "Sarajevo" , a song about the assassination of Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand , which sparked World War I. It ends with "Versailles" , about the 1918 Treaty Of Versailles that ended the war. SABATON also has the Sabaton History channel on YouTube , which includes historical looks at World War II, Swedish military history and even the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica, among others.

In September 2022, SABATON announced a new EP trilogy titled "Echoes Of The Great War" . The trilogy features new songs specifically about World War I, coupled with topically related catalog music.

The last EP in the "Echoes Of The Great War" EP trilogy, "Stories From The Western Front" , was made available in April 2023 on all platforms. It features a never-heard-before cover of MOTÖRHEAD 's well-known track "1916" .

SABATON climbed the international charts with its tenth studio album, "The War To End All Wars" , securing No. 1 positions in Germany, Austria, Sweden, Poland, Hungary and Finland. Having achieved the top position for the second time in Germany, Sweden and Finland, the album peaked at No. 1 in Poland, Hungary and Austria for the first time in the band’s career. This and additional outstanding results in other territories have made "The War To End All Wars" SABATON 's most successful album so far.

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