There are a huge number of metal groups, which in their work raise the social problems of mankind. The Swedish Sabaton group is among them, narrating both bloody wars and fateful historical battles. Therefore, it is not surprising that the guys named their gang in honor of the iron boot (English saba ton - part of the knightly armor protecting a certain part of the leg) to emphasize the theme of fierce battles.
Start
The team emerged from the collapse of Aeon, when the founding musicians decided to create together with Joachim Broden and Oscar Montelius. Therefore, in 1999, the rock band Sabaton was put together in the Swedish city of Falun. The initial composition of the team remained almost unchanged until 2012.
In 2001, the musicians turned to Tommy Teggtren, who often took part in the creation of many compositions in order to complete the album begun in the previous project. The guys recorded the demo Fist for Fight, which was released under the Underground Symphony label in the same year.
Then the musicians returned to their native Abyss Studios, recorded under the new name their first album Metalizer, which was released only five years later.
Promotion
Since the chosen label was in no hurry to support Metalizer, the guys recorded a new album at Abyss Studios, calling it Primo Victoria. The name chosen was quite belligerent, it seemed to shout to the world that musicians would sooner or later achieve their goals and conquer the world.
Sabaton signed with Black Lodge and Metalizer was recorded in 2005. Shortly before this, the composition of the team was replenished with keyboard player Daniel Muir, since before that, vocalist Joachim Broden himself played this instrument. A year later, the whole group went on a tour abroad, introducing the new album Attero Dominatus.
The tour turned out to be very fruitful, so the subsequent tour was scheduled for the very near future. We can say that Iron Shoes returned home only in order to conduct several show programs together with Lordi, who won the Eurovision-2006 contest.
Confession
The second tour gave the group the opportunity to perform on the same stage with metal monsters Grave Digger and Therion and show themselves to the world. Meanwhile, the former and current labels finally agreed to transfer powers, and Metalizer, recorded five years ago, was released and replicated. By the way, the war in it was not mentioned even once, the theme was inclined mainly to mysticism and fantasy genre.
After the release of the album, Sabaton went on a big tour of Europe, which was called Metalizing Europe. In the course of performances in different cities, the group became increasingly popular, becoming almost the most important guests of any festival.
World fame
The year 2007 was very fruitful for the Sabaton band, because in addition to several concerts, they had the opportunity to take part in the tour of the legendary Helloween. In addition, the musicians began working on the creation of the next studio album called The Art of War. The texts were based on the ancient book Sun Tzu, which was over two and a half thousand years old. The single Cliffs Of Gallipoli was released a little earlier and immediately gained popularity among Swedish listeners. Sabaton's The Art of War album was commercial and most successful. There were so many positive reviews that the guys were nominated for a Grammy Award.
New milestone in development
The next two years were especially eventful, as the Sabaton band gave just over 160 concerts in several countries. By the way, the Poles liked the musicians so much that they gave them the citizenship of their country. Important events of 2008 and 2009 were performances on the same stage with Dragonforce and HammerFall.
In general, the guys worked tirelessly and decided to attach their attentive fans to the next Coat of Arms album. The idea was enthusiastically received by the fans, so there were a lot of response letters. Then very little time passed, and the contract with the cool label Nuclear Blast was in their pocket.
In the following years, Sabaton was also involved in traveling around the world with concerts, rewriting old albums and selling new ones. May 2011 made the Russian fans happy, as on the 12th the team warmed up the audience before the Scorpions performance at the St. Petersburg Ice Palace, and on May 26 of the next year the event repeated itself, but in Moscow at the Olimpiysky.
Style
The songs of the Sabaton group have all the qualities of power metal, however, for their love of military themes, they were ranked among the founders of a new genre called battle-metal. There are debugged guitar riffs in their compositions, and keys that sound against the background, and a strong voice of the frontman, and even choral sing-alongs.
The songs featured mostly significant battles of the XX century. The texts describe the stories of various battles and the philosophy of military affairs. Such famous politicians as King Gustav II Adolf, dictator Adolf Hitler, King Charles XII, USSR Marshal Georgy Zhukov, Joseph Stalin and many other outstanding personalities are mentioned there.
Today's band
Over the entire career in the team, some metamorphoses occurred, but strong changes occurred in 2012. To date, the composition of the group looks like this:
- Joachim Broden - vocals, rhythm and bass, as well as keys.
- Per Sundstrom - backing vocals, bass.
- Hannes Van Dahl - Drums.
- Chris Reland - backing vocals, rhythm guitar.
- Tommy Johansson is a solo guitar.
Discography
During its official existence, Sabaton released 8 albums, and this indicates the high creative potential of the guys. Here is a list of the results of their efforts:
- Primo Victoria - 2005 (Black Lodge Records);
- Attero Dominatus - 2006 (Black Lodge Records);
- Metalizer - 2007 (Black Lodge Records);
- The Art of War - 2008 (Black Lodge Records);
- Coat of Arms - 2010 (Nuclear Blast);
- Carolus Rex - 2012 (Nuclear Blast);
- Heroes - 2014 (Nuclear Blast);
- The Last Stand - 2016 (Nuclear Blast).
These talented Swedes are living proof that patience and work will grind everything. Metallers all over the world listen to their songs, and for a true musician there is no greater happiness than international recognition. Therefore, dare, comrades, maybe you will succeed in achieving something in this life!