The end of Metalfest (Germany) 2011 came in the guise of the Swedish war-machine Sabaton, and what a great way to end a festival it was!

Out of the speakers thundered Sweden’s possibly most famous song of all times, certainly it’s most famous metal song at least, The Final Countdown by Europe, and everyone went directly into a sing-along frenzy the likes of which had hardly been seen during the entire festival! One short intro later, during which drummer Daniel Mullback and keyboardist Daniel Mÿhr entered the stage to much applause, and it was time for the band to enter and the show to begin with the well-known opener Ghost Division.
Just as with the Amon Amarth show on the first evening, nothing had been spared in order to create a full-blown metal fest here; the pyro-show was big, bright and warm, the band was (not literally) on fire, and the crowd was just in the mood for a grandiose power metal show! After all, there hadn’t been too many of them here so far…

Joakim Brodén commented on the act that many had probably already seen Sabaton recently, what with this being the second time around they were touring with the Coat Of Arms album, so this time around they wanted to shake the set up a bit and find something new for us, something I can only congratulate them on and add that more bands should think about this when heading out on tour. Not that their usual songs are boring, far from it, but it is always nice to hear something you hadn’t expected. Thus Stalingrad had been added, a song Brodén said they hadn’t played live for 5 years…
Even with the comment, a lot of the known classics had been left in the set, but what would a Sabaton show be without songs like Primo Victoria or the metal medley (well ok, I wouldn’t mind hearing Metal Ripper for once, I think this is a great song as well…)? I was also glad to hear that my personal favourite, The Price Of A Mile, which had been cut the last time around was back in full glory.

To make things more special than they already were, and to honour the band even further, a representative of Nuclear Blast showed up to hand the band a gold record plaque for sales of Coat Of Arms in Poland, and to lead his countrymen on he ended his speech by saying; ”Next gold in Deutschland!”.
The band looked sincerely moved, and thanked their fans for making this possible in the age of illegal downloads. Next song up was very fittingly 40:1, and at the beginning Brodén disappeared down into the security pit, only to re-emerge with a large Polish flag handed to him by someone in the audience. Very nice gesture!

This wasn’t the only audience interaction however; quite early in the set people were shouting “Noch ein bier!” (literally: another beer!), but this met with a polite no from Brodén, saying that he would only end up too drunk and naked. The audience persisted however, there were even some ingenious enough to have written a sign saying “Sun Tzu says noch ein bier”, so in the end the poor Swede had to cave in for the German pressure, and quickly downed a half litre can. No nakedness ensued…
Next up it was Brodén’s turn to ask something of the audience, and what he asked for was a loud sing along and jumping in the coming song. Of course everyone knew that we were about to hear Primo Victoria, but instead Brodén began singing Y.M.C.A., and we must have looked pretty confused as he laughed hard and commented; ”You should have seen your faces”. Then of course Primo Victoria came on and everyone did what had been asked of them.
Last song of the evening was not surprisingly Metal Medley, and this song saw Brodén crowdsurfing out into the masses before returning to take a good and proper farewell and thanks to everyone who had been there.

This was yet another flawless victory for Sabaton, and they were definitely in the running for best concert of the festival!

Setlist:

Ghost Division
The Art Of War
Screaming Eagles
Stalingrad
Aces In Exile
The Price Of A Mile
40:1
Coat Of Arms
Cliffs Of Gallipoli
Primo Victoria
Metal Medley