Sabaton

Östervångsstadion, Trelleborg - 2014

Text: Tobias Nilsson Photo: Lunah Lauridsen

In order to find new places not yet visited in our tall country (Sweden that is), Sabaton announced a tour where they were playing in historical battle grounds, like old forts and the like.
We decided to check them out as the tour brought them all the way down to Trelleborg at the southernmost coast of Sweden.

“Our new album Heroes have sold gold in Sweden! We are very grateful and want to say thanks to all of you who support us and still buy records!”
- Joakim Brodén (vocals/guitar)


Although the original intent, as I had come to understand it anyway, had been to play at the actual place of historic value, Sabaton had at least at this gig decided that being in the same town was enough, and instead we got an open air show at Östervångsstadion. Standing there on a sports-field in front of a special for the occasion stage to watch a band gave a funny feeling of being part of something like those super-sized stadium rock events I remember seeing on TV with bands like Metallica and Guns ‘N’ Roses back when I was still a young kid, too young to attend myself. Somehow, the size wasn’t quite as overwhelming as it had looked back then, but the feeling I got was exciting and uplifting.
Being a show that was open for all ages, Trelleborg had of course imposed the Swedish rule where the drinking section is closed off by a fence and guards from the rest of the area, whereas the sober area had the advantage of being closer to the stage – after my move to Denmark, this particular situation has always struck me as a bit silly, and it was a shame not to be able to enjoy a beer properly to the gig, but the music got priority.
We weren’t the only ones thinking this, and the sober area quickly filled up in a much bigger way than it had for both Raubtier and D-A-D as Europe’s The Final Countdown announced the coming beginning of the show.

After this usual opening, the air was filled by the sound of tanks running their engines and the tank on the stage was revealed with blinking lights, and Hannes Van Dahl took his place behind the drums to loud cheers from the audience. In the background the second intro music, The March To War, was playing, and soon the rest of the band came rushing in as well, marking the real start of the concert with a scorching Ghost Division, which saw the tank blasting off several shots from its mini-gun like cannons.
In a way, this was very much a repetition of what we had seen just a few weeks prior at Metaldays in Slovenia, but it was also so much more – there were more props on the stage, there were a hell of a lot more fireworks on display, there were more songs sung in Swedish, and best of all, this time around we didn’t have to leave before the show was over!

“Before joining Sabaton I used to work as a music teacher, because I’m so damn good at all instruments. I don’t know if you’ve heard about some of my former students, Yngwie Malmsteen and Richie Blackmore? I’m actually quite pissed at him because he stole some of my lessons and sold them as songs with his band. Maybe you recognise this one?” (plays the Smoke On The Water riff)
- Brodén (vocals/guitar)


Sabaton was going at it with phenomenal force and everything was over the top, but in the best of ways. Brodén was as always playing the role of frontman with excellence, entertaining the crowd just as well between songs as during them. The rest of the gang, minus Van Dahl obviously, was running around almost all the time, throwing varying poses at us from all directions. All of this we have grown more or less accustomed to with this band of course, but that doesn’t make it any less entertaining when experienced live like this.
There were a few new tricks as well in the mix – that Brodén donned a guitar for Resist And Bite we had already seen at Metaldays but t didn’t matter as it still gives a slight variation to the show (even though I still haven’t found out why it is sonically necessary for him to do so), and that Chris Rörland and Thorbjörn ‘Thobbe’ Englund helped out with the vocals on Got Mit Uns has also been done in a small degree before but this evening they completely took over the verses, singing in shift. Some lyrics had also been altered especially for this show – in Got Mit Uns, the name Breitenfeld had been changed for Trelleborg, and in Carolus Rex, the line “hela Stockholm ser mig krönas” was now “hela Skåne ser mig krönas” and the chorus-line “över Norden jag härskar” was changed to “över Skåne jag härskar” – and I don’t think I need to tell you what patriotic delight this brought to the crowd! Not very many Swedish bands can get away with praising Sweden without being (mis)labelled as neo-Nazis and white pride, but I’m glad to see that Sabaton at least has avoided this mess and can release an album in Swedish, with Swedish banners on the cover, dealing with Swedish history, and still be openly appreciated by the masses!

Calling the Trelleborg audience masses might be stretching the truth a bit, but there was a nice gathering on the field, and things didn’t go down quietly! Having just returned from some large European festivals, I can’t say that there was much action in the crowd as the wildest thing that ever happened was during En Livstid I Krig (A Lifetime Of War) where a lot of lighters and mobile-phone lights were lifted in the air, and of course the jumping part of Primo Victoria, but I must admit that the Swedish audience was loud!
This was of course commented on by Brodén, who once in the beginning used the same comment about having to ask us to shut up as he had at least once before on the tour, and e also commented on how nice it was to see a crowd without any moshpits because now everyone could get home without being hurt in any way. Hmm, yes...
Anyway, vocally it got really good as I said, and one part which caught the attention of the band was the impromptu singing of the Swedish Pagans melody – the next song on the list was actually Uprising, but Brodén promised that they’d return to Swedish Pagans later in the set if we kept the steam up. One more song between, and it was time for the band to put their money where their mouth had been – maybe it wasn’t as special as we were led to believe though, as the song had been played several times on the tour already.
One thing that really had not been in anyone’s plan though, was a special birthday greeting. What happened was that a guy in the front row threw his Sabaton baseball cap up on the stage, which led to Brodén commenting that if he had a problem with the product he really should take it up with the merch people instead (with a wink in his eye of course), but upon returning the cap the guy burst out that it was his birthday, and to prove that he wasn’t lying he threw his wallet up on the stage next. A slightly confused Brodén put it in his back-pocket and was preparing to leave now that he had his payment for the show, but thought the better of it and went to hand the wallet back. Before this happened though, he glanced at the guys ID and saw that it really was his birthday, and as a bonus the guy got the sunglasses Joakim had been wearing up to this point as a gift!

Much more can be said if we had the energy to write about it and you had the energy to read about it, but I think we can round this thing up quite nicely by saying that this was yet another kick ass Sabaton show! In several ways it was a classic setup, but there were enough one-of-a-kind portions to keep it fresh and interesting. My personal favourite was that several songs off of Carolus Rex were played, and that they were all for once sung in Swedish! As I can’t attend the Sabaton festival where they’ve promised to play the album from end to end in Swedish, I guess this is the closest to it that I’ll ever come, and it was great beyond words!

Setlist:

The Final Countdown (Europe song)
The March To War

Ghost Division
To Hell And Back
Carolus Rex
Got Mit Uns
Soldier Of 3 Armies
Karolinens Bön
Attero Dominatus
Resist And Bite
Far From The Fame
Uprising
Dominium Maris Baltici
Lejonet Från Norden
Swedish Pagans
En Livstid I Krig
The Art Of War
Primo Victoria
Metal Crüe
Masters Of The World

Latest uploads: