Sabaton’s CD booklets include notes about the battles depicted in each of their songs.
In the beginning, Sabaton — a heavy metal band from Sweden named after foot armor worn by knights — tried to write traditional heavy metal songs.
“We were writing about riding bikes and drinking beer,” says bassist Pär Sundström, calling Madison from his home country. “As much as we like and enjoy doing those things, it wasn’t giving us satisfaction in our music.”
That was back in the early 2000s, before Sabaton released its first album, 2005’s Primo Victoria, which included songs about Saddam Hussein and Operation Desert Storm (“Reign of Terror”) and the use of napalm in the Vietnam War (“Into the Fire”). Suddenly, the Swedes were on to something.
The band’s historical subject matter — combined with adrenaline-pumping power metal characterized by double bass drums, muscular melodies and battle hymn choruses — makes Sabaton an anomaly in heavy metal. Although other bands have written individual songs or concept albums about military conflict, few have taken it to the same extreme as these camo-wearing, headbanging history buffs.
Sabaton will perform in Madison for the first time on Feb. 24, at the Orpheum Theatre, co-headlining with German thrash-metal veterans Kreator. This will be Sabaton’s second tour of duty in the United States supporting 2016’s The Last Stand, but it marks the first time the band is playing U.S. venues large enough to bring a stage show that approaches its arena productions in Europe.
“It will be as much as we can fit in,” Sundström says, laughing.
The Last Stand, Sabaton’s eighth album, includes harrowing tales of the Greek Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. (“Sparta”), the Siege of Vienna in 1863 (“Winged Hussars”) and World War II’s Battle of the Argonne Forest in 1918 (“The Lost Battalion”). The CD booklet includes notes about the battles depicted in each song, making a strong case for purchasing the physical product over downloading.
“This approach opened a lot of doors for us, and it’s closed a couple, too,” says Sundström, who writes most of the band’s songs with lead vocalist/keyboardist Joakim Brodén. “But at least we are doing something that’s exciting for us and writing lyrics about things we think matter.”
Conversations with fans sometimes spark lyrical ideas for Sundström and Brodén, whose research includes extensive reading, plus interviews with historians and sometimes descendants of a specific battle’s participants.
“Every country has its own little stories that are not well known, and those are the ones we like to take and make known by singing about them,” Sundström says, adding that the band takes a certain amount of creative license. “Every conflict always has two sides, but we don’t choose sides. We wouldn’t put in any of our own opinions about who was right and who was wrong. That’s not up to us.”
Despite all the effort that goes into every Sabaton song, the lyrics remain secondary to the music, according to Sundström. “We are a heavy metal band, first and foremost,” he says. “But we are happy when whoever is listening can enjoy our music on different levels.”