Sabaton

Live at The House of Blues

Hollywood, California

May 2nd, 2014

Review and Photos by Travis Baumann

Sabaton are one of the most energetic bands on stage. The lead singer has this huge charisma and the songs are so powerful that anytime they come to town I have to go see them.

Sabaton were promoting their latest release Carolus Rex which, like all of their albums, focuses on historical conflicts throughout the world. This album turns a spotlight on their home country, Sweden, and the rise and fall of the Carolian Empire. I knew they would also play a lot of their old favorites as well, but I was especially looking forward to songs off of this newest album.

They started off the set with a mighty "pounding of guns" so to speak with their fan favorite, "Ghost Division". Every song tells a story of the past and they are very meticulous with their history so you are basically getting schooled in different theaters of war throughout the ages while you rock out.

The next song was off the new album, "Gott Mit Uns", or God is With Us. They followed up with what is my holy grail of their song canon, the title track off of "Carolus Rex". This song is so cool, it gives me goose bumps listening to it live with its chorus: "Say my name when you pray! To the Sky - sing Carolus Rex!", it tells the story of the man destined to be king of Sweden and to lead his people. At this point, I could have left the concert and been happy but we are only three songs in!

They went back in time for the track "Swedish Pagans" which has an awesome Viking type sing along feel to it and is actually one of their more light hearted songs.

It was time to delve back into war however, and they did "To Hell and Back" followed by "White Death" and "40:1" all in a row. This led into "The Art of War" which starts off with a telltale quote of Sun Tzu explaining one of his axioms for besting the battlefield.

This brought us to one of the final songs of their set and a personal favorite of mine, "Primo Victoria", which poetically tells the tale of the D-Day invasion on the Western shores of Europe, 1944. It is a story of the US soldiers making their way through hell, on their way to heaven, fighting their way through the Nazi lines. It is as epic as a song can get and does those heros proud.

Unfortunately, that brought the set to its final track, a more traditional metal anthem, to leave us masses on a lighter note with, "Metal Crue". These words really can't do a Sabaton show any justice so I highly recommend you get out and see them for yourselves, it is epic and awesome and will leave you with a smile on your face.

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