Sabaton

Live at The Key Club

Hollywood, California

October 6th, 2011

Review and Photos by Travis Baumann

Swedish, historical metal masters, Sabaton, were simply put, fucking amazing. These guys connect with their audience through a brilliant thematic overture, drawing on historical conflicts and events that changed the course of the world and they do so with a unique delivery, blending their powerful sound with technical talent of equal brilliance.

Sabaton hit me out of left field when I first heard them. I remember it very clearly as this intense guitar driven band but also full of keyboards, choirs, and intricate lyrics sung with a totally new take on metal. The thing that stands out immediately is the vocals. This singer has a unique masculine, deep voice, with a bit of gravel at moments but crystal clear and melodic as well. At the same time, still encompasses a gothic deep resounding that even bands like Sisters of Mercy would take pause at.

Sabaton hail from Sweden and have a uniquely historic fetish in lyrics and motifs in that their songs predominantly revolve around global conflicts that changed or significantly affected history. The First and Second World Wars are key focal points but their inspiration can come from any historical moment and they have touched upon the Vietnam and the Falkland wars as well.

Before the band took the stage, they had the original version of “The Final Countdown” piped in. When that finished the lights went down and “The March to War” instrumental intro began after the drummer and keyboard player took their positions.

As the rest of the band emerged, they went straight into “Ghost Division” which was insane, the crowd responded with emphatic enthusiasm and the floor was bouncing from their movement.

The instant classic “Uprising” off of their newest release, “Coat of Arms” was their second song of the set. This is such an amazing song about the Polish underground in Warsaw during WWII that whether this holds personal resonance or not, the history of the moment sweeps you up and makes you feel for the people and their circumstances.

That is one thing about this band that always amazes me. You can have movies about World War II or any major historical moment but only certain movies actually engulf you emotionally and make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and this is exactly what Sabaton accomplish again and again.

With any given historical moment, they find the emotional resonator of that experience and properly portray that emotion through metal song. The entire audience sang back the chorus, me included, and it was a momentous experience for fans and band alike. Joakim, the singer, commented on how he had goose bumps already and that he was very impressed with Los Angeles’ enthusiasm. He said this was the best response of the entire tour and the whole band was smiling and feeling the audience’s appreciation and energy.

They did “Saboteurs”, also off their latest release, which is about the Norwegian sabotage at Vermork. He announced the next song being about the 101st Airborne Division and said thanks to America, World War II was won and that, “The US basically saved our asses”. The song was “Screaming Eagles” and is another fast paced, epic tribute to the men who fought and died in battle for a greater cause.

Joakim had everyone give a cheer for their touring bass player who was filling in for their main man who was too sick to join the tour. You could not tell that he was not a regular part of the lineup as he played as a cohesive member of the group and all the songs sounded amazing live.

Sabaton went on to perform the title track off “Coat of Arms” which spans centuries in its historical content, portraying events during World War II involving the Greek and Italian conflicts as well as going all the way back to ancient Greek battles in 480 B.C.

I am not really sure how much of the audience was aware of the significance of the lyrics or were just swept up in the awesome music, but they sure as hell screamed and bounced and cheered for Sabaton. Many of the songs had huge participation in the form of singing along with the words, so a good share at least, were familiar with all the lyrics.

Without a pause they went straight into what would be my favorite song of the set, the absolutely powerful “Primo Victoria” which is simply amazing. This song is so intense; it is about D-Day and the storming of the shores of Normandy on the 6th of June, 1944. The lyrics resound, “Through the Gates of Hell, as we make our way to Heaven – through the Nazi Lines, Primo Victoria!”

This song is definitely one that has my hairs standing on end every time I listen to it and to see it live finally was amazing. The entire audience joined in on the chorus and the venue was near bursting with the energy and power of the song. Everyone was jumping up and down and it felt like the floor might give out under us.

At this point Joakim stated that sadly, their time was nearly up. They were the direct supporting band for headliners Evergrey, so they were under time constraints and ended the set with “Metal Ripper” . This song is one of the few non-historically based songs and instead is a tribute to heavy metal songs in general and pulls influence from lyrics from dozens of metal bands including everything from Iron Maiden, Metallica, Manowar, and Ozzy to Hammerfall and Dimmu Borgir.

It was a great song to end the set with and left everyone wanting more. Cheers went up as they collectively took their bow and screams for encore resounded but unfortunately there was not to be any more on this night.

I really wish Sabaton was the headliner on this tour and then we could have heard a lot more songs and continued the event. As short as it was, this was one of the best performances I have witnessed this year so far and I thought they were truly impressive. I absolutely love Sabaton and cannot recommend them highly enough.

Primo Victoria!

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