Artist: Sabaton Title: “World War Live: Battle Of The Baltic Sea” Label: Nuclear Blast Records Release Date: 9/13/2011 Genre: Power Metal Rating: 5/5
Should I lie to you and say how I have been following this band for years or should I fess up and say that it wasn’t until about two years ago from this point in my writing it down that I had never even heard of Sabaton before. I’ll go with the “honesty is the best policy” road even though its slightly embarrassing to admit based on my always considering myself up on a dozen or more bands that my circle of friends have no clue about. In my defense it is not hard to have found the band eluding me based on the fact that they had never even been to our region for any touring until the Evergrey tour of 2011 where they were direct support. I apologize if they played a one-off festival appearance that I didn’t know about but I am speaking of a full on focused invasion for the larger Metal masses to take a part in. I caught the Evergrey tour and really wanted to see Sabaton and after their set I remember being stunned and impressed more than I had ever expected. I wondered where this band had been all my life because it was just so on point. They returned in early 2012 but I will speak about that later, right now I want to focus on the outstanding double CD live release called “World War Live: The Battle Of The Baltic Sea”. The live album is the bands first in their career and this might surprise their legacy fans because the group has been around since 1999 and have released six full length albums. The release is special because it first delivers the bands entire set from the Sabaton cruise while the second CD gives you selections from across the bands European Tour. Both were done in 2010 so this is a very recent presentation of the band and not something that leaves you wondering how they sound “now” as opposed to the way “that they used to”. Continue reading “World War Live: Battle Of The Baltic Sea” by Sabaton→
Sabaton were climbing Metal’s ladder to success after only one previous USA visit and here we are for their first ever headlining run the following year. The show dropped into the Gramercy Theatre and was documented in full on THIS LINK. Now please enjoy a lot of photographs that I captured from their set.
The last time that the US territories had a visit from Sabaton was back in September 2011 when the band was opening up for Evergrey at this very same venue and at that show their singer vowed that the band would return for the fans in a headlining sense. Well, lucky for us he was not kidding because here we were back at the Gramercy Theatre and ready to experience The Swedish Empire Tour up close and personal. This evening would find only one opener in the local boys of Sanitarius and we made sure to see them as well for good measure since some of our audience of readers have said that we should try to do so if at all possible. Click the logo below to be brought to the full concert report and photo gallery and then come back to scroll further through this blog posting to enjoy some side images and other thoughts about the night.
Artist: Sabaton Venue: Gramercy Theatre (New York, NY) Opener: Sanitarius Date: 5/4/2012 Label: Nuclear Blast Records
The Metal Month of May was starting off like the firing from a cannon with the Power Metal band Sabaton who prepared to entertain their loyal fans on the second leg of “The Swedish Empire Tour”. The band had been in the States for a few weeks to my knowledge and tonight’s show would actually be my second time seeing the band even though they had been around for over a decade. The last gig was when they opened up for Evergrey at this very same venue and I have to admit that I don’t recall them ever appearing in our region before that show last September. It’s very likely they had never done so before. That show found me admitting that the band was very new to my Metal ears but they pulled out the stops and impressed me greatly. As a matter of fact, I knew fans that had only come to that particular show for Sabaton and they had very little interest in Evergrey and left during their set. At the end of the gig their singer Joakim promised us that they would soon return and return they would but in an almost entirely different configuration. At the end of March, Broden had made it public that most of the band would be going their separate ways and that meant guitarists Oskar Montelius and Rikard Sundén, drummer Daniel Mulback and keyboardist Daniel Mÿhr would be departing Sabaton for reasons that were never made public. The tour would now bring in members Chris Rörland and Thobbe Englund on guitar, and Robban Bäck on drums. The search for a keyboard player would go on and until they found one they would be using piped in recordings of the instrument. So how would this work out? Here is how the show went down for those who didn’t manage to make it into the city tonight. Continue reading Sabaton @ Gramercy Theatre (5/4/2012)→
