Interview: Sabaton’s Joakim Broden on ‘The Last Stand,’ band’s international success

Posted by on October 21, 2016

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I openly defy anyone to come away from a Sabaton live show without the feeling of somehow marching into glory. Sweden’s own soldiers of metal/war historians have been at it for over a decade now, inspiring the ethos of bravery, honor, heroism, and all-out heavy metal defiance not seen since the glory days of Ross The Boss-era Manowar.

Sabaton is back with their latest theme record (not really a full concept album, as frontman Joakim Broden says), The Last Stand. The new record tackles famous final fronts in military lore, and along the way introduces some new ground as far as Sabaton goes – how about a song in a major key for starters, complete with bagpipe accompaniment (“Blood of Bannockburn”). There’s also another pivotal lineup change this time around, as guitarist Thobbe Englund is gone and Tommy Johansson (ex-ReinXeed) is in. The band hit United States shores just about a month ago on package tour that teams them with Trivium and Huntress – quite the diverse bill, but another challenge that Sabaton has handled with, well, military precision and fist fully extended in metallic audacity. By all accounts, the guys are having a blast on this U.S. run.

Sabaton vocalist Joakim Broden took some time out to chat with Metal Insider before the band’s performance at Binghamton, NY’s Magic City Music Hall about everything that rocks their world these days, including the current tour and The Last Stand album, their burgeoning U.S. audience, songwriting, and more. Check out near the end of the chat for a great reaction from Joakim to a comment I pulled from a YouTube video – it’s not every day that we who gab with musicians pose something they’ve never heard mentioned before, but this was one of those rare moments. With a respectable #63 first-week debut on Billboard with The Last Stand, including a #2 Hard Music bow, you can bet the band will be back on U.S. shores sooner than later in 2017.

 

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Categorised in: Interviews, Video