Sabaton

Sabaton is a Grammis-nominated power metal band from Falun, Sweden formed in 1999. The band's main lyrical themes are those of historical wars. This is heard in albums Primo Victoria, Attero Dominatus and Coat of Arms where all of the songs, except final tracks, take inspiration from historical battles or war. Lyrical content drawn from World War I, World War II and the Vietnam war is prevalent and includes songs about battles and leaders on all sides of these conflicts.
On the March 30th, 2012 the band announced they would go separate ways, with singer Joakim Brodén and bass player Pär Sundström continuing Sabaton, the two are looking for new members to replace those who left.
On April 2nd, 2012 the new line up was revealed. Joining the band are Chris Rörland (Lead Guitars), Thobbe Englund (Guitars) and Robban Bäck (Drums). A new keyboard player has yet to be found.
Sabaton was formed in 1999. After the first songs were recorded in Peter Tägtgren's studio, The Abyss, Sabaton was contacted by a couple of record labels. The band decided to sign up for an Italian label who internationally released the promo CD Fist for Fight – including cover artwork by the legendary Ken Kelly (Manowar)—with the intention to promote forthcoming releases.
A year after the first recordings were made Sabaton returned with a début album Metalizer, again working with Peter Tägtgren. The album was recorded 2002 but had a five year delay before release in 2007. Metalizer is counted as their first album despite being the third album released.
Sabaton performed across Sweden, and after two years of waiting for the label to release Metalizer, Sabaton decided to record another album. But this time they would do it on their own, without the financial support of a record label.
The band returned a second album titled Primo Victoria and found themselves in negotiations with several international record labels. One of the songs in the album, Into the Fire, made heavy reference to the Vietnam War. They eventually signed with Black Lodge, the metal division of Sound Pollution. In early 2005, they recruited Daniel Myhr to relieve Joakim Brodén, who played keyboards in addition to singing, of his keyboard duties.
Their third album Attero Dominatus continued the war theme of Primo Victoria with songs like "Back in Control" (which focuses on the British retaking of the Falkland Islands during the Falklands War), "Attero Dominatus" (about the Battle of Berlin which brought about the end of World War II in Europe) and "Angels Calling" (about trench warfare during World War I), and was released in Europe on the 28th of July 2006.
In March 2007, Sabaton released Metalizer as a double disc together with Fist for Fight, along with the previously unreleased song "Birds of War".
As a follow up to Metalizer, in May 2008, Sabaton released its fourth album The Art of War an album inspired by the influential book by Sun Tzu. The decision to base the album upon Sun Tzu's book came from the idea that in the 2000 years since the book was written, the human race has achieved many things but apart from weapon advancements, war and tactics have remained basically the same.The album contains the singles "Cliffs of Gallipoli" and "Ghost Division". The album has received extremely positive reviews so far.
In September 2008 it was announced that Sabaton would be performing at the 2009 ProgPowerUSA X festival in Atlanta GA USA. In addition, Sabaton were the first band confirmed for the festival Bloodstock '09 in Derby, UK. Furthermore, they toured Europe in 2009 as an opening act on the Hammerfall Tour. After their Bloodstock performance, the band went on a tour with DragonForce, towards the end of 2009, for 18 shows in the UK.
The band had hoped to begin recording the next album in October but with concerts booked and the DragonForce support tour the following month, it was pushed back. On Wednesday December 23, 2009, the band announced the name of their forthcoming album. Coat of Arms contains a majority of songs about World War II, but also has songs about other wars, like the Winter War "White Death". They announced it on their official website, and posted a link to a YouTube video containing the album art and a teaser music sample. Coat of Arms was released on May 21, 2010. The first music video, for Uprising, was released on August 1, 2010 and features Peter Stormare. This was accompanied by a European tour. A second music video, for Screaming Eagles, was released on May 25th.
In an interview with Swedish TV4 on January 13, 2011, Sabaton's bass player Pär Sundström confirmed that a new album was in the works.[1]
DragonForce bassist Frédéric Leclercq filled in for rhythm guitarist Rikard Sundén as a sessional guitarist during the first leg of the European tour, due to Sundén becoming a father. In March 2011 Daniel Mullback injured his knees so badly that he was forced to return home to Sweden. Robban Bäck from Sweden, filled in for Mullback on the last shows of the european tour. On the first US-shows, Patrik Johansson filled in for 2 shows. Daniel Mullback is now fully restored and back behind the drums.
The band confirmed for Rockstad:Falun 2011, a festival in Sweden, where they performed with additional vocals by Udo Dirkschneider and Chris Boltendahl, Frédéric Leclercq performing third guitar, and Van Canto performing backing vocals.
On the 5th of August 2011, their first live album was released, named World War Live: Battle of the Baltic Sea, a recording of their show on the Sabaton cruise of December 2010.
A new album has been confirmed. The album will be about King Charles XII and the Northern War of 1700-1721 AD. At the "Final Battle of the World War Tour" in Antwerp, the band announced that the album is called 'Carolus Rex' and will be out in May 2012.The band also confirmed their appearance at Graspop Metal Meeting in June 2012.

Current Line-up:
• Joakim Brodén – vocals (1999-), keyboards (1999-2005)
• Pär Sundström – bass (1999-)
• Chris Rörland – guitar (2012-)
• Thobbe Englund – guitar (2012-)
• Robban Bäck – drums (2012-)

Former Members:
• Richard Larsson – drums (1999-2001)
• Rikard Sundén – rhythm/lead guitar, backing vocals (1999-2012)
• Oskar Montelius – lead/rhythm guitar, backing vocals (1999-2012)
• Daniel Mullback – drums, percussion, backing vocals (2001-2012)
• Daniel Mÿhr – keyboards, backing vocals (2005-2012)

Official Website: http://sabaton.net/

MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/sabaton