By Mark Gromen

The hyperbolic UK press isn't the only one that can make such pronouncements. There's definitely a global ground swell surrounding SABATON. I've seen it firsthand, taking in shows in five different countries, and the band feels it as well. BraveWords kingpin "Metal" Tim Henderson, more of a thrash-death-black metal guy, thoroughly enjoyed not only the live music, but the ad-libs and self-deprecating sense of humor that's such an integral part of the band onstage.

"There is something going on with Sabaton," agrees bassist/mainman Par Sundström, seated in their tour bus at the Philadelphia stop. "I’m interested to see what’s going (to happen) with the new (Heroes) album. Joakim (Broden, singer) and I did a press tour. Last time it was a couple of cities, but this time, we were in Europe for several days, multiple interviews each day. For instance, in France, the last time Paris was sold out. Lyon was sold out, but it wasn’t the same size as in Germany, so when we talked to the guys at Nuclear Blast, it was, 'What’s going on in France? We need to push that. We need to build that up!' The comparison, when we did Carolus Rex, I did maybe three phoners for all of France, but (this year) Joakim and I went there for two days and probably did 40 interviews. France was just one example: UK, Italy, Spain. Spain is really exploding. All other bands are going down. In 2012, the promoters were saying Sabaton was the most successful band of the year. It’s still well below what we do in Germany, but they believe in us now. It’s easier to get shows now and I’m working far in advance, to fit it in. My schedule is pretty solid and that feels comfortable. At the moment, I know everything we’re going to do until mid-September, 2015! To have that kind of security, at least for the next two years, Sabaton will have food on the table. When things go good, you have to push, so we’ll be in America more.”

Never know what to expect from these guys onstage, as not only are they frequently changing the setlist, but I've witnessed the man with the mic break into a few bars of 'YMCA' (VILLAGE PEOPLE), complete with outstretched arms spelling the title, substitute on guitar while Thobbe Englund left the stage to take a piss, traded his steel-plated flack jacket with a crowd surfing fan at Wacken and ingratiate himself to thousands of Germans via on-the-spot, impromptu adaptation of 'Gott Mit Uns' into the familiar drinking request, 'Noch Eine Bier' (which should be issued as a single in Germany, if management are listening). As to the (sometimes nightly) alterations of the setlist, Sundström admits, "Some songs do belong to certain peoples’ history more than others, but all in all, it’s about the music and a good song is still a good song. For instance, on this tour, we’re playing ’40 To 1’ every night, because it’s a major hit, no matter if there are Polish people in the crowd or not. If we need a fast song, it’s one of our first options, because it’s a great heavy metal tune. We deliver it with a sense of humor because it’s natural. This is not a lie, what we’re doing onstage. If we’d stand there, trying to make impressions of what we sing about: sad and terrible things, that won’t be us. THAT would be dishonest. At first, jumping and singing about terrible things seems weird, but it becomes natural because it’s who we are, our love of the music and our fans."
"Of course, when we are a support band, we have to plan the setlist very carefully. When we tour in Europe, we have a lot of songs and we change it around a lot. There are those bands that believe that the fans, no matter where they are, should get the same experience. (To us,) the same experience doesn’t mean the same songs. The same experience is a good show. In some countries, a good show means we play a particular song, because it’s more popular. We do a lot of research. We keep track of what fans like in different regions and keep in mind what we played on past tours. ‘OK, we played this one here so many times and it’s not really that popular, so we don’t need it on the setlist tonight. We can switch it around, something special for one fan or maybe our fan club comes up with a wish. ‘Can you play something for the Dutch fan club? We are 50 members who all voted to hear one song that your usually don’t play.’ Then we try to fit it in. We can be flexible, because it’s all about giving a good show to people."

Like the History Channel set to music, Heroes mines similar lyrical fields as the half dozen studio recordings that preceded it, namely tales of military exploits. However, this one has a bit of a twist. "Four years ago, we knew we were going to do Heroes," confirms the bearded bassist. "We didn’t have that title, but we had the concept: We’d do something about people, or a small group of people, who put themselves in harms' way, for the good of others.That's the definition of a hero. We wanted to stick around World War II with this concept, because, (otherwise) we’d be digging into things where there’s no facts. If you back off 100 years, there’s just myths and legends: no names. Even in World War I, there's uncertainty. I think that was one of the lessons, 'Let's document things.' At least these people that go to war are remembered and not just buried in mass graves, where nobody remembers the names."

In the past, the Swedes issued an open call for suggestions from fans. Each nationality tended to offer some well known (and in some instances, rarely retold) incident. Sundström is the curator of the ideas, as he explains the unique process in creating a Sabaton album. "I’m the one who collects the ideas and then I sit down with Joakim. ‘We have like 40 ideas…’ Initially, I do most of the research, then in the end, we write the lyrics together. They come from different sources. One or two on this album were inspired from books, or fans who came to explain them to us, but about half the ideas were things I’ve had, or stumbled upon, were sent in by fans or others, ideas I’ve put in my idea box."

Unlike may of their contemporaries, Sabaton create their songs "backwards." Let the four-stringer explain. "Usually the lyrical themes come first, sometimes years in advance, then the song, is solid by itself, a complete (entity). The last part is to try to match the music with the lyrics.” That must be difficult, as ‘Price Of A Mile’ or ‘Final Solution’ can’t be rollicking, fun-loving party anthems. “Some are easy to fit in, like an aggressive one, because the lyrics are going to be that way. Some have to be mellow. It has to match. The way an album is built is we’re always saving ideas, just lyrical themes, not actual lyrics. Joakim writes songs. The main part of it is written at the last minute, but ideas are written over the years. A few weeks before we start to record, we sit down, ‘OK, this lyrical theme is a must for the album, can we fit it (into any of the musical compositions)? Yes. What about this one? Didn’t fit, so we save it for next time.’ It has to fit musically.”

Case in point, the opening 'Night Witches', which retells how Russian women, in out-dated, hand-me-down planes ran bombing missions in defense of their country, early in the war. “It’s one of the oldest stories we’ve had, going back to Coat Of Arms. We already had other flying songs on that (disc), so we put it in the idea box, for the future.There’s a reason that song opens the album: you have the sense that this is Sabaton. We have opened the shows with ‘Ghost Division’ for a long time and ‘Night Witches’ reminds you of that. A lot of people will judge us by this new album. ‘How are Sabaton with the new members?’ They’re going to hear that is similar to ‘Ghost Division’ on speed. It feels comfortable for the fans. It’s not something unexpected. ‘Hell yeah. This is the Sabaton I know. This is what I want to hear, the power and energy that opens the show. It’s a great album opener.”

Delving beyond the lead tracks, discussion turns to 'Resist & Bite': "That has been chosen as the second single. We all feel when we listened to it that it will be a popular song for the crowd. It’s a live song, definitely. It took a while to fit that one in to a lyrical theme. We had the idea about Belgium, but I fell for, when it comes to the story, the small detail. It’s about Belgian soldiers caught on the front line against the entire German army. When they were captured, they were like, ‘Are you joking with us?’ The Germans asked them, ‘Where are the others,’ because they couldn’t believe so few offered such a resistance. The Belgians were just laughing, ‘You just invaded Belgium. There are no other forces where, just us!’ That piece of the story is what captured me. It was difficult to find facts about it, because it’s all in French."

Which isn't to say Sabaton shortcut their responsibilities. Case in point, 'Far From The Fame'. "It was recorded well before Heroes," the bass player reveals. "It was a special tribute song for a Czech fighter pilot who was also doing work in France and Great Britain to get his countrymen up in the air, to be able to fight. We was a great pilot, with dogfighting skills, but his greatest achievement was to form units and regiments who would fly with his countrymen. Potentially World War II would look different, if not for those Czech pilots who were fighting during the Battle Of Britain. The song was written and recorded quite early when we got new band members. We did it in 2012, for the Monsters Of Rock festival, in the Czech Republic. Fans had sent in the idea, over the years, and the (festival) promoter asked, ‘Have you thought about this? If you do it, we can record it and make a music video out of the live performance. It would be special for the fans.’ We thought it made sense. It was played in the Czech Republic and maybe only five times live, so it fit the Heroes album. Only the people on YouTube have seen it. It’s not on Spotify, or anything like that. It’s a great song, so we decided to put it on the album.”

On their initial tour of America, Broden nightly thanked the US military for liberating Europe, 60 something years earlier. Since then, they've received commendations from various fighting forces, but haven't really met any veterans yet. "We were in Warsaw, where we were part of a documentary about the Warsaw Uprising. It was mostly us being silent, and listening. It was exciting to hear their stories and their emotions. So far, it’s only been about World War II in Poland. One of those, was a woman, who spoke fluent Swedish. After the war, she went to Sweden and wrote a book about her experiences. With her, we could have a real conversation. She had already processed it and could therefore speak about it more fluently. The other people, it was much more emotional, for them, to go back."

However, there was some confusion with the Russians, who falsely assumed that a band that sang about 1940s Germany were pro-Nazi. Surprisingly, there has been no blowback or ill-will from Deutschland. While many other countries are represented by songs lauding their warriors, due to historical accuracy, Germans are typically (and rightly so) the "bad guys.“ Regardless, Sabaton are huge in Germany! "Ghost Division is actually a pro-German song," contends Sundström, "but it’s not a pro-Nazi Germany song. It has nothing to do with that. On the new album, there are two songs about Germans (‘No Bullets Fly’ and the album closing ‘Hearts Of Iron’ which tells of a decision to disobey orders of fighting to the death, at the end of the war, thus saving lives). It wasn’t done for ideological or political means, it was done to save human beings,” says Par of the latter track. “This is what my orders are, but fuck that, I go against them because this is what my heart tells me what I should do.’ That’s similar to ‘No Bullets Fly’ also. Both those guys were fighting for Nazi Germany, but what they did had nothing to do with politics.”

As witnessed in my annual pilgrimages overseas, the international metal community is a band of brothers, coming together peacefully, to enjoy music, a drink and some laughs. Sabaton are great ambassadors for the cause.