HeavyMetal.dk recently caught up with Sabaton frontman Joakim Brodén and discussed the band's latest album, The Great War, as well as the band's focus on historical events in their songwriting.

On accusations of being Nazi supporters:

"The first time was when we released Primo Victoria. It was banned in Germany because the first song, the intro was 'Through the gates of hell, as we make our way to heaven, through the Nazi lines..." And basically we had the word 'Nazi' in the intro. We had to send the lyrics for the whole album and they passed the censorship, so it was released and then the record label told us, 'For the next album, whatever you do, don't put the word 'Nazi' in the intro.' So we did it in the first verse instead. 

We have also been banned. We were supposed to play on the 70th anniversary of the Battle Of Stalingrad in Volgograd, and they renamed the city for that day to Stalingrad again, and we were banned. We were booked to play, but a local politician saw 'The Ghost Division' and thought, 'These guys must be Nazis,' and lifted our visas so we couldn't go into the country."

Sabaton have released an official lyric video for "A Ghost In The Trenches", featured on their album, The Great War.

Historic Fact: First Nations’ scout and marksman Francis “Peggy” Pegahmagabow, credited with killing 378 Germans and capturing 300 more, was one of Canada’s most decorated soldiers and the deadliest sniper of World War I. He earned his notoriety in the Second Battle of Ypres where he established his reputation as a sniper and scout infiltrating German trenches, the Second Battle of Passchendaele when he led a lost battalion of reinforcements into position, and the Battle of the Scarpe when he braved heavy machine gun fire to resupply his company with enough ammunition to hold their defensive position. Francis enlisted in August 1914 and stayed until after the war ended in 1919 effectively serving and surviving the entire war before returning home.