25 Years Of SABATON - The War To End All Wars: "We Hadn't Originally Planned To Make A Second Concept Album About World War 1"

October 3, 2024, 2 months ago

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25 Years Of SABATON - The War To End All Wars: "We Hadn't Originally Planned To Make A Second Concept Album About World War 1"

Internationally acclaimed heavy metallers, Sabaton, are celebrating their 25-year milestone in the music industry.

Founded in Falun, Sweden, in 1999, Sabaton's journey has been nothing short of legendary. Their music industry adventures have been fuelled by powerful anthems, 10 studio albums, passionate historical storytelling, and explosive international shows and tours, not to mention out-of-the-box initiatives and projects, all of which wouldn’t have been possible without the unwavering support of their dedicated fan base across the globe.

To mark this momentous milestone, Sabaton have embarked on a year-long celebration. Fans around the world can look forward to a series of celebratory events and an abundance of surprises.

They have checked in with the following update:

"Throughout October, we’ll be shining the light on our most recent studio album, The War To End All Wars, which dropped on March 4, 2022! Since January of this year, we’ve dedicated a month to celebrating each of our studio albums chronologically, and now, we’re on the last one! Who would have thought that 10 months would fly by so quickly? Stay tuned for our album story, song facts, listening parties, games, giveaways and much, much more! But before all of that, make sure you listen to the album to get in the spirit of things! Click here.

Did you know that in March 2020 Joakim and Chris went into isolation for two weeks in the Sabaton warehouse in Falun? They stockpiled food and booze, and many writing sessions were held during that time! A large part of The War To End All Wars was created then and there!"

Following is an excerpt from the story behind The War To End All Wars:

"We hadn’t originally planned to make a second concept album about World War 1. It sort of organically happened because we had so many inspiring stories we wanted to tell that hadn’t been told on The Great War. How could we not tell the mind-blowing story of the Christmas truce of 1914? The story of the Battle of Doiran? The story of the race to the sea or the Harlem Hellfighters? We simply had to compose the music and convey the right emotions for these historical moments and figures. We also had new stories we wanted to write songs about, such as Milunka Savić’s inspirational tale, or White Friday!

We began recording the album in January 2021 and there could be no more than two people in the studio at a time because of COVID restrictions. This made it impossible for the whole band to be together during the process. The real challenge was recording the choirs, because, as you can imagine, there are more than two people in a choir! We finally managed to conclude all of the recordings in March 2021, and the mastering of the album was completed in May 2021. If it were possible, Joakim would have released the album the day after we concluded it, but unfortunately the music industry doesn’t work like that, so he had to wait a whole year until we could unleash it. To say he thought that was a drag is a complete understatement!

Now it’s time for one of our fun facts! Did you know that the artwork for The War To End All Wars is a continuation of the artwork concept from the previous release? On the cover of The Great War, struggle and suffering can be seen in the physical world, while death and the end of an era can be seen in the sky. The opposite sentiment is presented in the cover art of The War To End All Wars. Death and destruction appear in the physical world, while in the spiritual world (the sky), fighting is eternal and has no end date. The visionary artist who designed these, Peter Sallai, loves to place subliminal messages in his creations. We absolutely love working with him as he always gets it spot on!"

Read the full story here.


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