They sound as awesome as this looks.
Yes.- During Woodstock 2012, which was held in Poland, the band played 40:1 while covering a good part of the crowd under a giant Polish flag
. After the song was over, the whole crowd, with no prompting, sang the Polish national anthem. Manly Tears were shed. - From their 2011 USA tour, a 101st airborne veteran wanted to hear them play "Screaming Eagles." So they did.
- While it would be easy to say 'all of their songs', special mention needs to go out to Ghost Division, Panzerkampf, and Coat of Arms, for being essentially Awesome Music about Crowning Moments of Awesome.
- Any song about a hero or military unit of a particular country when played in that country (e.g. 40:1 or Uprising in Poland or Far From The Fame in Czech Republic and Slovakia) usually fire up the crowd's enthusiasm higher.
- The ending of Long Live The King. After a terrific chorus and absolutely epic solo, Joakim delivers the Badass Boast to end all boasts before the final chorus.For their honor!
For their glory!
For the men who fought and bled!
A soldier from Sweden remembers the dead! - The entirety of In the Name of God. The righteous fury has to be heard to be appreciated.
- To whit, it's chewing out terrorists for their cowardly tactics and threatenening to destroy all they hold dear in revenge.Captured in all your lies, fear is in your eyes!
Creature who's gone insane, your war is in vain!
Trapped in a cage of stone, we'll destroy your home!
Consequence of your actions!
- To whit, it's chewing out terrorists for their cowardly tactics and threatenening to destroy all they hold dear in revenge.
- There were originally three Sabaton songs that are about a specific person. Two (Lion from the North and Carolus Rex) are about Swedish kings. The third, White Death, is about some Finnish woodsman.
- You're in the sniper's sight,
the first kill tonight
Time to die
You're in the bullet's way,
The White Death's prey
Say goodbye!
- There are now TEN, with seven on the album Heroes.
- The fourth is Inmate 4859, which is about Witold Pilecki.
- The fifth is To Hell and Back, about some short soldier from Texas.
- The sixth is The Ballad of Bull, which is about Leslie 'Bull' Allen, an Australian who was awarded the American Silver Star for rescuing 12 wounded Allied soldiers during a Japanese assault in Papua New Guinea
- The seventh is Soldier of 3 Armies which is about Lauri Törni who fought for the Finnish Army, German Army AND The United States Army.
- The eighth is Far from the Fame, is about Karel Janoušek, leader of Czechoslovakian Forces in the RAF, and marshal of Czechoslovakia.
- The ninth is No Bullets Fly which is about German fighter pilot Franz Stigler who, instead of shooting down a damaged B17 after a bomb raid, escorted it out of the killzone. In doing so, he put his life on the line in three different ways: Being shot down by friendly fire, by the gunners of the B17 and being court martialed for treason.
- The tenth is Smoking Snakes, is about Arlindo Lúcio da Silva, Geraldo Baeta da Cruz and Geraldo Rodrigues de Souza – 3 Brazilian Expeditionary Force soldiers who became separated from their unit and fought a large contingent of Germans in Italy on 14 April 1945. Refusing surrender, they fought to their deaths and were buried with full honors by the Germans, who placed a cross over their graves with the inscription Drei brasilianische Helden (Three Brazilian Heroes). So awesome is the song that it's now played on Victory Day by the Brazilian Army Band.
- It's songs about people: Last Dying Breath off of The Last Stand is about Dragutin Gavrilović, who is remembered in Serbian history books for his dramatic order to his troops issued on October 7, 1915, the first day of the defense of Belgrade against the Austro-Hungarian and German attack during the First World War.
- Make that fifteen songs about people with The Great War.
- Seven Pillars of Wisdom is about T. E. Lawrence, and talks about the Arab revolt Lawrence wrote about.
- 82nd All The Way is about Sergeant Alvin C. York and his Medal of Honor action.
- The Red Baron is about Manfred von Richthofen, a German ace fighter pilot who flew a distinct red plane and was feared and respected by the Allied air forces.
- A Ghost in the Trenches is about Francis Pegahmagabow, a Canadian First Nations soldier who was the most effective scout and sniper in World War I.
- The chorus of Panzerkampf, wherein the Soviets are prepared to charge against the superior trained and equipped Nazi army with all their patriotic fury. Not only does it easily pump you up, but it shows the Soviets finally standing up to an enemy that was once unbeatable.
- The end of the third Reich draws near
Its time has come to an end
The end of an era is here
It's time to attack!
Into the motherland the German army march
Comrades stand side by side to stop the Nazi charge
Panzers on Russian soil a thunder in the east
One million men at war
Soviet wrath unleashed!
- The third verse contains some of the most badass lines in Sabaton's history.
- Union [Slopes Of St.Benedict] commemorates the Western Allies struggling against the German Army during the invasion of Italy (specifically the Battle of Monte Cassino). It emphasizes the Band of Brothers nature of the Allied Forces and how they will triumph despite the immense difficulties ahead and how the tide of the war is finally turning in the Allies' favor. It's especially poignant since the song it's paired with is considerably more depressing, and details the infamously brutal, and ultimately futile Battle of Passchendaele. Monte Cassino's conditions were rather similar to Passchendaele, but the Allies were ultimately victorious, meaning that the sacrifice the soldiers made ultimately lead to victory in the end.
- Aces In Exile celebrates the foreign pilots who fought the Axis in the Battle Of Britain. Notably, the chorus changes 2 lines each time to remember a different nation. Sadly, they only have enough time to commemorate three nations:
- Fighter pilots in exile, fly over foreign land
Let their story be heard, tell of 303rd
Fighter pilots from Poland in the battle of Britain
Guarding the skies of the isle
Fighter pilots in exile, fly over foreign land
Tell their story again, tell of 310
Men from Czechoslovakia in the battle of Britain
Guarding the skies of the isle
Fighter pilots in exile, fly over foreign land
When the battle is won, tell of 401
Fighter pilots from Canada in the battle of Britain
Guarding the skies of the isle
- The spoken bridge in Killing GroundSee the Caroleans standing tall;
All for one and one for all!
Enemies fall at their feet,
Begging for their mercy.
See the Caroleans standing tall
Conquer land and slaughter all!
Enemies fall at their feet
Victory and great defeat... - Joakim Brodén has described the song Smoking Snakes as "the most Sabaton song ever" and "Sabaton on steroids". It shows.Rise from the blood of your heroes!
You, were the ones who refused to surrender!
The 3, rather died than to flee!
Know that your memory!
Will be sung for a century!
Sent overseas to be cast into fire
Fought for a purpose with pride and desire
Blood of the brave they would give to inspire
Cobras fumantes, your memory lives! - The main chorus of their song, Winged Hussars from their 2016 album The Last Stand has this:Desperation, desperation
It's a desperate race against the mine
And a race against time
THEN THE WINGED HUSSARS ARRIVED!
COMING DOWN FROM MOUNTAINSIDE! - The Last Battle from The Last Stand, which may have topped Smoking Snakes for sheer awesomeness (and what it's about is incredibly heartwarming):5th of May, V day is just around the corner
1945 the Fuhrer reign is at its end
Jenny at the gates, as the SS open fire
There's no time to waste, the final battle has begun
After the downfall, a castle besieged
Facing the Nazis awaiting relief
Gangl and Lee and their men set the prisoners free
An it's the end of the line of the final journey
Enemies leaving the past
And it's American troops and the German army
Joining together at last
One last fight, it's the death throes of the 3rd Reich
Justice shall be done, the final battle remains
Ammo is running low, they're depleting their machine guns
Every bullet counts until surrender is announced
After the downfall, a castle relieved
Defeating the Nazis who held them besieged
Gangl and Lee and their men set the prisoners free- The subject matter is incredibly awesome, as well. A motley crew of American infantrymen, a Wehrmacht Defector from Decadence regiment, a Waffen SS officer who said 'Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!' in the eleventh hour of the war, and an Austrian resistance member united under one banner to invite the wrath of a Waffen SS garrison and free a number of political prisoners from France and all over Eastern Europe. Despite having a fifth or less of the trained combatants their enemy had, and total manpower barely equal to their enemy's by an optimistic estimate, they held Castle Itter, in Austria, against a force of 150+ Waffen SS troopers until another, larger American unit arrived to relieve them. All told, the defenders of the castle lost only their Wehrmacht commander, Major Josef Gangl, in a Heroic Sacrifice to ensure a former French Prime Minister would survive the fight, and in return took a whopping one hundred Waffen SS prisoners.
- The Last Stand, also from the eponymous album, deserves a mention as well. The song tells of the Stand of the Swiss Guard during the Sack of Rome in 1527. After a massive Habsburg-affiliated mercenary force brought by Charles III of Bourbon to negotiate with the Vatican went berserk upon finding itself a living and very angry aversion of a Decapitated Army thanks to an overzealous local goldsmith, the Swiss Guard pulled a Heroic Sacrifice nearly to a man in order to save the Pope from these now-aimless mercenary raiders by escorting him to a secret escape route and setting up a diversion. The Swiss Guard being mercenaries themselves, one has to respect their commitment to duty in their willingness to march to certain death to buy time for their contractor to escape. Not for nothing were the Swiss considered the finest mercenaries in the world. The epically hammy closing version of the chorus, used as a teaser on the videos for the album's singles, does the affair justice.IN THE NAME OF GOD!
For the grace, for the might of our Lord!
For the home of the holy!
For the faith, for the way of the sword!
Gave their lives so boldly!
For the grace, for the might of our Lord!
In the name of His glory!
For the faith, for the way of the sword!
Come and tell their story!
Gave their lives so boldly!
Come and tell the Swiss Guards' story again! - Night Witches about the famous all-woman 588th bomber regiment, begins with the band turning the opening lyrics into an epic chant. It gets better than there, with the Night Witches being depicted as actual witches able to appear out of nowhere, bombing the Nazis and their allies into oblivion, untouched by flak or enemy pilots. Unlike most of their songs, this song is extremely fast and features lots of crashing drums, representing the Night Witches' ability to strike fast and hard in their obsolete but utterly lethal PO-2 biplane bombers.Beneath the starlight of the heavens
Unlikely heroes in the skies
(Witches to attack, witches coming back)
As they appear on the horizon
The wind will whisper when the night witches come! - Bismarck about the titular ship, KMS Bismarck. Sabaton definitely did not fail in bringing to light just how absolutely terrifying of a beast the Bismarck was in the eyes of the British fleet. Amptly referring it as the Terror of the Seas, it really does paint it as an absolutely frightening figure who the British was right to send everything they got at it.PRIDE OF A NATION, A BEAST MADE OF STEEL!
BISMARCK IN MOTION, KING OF THE OCEAN!
He was made to rule the waves across the seven seas
To lead the war machine
To rule the waves and lead the Kriegsmarine
The terror of the seas
The Bismarck and the Kriegsmarine!! - Manowar Rage Quit from their headlining gig at Hellfest 2019. Sabaton gamely stepped in, despite the fact they'd 1) played an hour and a half set for the festival's second night that had finished at 2AM that morning, and 2) Joakim had worn out his voice singing it. Chris and Tommy traded off on lead vocalist duties, while Joakim cued the crowd and then ate dinner onstage with members of the band's road crew.
- The Great War
- "Fields of Verdun" is about the French resistance at the Battle of Verdun, which lasted 303 days. The cry of "On ne passe pas!" (They shall not pass!) became a rallying cry for France. The lyrics of the song highlight how utterly terrifying it was for the French soldiers, and yet they kept fighting.
- Devil Dogs is about the United States Marine Corps earning their nickname at the Battle of Belleau Wood, since the German soldiers on the other side compared the Marines to hellhounds. The bombastic lyrics also include one of the few curse words in Sabaton's library, quoted from First Sergeant Dan Daly, a recipient of two Medals of Honor: "Come on, you sons of bitches! Do you want to live forever!?"
- "Attack of the Dead Men" is this combined with real-life Nightmare Fuel. Osowiec Fortress was bombarded with chlorine gas that burned the Russian defenders from the inside out, burning their eyes out as well. Only a hundred survived. The majority of them were burned, crying tears of blood and being all limping from the effects of the gas. All of them countercharge the German attack, looking very much like zombies. There were 7000 Germans marching on the fortress. Every single one of those who survived seeing this decide to fall back to their starting point.
- From a comment on this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqGTCR0a3HwKarl "Krazy" AbrahamsonJoakim is more than a singer. Its taken me a long time to figure out how to express it, and I'm sure I'm not the first. He's a story teller, like folk singers of a generation ago, or bards of old. Its more than just being able to compose a lyric and sing the words, and make the lyric be in service to the song. No, he makes the song serve the words he is saying. Closer to an accompanied poet, but still makes the meaning cut through without breaking the song. Sure there is the accent, the language, but even still, his is a voice that commands attention, and he doesn't need to show off to do it.
- Yet another joint one between them and Radio Tapok. In 2020, Radio Tapok made a song in his native Russian In the Style of Sabaton called Битва за Москву (Battle for Moscow). Dedicated to the soldiers who fought to defend Moscow from the Wehrmacht during World War II. In 2021, Sabaton released a cover of the song in English. The Sabaton version even incorporates the tune from the Russian National Anthem in the guitar solo!
- "The Unkillable Soldier" tells the story of Adrian Carton de Wiart, a soldier who served in the British army during the Second Boer War and both World Wars, and was notable for sustaining a truly astonishing number of serious wounds, only to return to the front as soon as he recovered. his first major injuries involved being shot in the face twice, blinding him in one eye, and costing him part of his ear. He served in several infamous battles including the Somme and Passchendaele, where he would be shot in the head again as well as in the hip and ankle. He would later be shot through the leg at Cambrai and the ear at Arras (making this his fourth time shot in the head and living). He Lost his hand in 1915, going so far as to remove his own fingers after the doctor refused to amputate them. He would also end up surviving two plane crashes and tunnelling his way out of a POW camp. He returned to battle each time. He later wrote in his memoirs that he enjoyed the war.At the edge of madness, in a time of sadness
An immortal soldier finds his home!
Proven under fire, over trench and wire
No fear of death he’s unshakeable!- Further taken up to eleven by this orchestral arrangement, which incorporates the haunting sound of the otherwise Irish uilleann pipes to excellently reflect Carton de Wiart's military background.
- Further taken up to eleven by this orchestral arrangement
- "Dreadnought" really does justice to just how imposing the WW1 Dreadnoughts were in battle, portraying them as unstoppable forces of destruction that dominate the battlefield, striking fear into all who oppose them.Unopposed under crimson skies
Immortalized, over time their legend will rise
And their foes can’t believe their eyes, believe their size, as they fall
And the Dreadnoughts dread nothing at all! - "Race to The Sea" is the song of the humble Belgians going to war to uphold their independence because they refused the Germans' request to march through their land to attack France, and the Germans invaded in retaliation. They got battered, broken, beaten, and pushed to a small sliver of their lands, but never defeated. And what makes the Belgians stand out in their contribution to the Great War is that their king, Albert I, stood with them. He took command of the army in accordance with their constitution and he fought on the frontlines at the Battle of Yser. He earned the nickname "Solder-King" or "Knight-King" by his peers.See a King and a soldier
Fighting shoulder to shoulder
He overruled his commanders
He made a last stand in Flanders
See a King and a soldier
Fighting shoulder to shoulder
To keep the last piece of Belgium free!- The chorus really highlights the bravery of the soldier too and highlights the importance of their triumph both for Belgium and for the Allied Front.
All the way, until triumph or till judgement day,
we shall follow, and we shall not be lead astray!
For king and for country
we are flooding the river!
Our stand at Yser will be
the end of the Race to the Sea!
The last piece of Belgium's free!
We're keeping a sliver!
A cog in the war machine!
October of 1914! - "Lady of the Dark" delves into a relatively obscure, but very noteworthy combatant of World War I, and, in Sabaton's case, a very rare subject of discussion: a Serbian HEROINE. Milunka Savić is the single-most decorated woman in the history of warfare, who chose to dress as a man and go to war in the place of her brother. By the time an injury caused for her true gender to be revealed, she had become a highly-valuable soldier, and requested of her commanding officer to stay, willing to wait in place for his decision rather than leave. Her story, and the song, can be watched here.
- "Hellfighters" tells the tale of the 369th Infantry Regiment "Harlem Hellfighters", a mainly black and hispanic military unit that served with distinction during the Argonne Offensive. The military was originally reluctant to accept black recruits due to the intense and ubiquitous racial prejudice of the time. Their doubts would soon prove completely unfounded as the Hellfighters turned out to be highly capable fighters who served with distinction in some of the harshest conditions any American regiment would face during the war, ultimately earning the moniker "Hellfighters" for both the conditions they faced, and for their sheer determination and fighting capabilities, known for having never lost any ground during the whole offensive nor having any prisoners taken note . Their distinguished service is commonly cited as a huge turning point for the perception of African Americans in the military.Hear the toll of the bell, over 6 months in hell
Out of the trenches they came
As the war rages on, at the edge of the Argonne
Hellfighters earning their name - A rather hilarious example, but "Screaming Eagles" incorporates the very response given by General McAuliffe of the 101st Airborne Division (their nickname of which the song gets its title from) during the Siege of Bastogne, when two blindfolded German officers of the Panzer-Lehr requested that the Americans surrender:
- There are many notable differences that one will find when comparing "The Royal Guard" to "Livgardet" (its original Swedish version), but many of them are great examples of how close to the original the band wanted their translation to be.
- "Livgardet"'s intro has a choir singing the chorus to the song, accompanied by a Holy Pipe Organ. "The Royal Guard" starts with that, too, but as a killer Rock Opera-esque instrumental re-arrangement with the melody brilliantly played on an Air Guitar.
- This part of verse one:
Swedish version: Descended from only sixteen men, the Kingdom's oldest military unit,
A time of war
English version: Trace their roots from sixteen strong, by their King, where they belong,
En tid av krignote- The chorus:
Swedish version: Shoulder to shoulder, the life guard marches, fighting for our country's Father,
A five-hundred-year-long dedicated service,
From the march across the Belts, the battle at Lund, to the fields of Narva,
They follow in the footsteps of heroes
English version: For the Swedish crown, they stand, by the King, at his command
Five hundred years for the Fatherland,
Marching across the Belt, crushing blow at Narva dealt,
Livgardet, our Royal Guard - What? No love for Steel Commanders?! It starts with a flashback to an old battlefield in Europe before the spirit of the knight possesses a variety of tanks throughout history. And with all the blasting riffs and drums, it's a sight to behold.
- Fittingly for the first song of their Heroes Of The Great War album, the song The First Soldier tells the tale of Albert Severin Roche. The lone survivor of an attack that killed everyone in his trench and with the German line approaching, Albert sprinted back and forth within the trench, collecting the weapons of his fallen comrades and firing them at the approaching line from various points within the trench. In this manner, Albert was able to single-handedly force the advancing German line to retreat back across No Man's Land.
