Author: Sebastijan Videc
Photos: Jerneja Jerak
Location: Kino Šiška, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Concert date: 09.02.2016
Attendance: 900
Through the gates of hell, as we make our way to heaven, through the Nazi lines, Primo Victoria! That line, which was in English to begin with, drove the metal world nuts years ago and has pretty much become the anthem of Swedish metallers Sabaton. This year marks 11 years since the album of the same name came out, and they probably never pictured where they’d be on the metal map a good decade later. On the first leg of the tour they were joined this time by Hungarian power metallers Wisdom, which turned out to be a very smart move, because our eastern neighbors were in fantastic spirits.
Slovenian stages are nothing new to the Hungarians. They’ve played in Tolmin, and almost exactly three years ago they were here too, also as support for Sabaton. My editor gave their last show a pretty harsh review, but luckily I can’t repeat that this time. Sure, the power metal Wisdom play isn’t exactly reinventing the wheel, but then again, what’s left to discover in this genre? More and more bands are circling the same tried-and-true recipe, young and old alike, established ones too, even the founding acts of the genre, I’d say. But at gigs I’m not looking for quality of music (you can analyze that to death on studio recordings), I’m looking for a quality performance. And Wisdom nailed it. You could tell they were in a great mood from the moment they hit the stage. Smiling and full of energy, they quickly took their positions to a loud crowd, and finally singer Gabor joined them with a mask on his head. After the punchy World of the Free from the current album Marching for Liberty, Gabor ditched the mask and explained that they’d only told him right before the show that today was Mardi Gras. Then he quickly cracked a joke that maybe he should’ve left it on – like Kylo Ren from Star Wars – because he’s so ugly. The power metal party carried on confidently with songs from the aforementioned album as well as their previous record, Judas. And since the band is releasing a new album, Rise of the Wise, at the end of the month, they used this show to promote it and present two new songs. The nicely packed, heated-up hall gave the band’s stage energy right back and made the performance even better.
What can you write about Sabaton that hasn’t been written already? A tough task, one that seems to get tougher from show to show, yet every time, despite the huge number of gigs, it’s still a unique experience. On the current tour the Swedes are still promoting the album Heroes, released two years ago – we first heard them in Slovenia with this material at Metaldays 2014. And yes, this time too they brought ‘Augie’ to Šiška – the drum tank Hannes has been using ever since Heroes came out. And even though the other members have only been in Sabaton for a handful of years, they’ve fit perfectly into this war machine under the command of founding members Joakim and Pär. Musically and comedically. And laughs have usually been a big part of their shows – sometimes, at the expense of some overplayed song, there were even too many. But it has to be said there were far fewer comedy bits than usual (no jokes about Joakim’s penis or his sexual orientation), and on top of that they played a full 17 songs.
The show kicked off the classic way: recordings of Europe’s Final Countdown and March to War as the intro, then an explosive start with Ghost Division. The set rolled on quickly and without breaks with songs from the last two albums, and only then did they take a short breather, with Joakim announcing, mostly to the approval of the older fans, that tonight they’d play some older songs they haven’t done in a long time. The first came right away: Midway. Next came the first comedy bit, when Joakim started whining that he had to go to the bathroom, so the rest of the band chased him off the stage while they played and sang, in Swedish of course, Gott Mit Uns. With Joakim’s return to the stage the hall exploded into the big hit from the latest album, Resist And Bite. The singer mentioned several times that he got goosebumps from the crowd’s reaction; I’m convinced that a guy who gets such an emotional response will give everything to keep getting that »fix«, and that’s exactly what Sabaton do, which, in my humble opinion, makes them so damn contagious. Even if you don’t love the music on first listen, it’s an undeniable fact that few bands on the scene radiate such positive energy, and with such power, as they do. The sold-out hall naturally caught it, and the stage and the floor felt like one – one huge wave of good energy that nobody wanted to end. The clever weaving of old hits with newer ones and everything described above also led to the realization that time isn’t a constant but a relative thing. A good hour and a half of playing flew by way too fast, and the area around Kino Šiška didn’t empty out for quite a while after the show, as it usually does, despite the lousy weather.
Setlist
Wisdom
1. World of the Free
2. War of Angels
3. God Rest Your Soul
4. Somewhere Alone
5. Fallin’ Away From Grace
6. Ravens’ Night
7. Out of Control
8. Live Forevermore
9. Rise of the Wise
10. Take Me to Neverland
Sabaton
1. Final Countdown / The March to War (intro)
2. Ghost Division
3. Far From The Fame
4. Lion From The North
5. Midway
6. Gott Mit Uns
7. Resist And Bite
8. Uprising
9. Carolus Rex
10. Swedish Pagans
11. Soldier of 3 Armies
12. Wolfpack
13. Attero Dominatus
14. Art of War
15. To Hell And Back
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16. Night Witches
17. Primo Victoria
18. Metal Crüe
19. Masters of the World (outro)
Photo Gallery
