Performers: Wisdom / Sabaton
Location: Ljubljana / CUK Kino Šiška / Slovenia
Date: Tuesday, 09.02.2016
Through the gates of hell, as we make our way to heaven, through the Nazi lines, Primo Victoria! That line drove the metal world crazy years ago and has pretty much become the anthem of Swedish metallers Sabaton. It’s been 11 years since the album of the same name came out, and they probably never imagined where on the metal map they’d be standing 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 good move, since our eastern neighbors were in great spirits.
Slovenian stages are nothing new to the Hungarians. You could catch them in Tolmin, and almost exactly three years ago, also as Sabaton’s support act. My editor slammed their previous show hard, but luckily I can’t say the same this time. Sure, the power metal Wisdom play isn’t exactly reinventing the wheel, but then again, what new is there left to discover in this genre? More and more bands keep circling around the 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 delivered that in spades. Their entrance onto the stage already showed what a good mood they were in. Smiling and full of energy, they quickly took their positions in front of 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 said goodbye to the mask and explained that right before the show someone had told him it’s Mardi Gras today. Then he quickly served up a joke that maybe he should’ve left it on his face – like Kylo Ren from Star Wars – because he’s so ugly. The power metal party rolled on confidently with songs from that album as well as their previous one, 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 and warmed-up hall gave the band’s stage energy right back and lifted the performance even higher.
What can you write about Sabaton that hasn’t been written already? A tough job, one that somehow seems tougher from gig to gig, yet despite the huge number of shows every single one is still a unique experience. On the current tour the Swedes are still promoting Heroes, released two years ago – we first heard them in Slovenia on this tour 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 slotted perfectly into this war machine under the command of founding members Joakim and Pär. Musically and comedically alike. And laughs are usually what’s never missing from their shows – sometimes there were even too many, at the expense of some poor butchered song. 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 as many as 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 fast and without breaks with songs from the last two albums, and only then did they take a short breather, and Joakim, to the cheers of the older fans especially, said they’d be playing some older songs tonight that they haven’t done in a long time. The first one followed right away: Midway. Next came the first comedy bit, with Joakim starting to whine that he had to go to the bathroom, so the rest of the band chased him off stage while they played and sang, in Swedish of course, Gott Mit Uns. With Joakim back on stage, the hall exploded into the big hit from the latest album, Resist And Bite. Several times the singer mentioned getting goosebumps from the crowd’s response. I’m convinced that a guy who gets such an emotional reaction will give it everything to keep getting that “fix”, and that’s exactly what Sabaton do, which in my humble opinion makes them so damn infectious. 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 caught the bug, of course, and stage and floor felt like one – one giant wave of good energy that nobody wanted to end. The skillful weaving of old hits with newer ones, plus 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 show flew by way too fast, and the area around Kino Šiška didn’t empty out for quite a while after the gig, unlike usual, despite the bad weather.
words: Sebastijan Videc
photos: Jerneja Jerak
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
—encore—
16. Night Witches
17. Primo Victoria
18. Metal Crüe
19. Masters of the World (outro)
