SABATON Bassist Says Group Isn't 'Promoting' War: 'It's Not About That; It's History'

Blabbermouth ^ | August 24, 2019 | N/A

[DoodleBob]

SABATON bassist Pär Sundström recently spoke with France's United Rock Nations. The full conversation can be streamed below. A few excerpts follow...

On SABATON's lyrics:

Pär: "War is not really black-and-white. War always has a very gray color, because war is conceived by different sides for whatever [reasons] they have. In all conflicts, there are a lot of losers and a lot of people who have their different inputs and think that, 'We are the good guys. They are the bad.' For SABATON, it's not about taking a stand. We write the songs from different kinds of angles all the time, but they are not our angle. We are not there to say, 'This was right. This was bad.' We are there to tell the story — to retell the story from one side. But they are not our [side]."

On the origins of his interest in military history:

Pär: "Partly, it comes from starting to write about it. I liked history before, and so did Joakim [Brodén, vocals], and the first songs we wrote had no connection to this whatsoever. We were, 'This is no fun to write lyrics for the songs. They don't mean anything. We need to write about something that matters — something that is real.' We started to write about military history, and as time goes, our interest becomes deeper and deeper... We wanted to write about something where everybody has emotions towards. No matter if you have been living in Sweden, who has been neutral — thankfully, we haven't seen war in Sweden for a very long time — but even if you live in Sweden or you live in a war-torn country somewhere in the world, you have a connection to war. War, unfortunately, is something that unites all people."

[CrimsonTidegirl]

Yes, I’ve heard some of Delain’s songs on Spotify and they are also impressive.

I believe that Sabaton would put on an epic live show, as does Nightwish. As you stated, their sound and style hints that they would be an incredible live band.

[Svartalfiar]

If you really want one of their songs that best shows they aren't glorifying war, try their story of Passchendaele:

The Price of a Mile

Six miles of ground has been won
Half a million men are gone

[FreedomPoster]

Sabaton - Winged Hussars
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=75zmIj_4LFQ

Teaching extremely important history with Metal.

[NorthMountain]

Sabaton is excellent.

[Hot Tabasco]

I loved that song