SABATON Bassist Says Fans Shouldn't Expect Any Musical Surprises On 'The Great War' Album

Pär Sundström has confirmed SABATON won’t be changing its sound with the release of the band’s forthcoming studio album, “The Great War”. The Swedish metallers have successfully built a career out of playing anthemic, synth-laden power metal with war concepts and lyrics, and have done little to alter their sound since their 1999 inception. While SABATON does have its share of detractors, they are clearly one of the leading power metal bands worldwide, having recently ascended to headliner status in North America.

In an interview with Metal Casino‘s Marielle Tengström, conducted prior to the band’s May 10 show at Aria Complex in San Gwann, Malta, Sundström and guitarist Tommy Johansson were asked what fans can expect from “The Great War”, which is set for release this summer.

“SABATON is not really super-much changing,” the bassist said (see video below). “There is small evolvement all the time, but I think SABATON‘s core sound remains. It’s not the intention you buy a new SABATON album and you’d be surprised and shocked about something new. It’s more you’re going to get more of the same stuff. If you’re already a fan of SABATON and you buy a SABATON album, you can trust on us that we’re going to continue to deliver the same kind of music that we have been doing for now 20 years. Sure, we are adding and we evolved small things and we’ve become maybe a little bit more varied songwriters, but all in all, it sounds very much like SABATON.”

“On this album, everybody was involved in the songwriting,” added Johansson. “I still believe that as Pär is saying, the sound is very similar to the old SABATON. If you bought ‘Primo Victoria’, then you buy this album, you can still hear it’s SABATON, but as you’re saying, of course, we evolved as musicians, songwriters, but certain elements will always remain. If you like SABATON for certain reasons, we still want to deliver that reason.”

“The Great War” is due July 19 via Nuclear Blast Records. SABATON started recording the disc exactly 100 years after the end of the First World War (November 11, 1918) and took three months of intensive work to complete the album with longtime producer and collaborator Jonas Kjellgren at Black Lounge studios. The effort was mastered by Maor Appelbaum and the artwork was once again created by Peter Sallaí.