It’s that time again! As is typical, July was more lean than previous months, but there was still plenty to check out!
10. TraumeR – History
Even though it’s already been out in Japan for just over a year, TraumeR’s third record, History, is finally ready to be heard by the international power metal community. While it doesn’t venture too far from the power metal norm, History will still be a hit for any fan of the genre. Soaring vocal lines, tight rhythm section, fast-paced double kicks; at the end of the day, these are the things that are looked for in a power metal album, and on this front, TraumeR deliver.
If you haven’t already listened to The Fire, then I’ll give you the following advice: start with the third track, and then come back to listen to the first two if you so desire. Seriously. I nearly gave up on this album because the first two songs are pretty rough. However, the other eight songs are really good, so I’m glad I gave the rest a chance.
Mind of Fury is a heavy metal band from the US with a brand of metal that is a solid mixture between catchy hard rock hooks, fast-paced power metal beats, and a classic metal aesthetic that gives the whole thing a gritty, rugged feel. There’s a really good amount of variety among the tracklist, including a phenomenal instrumental, ‘The Champion’. It’s also worth mentioning that there are only single-tracked guitars, so the bass actually has to hold the foundation during solos (which are fucking awesome, by the way), which it does very well.
8. Velesar – Dziwadla
It’d been a while since I’d heard a really good folk metal album, so you can imagine my excitement when I first heard Velesar’s debut a couple weeks ago. Dziwadla incorporate various European folk melodies into its three main leads: throaty vocals, flute, and violin. The backing guitars and drums keep the energy flowing. This is by no means a unique folk metal makeup, but the execution and songwriting keep Velesar fresh and well above other bands in the space.
7. Valis Ablaze – Render
Valis Ablaze’s sophomore record Render is primarily made up of groovy riffs and fluid pop-punk vocals. You’d be hard-pressed to find a passage that isn’t driven by some intricate 16th-note groove, so if you’re a fan of bouncy, djenty prog metal that you can feel in your stomach, this one’s definitely for you.
While Render‘s sound isn’t necessarily unique, Valis Ablaze offer a certain intensity that separates them from the crowd. This is a kickass album that demands the listener to move with it.
6. Mind Key – Mk III – Aliens in Wonderland
After a decade of absence, Mind Key’s comeback album is a prog metal powerhouse. Mk III – Aliens in Wonderland is full of power metal and 80s pop influences, making the album’s music as pleasingly colourful as its album artwork. Mind Key also favour a clear, cohesive sound over too much flare, which allows for a steady balance throughout the album.
The third album by war metal warriors Desert is a harsh attack of heavy/power metal. With the highlight of this record being the incredible guitarwork, the rhythm section has nearly as much to offer in terms of ferocity. Fortune Favors the Brave manages to legitimately earn the title of “war metal” through a unique, raw sound that’s driven by a huge guitar sound, clashing riffs, and badass lead vocals that push the music with backbreaking force.
4. Turilli / Lione Rhapsody – Zero Gravity (Rebirth and Evolution)
Zero Gravity (Rebirth and Evolution) is the latest brainchild of the aforementioned multi-instrumentalist and composer, Luca Turilli. As such, it’s (as expected) full of cinematic orchestrations, destructive synth lines, huge riffs, and vibrant arrangements. Oh, and we can’t forget about those ridiculous, facemelting, virtuoso guitar solos. Along with Turilli’s magic fingers and Lione’s pipes, Zero Gravity also features other members of the Rhapsody universe: guitarist Dominique Leurqui, drummer Alex Holzwarth, and bassist Patrice Guers. These Rhapsody-ers, with all of their combined might, have created a monster of an album.
These next three albums took longer to figure out that the entire rest of the list. So, rather than read them “3, 2, 1”, it’s actually something closer to “1.3, 1.2, 1.1”.
That’s the same thing, you say? Whatever. Just know that they’re all really close in ranking.
3. Control the Storm – Forevermore
Forevermore came way the fuck out of nowhere this month. I was actually in the middle of making this list when I chanced upon it, and I had to bump another album off. But you don’t care about any of that; you just care whether or not it’s worth listening to.
And, let me assure you, this album is incredible: female-fronted power metal at its finest. Behind the versatile lead vocals, orchestrations, keys, and vocal harmonies fill the spaces, alongside a killer rhythm section. The arrangements are dynamic and exceptionally written and, if that isn’t enough for you, the guitar solos are just ridiculous. If you haven’t heard of them before, you need to go listen to Control the Storm’s stuff right now.
Legends of Human Spirit is probably the strongest power metal debut of the entire year. It’s insanelyfast, vibrant, true power metal to the core. It’s really as simple as that. ShadowStrike, hailing from New York, have busted out of the gate with a DragonForce-influenced sound that manages to steer clear of being too derivative, delivering a unique, shredtastic album.
Part of the driving force of this individuality is the band’s tasteful use of symphonic elements (I would never consider this album “symphonic metal”, though) as well as sophisticated song arrangements. With nothing short of excellent on the record, ShadowStrike have quickly become one of my favourite power metal bands, ever.
Amidst the salvo of excellent albums this month, Sabaton’s The Great War stands above the rest. While I did only score this album an 8.5 (mostly because of some reusage of older material that’s typical of Sabaton), for myself, this album is a 10; it’s everything I want in a Sabaton album, plus more. On top of that, compared to any other album on this list, it’s the one I’ll relisten to the most.
With ten pounding, ultra-anthemic heavy metal tracks and a beautiful choral closer, there’s a fair amount of variety (by Sabaton’s standards, anyway) that will especially please the diehard fan. There’s also a hefty dose of epic choirs, as well as some classical details that add some sophistication to the album. Combine this all with the best drumming that’s ever been seen in a Sabaton record and you’ve got yourself a seriously strong album of the month!
Let me know if one of your favourites didn’t make the cut. Maybe I missed it!
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“[M]e losing my voice after three songs, giving the guys lyric sheets, and Tommy and Chris taking over and singing the show. . . So, fucking proud to play with guys who can handle a thing like that and still get the vibe for a Sabaton show.”
With less than a month to go before the hotly-anticipated ninth studio album from Swedish metal icons Sabaton, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to interview Joakim Brodén, the frontman whose powerful vocals are as iconic as the band itself, to discuss the band’s upcoming North American tour, The Great War, and just to pick his brain a bit.
Kane: Hello Joakim! How are you doing today?
Joakim Brodén: Hello! I’m great. How are you?
I’m very well, thanks. I’m psyched to be able to talk with you. I’m a huge fan, obviously, but who isn’t these days?
J: [laughs] Well, I wish even more people liked us!
So this has been an eventful year for Sabaton. You’ve launched Sabaton History Channel, The Great War is almost out, you’re in the midst of festival season. Have you had any free time to yourself?
J: Not really! You know, maybe an hour here or a day there, but that’s about it. Having time off, one day is really nice and during the second day, halfway though it I’m really bored. I don’t know what to do.
You’re obviously committed to the lifestyle, then.
J: Absolutely. I love it.
Do you feel that you’re still growing as a musician?
J: Yeah! I mean, I’m lucky. I never planned to be a singer, and I started singing when I came into the band, so [laughs] it’s a lucky chance. You know, like, I’m also in that golden position where I don’t really sing extremely high. I go pretty high in a breast voice/full range voice point of view but I’m not going to have to worry about getting old and losing my falsetto.
Absolutely. You know, twenty years is a long time to spend on the scene. How have you seen the metal scene change since you started Sabaton?
J: Oh, it’s getting better these days, I’d say. Metal is getting bigger in general, more acceptance, I guess, and also I think that the last couple five or six years have been really good. All of a sudden we see lots of newer, younger bands coming up, which is sort of, yeah, I really love it actually. Because from our time there aren’t that many, you know. Most of the metal bands that came out were either before us, and then only a few around the same time as we, but now it seems to be exploding, which is really nice, I think.
It seems like new quality bands spring up kind of every year now, which is great to see.
J: Yes.
Now, I don’t want to beat you over the head with questions you’ve answered a million times but, of course, I have to ask you about the new album, so what do you think separates The Great War from other Sabaton albums?
J: Well, I can’t say “war” because almost all of them are about war. However, I don’t know. It’s very much a Sabaton album and by that means it sounds like every Sabaton album. But, you know, there is some sense of evolution from previous albums. We always had that. We never made huge steps, you know, between one album to the next, really. If you listen to, well, Heroes and then after that The Last Stand, which would be the two previous ones, you can hear some differences but it’s not gonna be a huge step. However, if you listen to, well, The Great War now and listen to the Metalizer album that we recorded in 2001 or 2002, there’s a huge difference. [laughs] So, um, yeah, a bit darker, a bit more atmospherical, I guess, this one, considering the topic of the album.
Yeah, I’ve definitely noticed that, compared to The Last Stand especially, where it was a lot more victorious and heroic, the overall mood in The Great War seems to be a bit darker and almost dooming.
J: Oh, yeah, in a sense it’s natural. I mean, it’s not like we planned for it. When we go into songwriting mode, I guess, we don’t ever plan, “let’s go harder”, “let’s go more cheerful”, “let’s go darker”, “let’s go softer”, you know, or faster or slower. It’s all about, well, two things, really. Writing as good a song as we possibly can, and making sure the music connects with the stories in as good a way as possible for us. So, with having the Great War in mind when writing the music it obviously affected the songwriting.
Right. Do you have any interesting stories from when you were recording the album?
J: Oh, well, there’s so many [laughs]. Nothing fantastic because, I mean, it was kind of difficult to write it. You know, every album you make it becomes harder and harder. How do you keep the band’s identity, you know, how do you keep it sounding like a Sabaton album, and at the same time progress? Or, develop in some way, at least? And, I do that and a lot of fans do that all the time. When you hear a new album, you compare it to not only to one or the other album, but a whole Greatest Hits of the that band’s previous releases. So, the songwriting was really tough on this one, because, basically, performance anxiety, but also the topic itself. It’s not a nice place to be, to be researching the Great War constantly. Obviously, when you’re doing something like Heroes or The Last Stand, it’s still of military conflict and people are dying, but you’re looking for something to celebrate, only by choice of topic. However, here, yeah, it’s a bit darker. But the studio recording itself was so smooth and fast it’s. . . I’m gonna give you a pretty boring answer. It’s pretty uneventful! [laughs]
I understand that the whole band was more involved in the making of this album compared to previous ones. Did that make the writing process easier or harder?
J: Easier, absolutely. Up until 2010, no, up until Carolus Rex, actually, I was the only songwriter who wrote Sabaton songs. Not by choice, but now, finally, we have some other guys in the band who are used to writing music and are actually quite good at it. It’s a really nice feeling.
Was every song in The Great War written specifically for the album or was there some old stuff that you brought up and refined and released?
J: Well, I always have old stuff lying around. If the song was ever not good enough, it will never good enough, so that gets basically deleted from the possibility pile. However, there’s always a few songs that I didn’t finish before. I’d rather not finish a song than completing it and having it not reach it’s potential or my potential in my mind, at least. So there were one of those, actually; the song ‘Attack of the Dead Men’ was started by me and Chris back in 2013 for the Heroes album. We just couldn’t get that prechorus right at all so we halted it. We revisited it again for The Last Stand, and we couldn’t finish it, so we revisited it again now, and, oh!, we finally managed to finish it. Then we had the song ‘A Ghost in the Trenches’ which was written with Tommy. That was way before the album, or before we entered songwriting mode, anyway. We started that in late 2017/early 2018. Tommy had been in the band for a while and, even though we knew he could write songs, we didn’t know if him and I could write songs together or if we could get something sounding Sabaton out of it. And, it turns out, we could! [laughs] So that one was written also in advance. Other than that, they’re all pretty much custom composed for the topic at hand.
It’s funny you mention those two tracks because those are both my favourites from the album. I notice they’re a little more unique for a Sabaton album. I mean, they still sound completely Sabaton but they’re more unique than maybe ’82nd All the Way’ or ‘Devil Dogs’.
J: Yeah, especially ‘Attack of the Dead Men’ is pretty damn different.
So, shifting gears a little bit, how is festival season going for you guys so far?
J: Pretty good. We had to do an extra fill in in Hellfest, which we weren’t supposed to play at, but I lost my voice and we had the guitarists singing. Other than that, it’s fine.
I would definitely think that’s one of the lower points, but any highlights?
J: Highlights. . . I would say, that one was a highlight, in a way. See, me losing my voice after three songs, giving the guys lyric sheets, and Tommy and Chris taking over and singing the show and me joining in the party whenever I could, so, fucking proud to play with guys who can handle a thing like that and still get the vibe for a Sabaton show. So yeah, I would say, at the same time it was a low point but also a high point. And, I mean, we played Graspop two days ago. Absolutely amazing festival.
It’s a good thing Tommy has those power metal chops!
J: Yes!
Will you have a lot of downtime before your North American tour this Fall?
J: A bit, actually. I know it’s not full now but it will be, anyway. September isn’t that busy yet but, if I know my dear friend and colleague Par, correctly, slowly but surely it’ll fill up. That’s usually how it goes: “Ok, let’s save some time here so we get that time off” and then that’s the time when you have to do all of the other things that you don’t have time to do when you’re touring, so [laughs] you end up going at it anyway!
I’m sure many of us in North America are wondering, is there anything you specifically like or dislike about touring here?
J: Well, I like it a lot, actually! I can’t explain why, but all the places to go on a tour, you know, they’re all different, but it’s mainly Europe and North America that you do nightliner touring. South America you fly to the shows, Russia it’s usually flights or trains, Australia, you fly. [laughs] And I like the whole nightliner thing, it’s always nice to wake up in a new city. You have your bed, which is in the bus, you install whatever, phone charger or small video game screen, whatever you want in there and then you just roll and do heavy metal shows. I really love that. And it’s been a while now since we were on a proper nightline headlining tour so I’m really looking forward to it.
Do you find that the atmosphere is different because you’re not playing arenas or festivals but more one thousand- to a couple thousand-capacity club-sized venues?
J: That helps a lot. I mean, I love that feeling because I’m a bit of a thief. I steal all of my energy from the crowd [laughs] and the further away the crowd is the harder it becomes and it almost feels like I’m playing theater. I mean, I love putting on the big shows and it’s fucking cool, however, it’s harder to keep the energy going, in a way, than if you’re playing up to three, four thousand, which would be the maximum that you can still keep the audience close and you can see people’s faces, all the way to the back.
Yeah, I remember seeing you guys in 2017 in Vancouver and there seemed to be absolutely no shortage of energy from you guys so I’m glad that you have that same commitment to the smaller venues as you do in Europe.
J: Oh, of course! A good rock and roll show can be done on both small and large stages. It’s not about the amount of people there, it’s rather the quality of the people there, both the people on the stage and in the crowd.
I couldn’t agree more. Do you have any favourite cities to visit?
J: Well. . . yeah, several. I like the Northwest a lot, at certain points it feels like home almost. I like the great hiking opportunities, for example, people are really nice, and, yeah, the nature. So from that point of view, I like it. I can’t say I dislike any other place. People have been saying stuff like, “oh, you have a show in this and this place. That’s gonna be a dead one,” maybe it was Boise, Idaho, but we had a great fucking time in Boise, Idaho! [laughs]
Looking forward to the rest of the year, what are you looking forward to the most?
J: It is the US/Canadian Tour, I would say. Absolutely. Because it’s been over a year since we did a proper nightliner tour, we’re coming with Hammerfall, so it’s a Swedish heavy metal invasion. The only thing that’s missing is a bit of Ikea and ABBA, and then you’ve got the whole package. [laughs]
Maybe you’ll manage to string ABBA along!
J: Yeah, somehow we’ll get them in there. No, but it’s for me, the end of the year. I mean, obviously we’re headlining Wacken and we’re doing a very special show there, a longer set and we’re using two stages, not going to go into details because that’s a secret, exactly what we’re doing. And also bringing a choir, so there’s a lot of fun to look forward to, but, personally, I still think that the North American run is gonna be the highlight of the year for me.
I know it’s still early to be thinking about new material, but what kind of topics are you guys considering for future albums? I know that you’ve wanted to do Napoleon and Alexander the Great, for example, for a while, now.
J: Yeah, we haven’t decided yet. We always have, like, between three to five topics at all times in our minds and then, as we get closer and closer to making an album or songwriting time, we narrow down the field. But it’s not something I’d like to talk about because if I make a statement like that and we announce that, “oh, we’re going to do this,” and it turns out we’re not doing it a lot of people will get angry and pissed off, especially these days, so I have found out it’s better not to give away any such information. Not because I want to be secretive, but I don’t want to make people sad if they really liked the topic that we were kind of planning on doing and then we chose not to for one reason or another. They’ll be disappointed with us, and I don’t want that.
I can definitely understand that. Do you think you’d ever potentially do an album of ancient history rather than modern history to creatively free you guys up a little more?
J: That’s absolutely possible. We’ve been looking into older stuff. It’s harder, though, because the further back you go, the more you go into myth and legend. In a way that’s liberating, but you don’t have to go far back at all to go to the times that even the regular soldiers could not read or write. So, what you have is the writings of commanders and they wanna look good [laughs] so they write propaganda. So it’s really nice to be in somewhat-modern history because you are working more with facts than with legends. There is so much interesting history in our ancient past, the problem there is sorting out legend from history, I guess.
Aside from World War I and II, what would you say interests you the most?
J: Oh! I mean, it’s different all the time. I’m not only interested in military history, I like history, period. But, you know, let’s say, art history would not be a good match for heavy metal, so [laughs] we figured that Sabaton is for military history! All of the emotioinal spectrum that we have in our music, it could be aggression, pride, joy, all of these elements that are in that emotional spectrum of our music is also in military history.
But, right now I’m into, well, mostly the Cold War, actually, and all the proxy wars that happened and the spy games behind the scenes, and the space race, of course.
That is an interesting period. So much going on behind the scenes! All right, well, I think that pretty much covers everything I wanted to talk to you about. Thank you so much for your time, Joakim!
J: Yes, thank you for the good interview. I enjoyed it!
The Great War is set to release on 19 July under Nuclear Blast. If you want to preorder the album, check out tour dates, or see what’s new with Sabaton, you can find all of that on their >>website<<!
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Swedish heavy metal heroes Sabaton have released the third single and titular track to the upcoming The Great War. Complete with a booming rhythm section, choirs, and a deliberately aggressive sound, it’s exactly what I want in a Sabaton song.
Sabaton – The Great War (Nuclear Blast)
As someone who’s had the good fortune of hearing the album already, I can tell you that it’s absolutely fucking killer, which is pretty typical of Sabaton, I suppose.
I also had the honour of interviewing the band’s Joakim Broden a few days for The Metal Observer, which you can check out here until it’s up on this site in a few days.
The Great War will arrive on 19 July.
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The time has come for the second single for The Great War to be unleashed. This time, Sabaton take to the sky to give us ‘The Red Baron’: an organ-fueled metal shuffle about the War’s most notorious fighter pilot.
Sabaton – The Red Baron (Nuclear Blast)
Following in the footsteps of Sabaton’s first single, ‘Fields of Verdun’, ‘The Red Baron’ shakes it up a bit from their usual sound, delivering a new, exciting, and all-too-promising taste of what The Great War will bring us when it arrives on 19 July.
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The time has finally come for Sabaton to announce their North American tour for the upcoming The Great War. It has been confirmed that Hammerfall will join them for support and they’ll be hitting major cities from coast to coast in both Canada and the USA.
For the dates and locations, check out the picture below! Ticket sales will go live on 3 May, along with the first single of the new album.
Not only will the tour feature brand new music from Sabaton, but Hammerfall have also confirmed that a new single will be here on Friday (and an album announcement is likely to follow).
Don’t miss the chance to see this epic Swedish invasion in person! And be sure to check out The Great War when it surfaces on 19 July!
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After a week of buildup, Swedish power heroes Sabaton have released a new single. ‘Bismarck’ is being released independent from the upcoming The Great War, so we’ll have to wait a while longer to see what it will have to offer.
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Things were pretty slow this week in the world of power(ish) metal. Although, they’ve been crazy for me, so luckily I didn’t fall behind much. There’re only two albums that are worth checking out, unless you want to give the new Lightfold or Atorc a chance, so this will be a short update.
A bit of news first, Elvenking have announced that the mixing to their new album is complete, so we can likely expect a date to be confirmed very soon.
Additionally, Sabaton have confirmed the name and date for their upcoming album. Entitled The Great War, it’s set for release on 19 July. You can see Sabaton’s Par Sundstrom and historian Indy Neidell talk more about it below!
Singles
Diviner – Heaven Falls
In anticipation for their new record, Realms of Time, Greek heavy metallers Diviner have unveiled their first single. Hard and heavy, it’s headbanging metal to the core and, hopefully, it’s a good indicator for how great the album will be when it drops on 7 June.
Diviner – Heaven Falls (Ulterium)
Myrath – Born to Survive
Tunisian desert metal masters Myrath have released a new music video for their song ‘Born To Survive’ from their upcoming album, Shehili, set to be released on 3 May under earMUSIC. The video was taken in the Carthage amphitheater in their home country, with 7000 screaming fans as backup.
Shehili marks Myrath’s fifth full-length record. With none of their releases being less than excellent, it’s safe to assume that their new one will feature all of the exciting, catchy, Middle Eastern energy that we’ve come to know thanks to Myrath.
Myrath – Born to Survive (earMUSIC)
Albums
Eluveitie – Ategnatos
Eluveitie have been making fantastic folk metal since their debut in 2006. Their eighth album, Ategnatos, is the perfect mix between folk and melodeath elements, and is easily one of the band’s best records to date.
Monomyth is a colossal dose of expertly crafted power prog. There’s a steady upbeat feel throughout the album, despite its many ups and downs. Their third album so far, it’s easily the high point of Age of Artemis’ career thus far, which is a clear sign that they have grown as musicians and as a band. The melodies are strong, the drumming is crazy, and the time changes aren’t forced.
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