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Swedish metallers Sabaton have just dropped their tenth studio album ‘The War To End All Wars’, and we were lucky enough to grab a chat with Sabaton guitarists Chris Rörland and Tommy Johansson when the band made a special visit to the Heugh Battery Museum in Hartlepool the day before the album was released.
The new album ‘The War To End All Wars’ lands tonight at midnight, studio album number ten for Sabaton; do you get nervous just before an album is released…or are you more excited?
Chris: For me, this album has been recorded and finished for such a long time that I feel anxious to get it out, and now that we are almost there…it’s a great feeling. It’s time!
How will you celebrate tonight at midnight? Will the beer be flowing?!
Tommy: We will have to wait for the beers! It’s been a rough few days getting up early and traveling, so I think when the album will be released…most of us will be sleeping!
Chris: Tomorrow after the signing sessions [in Birmingham and London], then we will celebrate and it will feel real!
Due to the pandemic, you were unable to record the album with you all together in the studio at the same time, and found yourself split up…
Chris: We were split up, yes, but that’s nothing new for us. We always start with the drums and Hannes [Hannes Van Dahl] goes in with the engineer and Joakim [Joakim Brodén, vocals]. But this time there could only be two people there, so it was Hannes and then Tommy…
Tommy: Yep, I went in for my parts…
Chris: And then me, then Pär [Pär Sundström, bass], then Joakim, and then the choirs…it was quite laidback actually…
With that in mind, when you sat back and listened to the album in its entirety for the first time, what moment gave you the biggest goosebumps?
Both: The choirs!
Tommy: Me and Chris, we were singing the choir parts, and singing choir after choir, and changing harmonies and adding new parts…
Chris: Both of us were spitting blood and screaming!
Tommy: We would record our vocals, then come out and listen back…and then the goosebumps started! It was like…” Oh my god! Is this really me and Chris?!”…
Chris: You can really hear it on ‘Hellfighters’…
Was it just both of you?
Chris: Usually we have a big choir, but we couldn’t really do that this time. There is a full choir on ‘Christmas Truce’ but this album is mostly just me, Tommy, and Joakim.
How did you deal with the pandemic, in the beginning, you had just come off the first leg of ‘The Great Tour’?
Chris: It was good and bad. As horrible as the pandemic was when it first happened, it was good that we were grounded for a little bit as we are always on tour and maybe only home for two months in a year? It was good to recharge the batteries, but then it was a case of lockdown; so what do we do? Okay, Skype calls, meetings, and then we had the time to write a new album.
Tommy: If the lockdown didn’t happen then the album wouldn’t sound like it does. It would sound different because of the fact that Chris and Joakim were locked down together for a few weeks and wrote half of the album together…
Only so much Netflix that you can binge on in two weeks…
Chris: Exactly, we actually got into Marbula One on YouTube! It’s like Formula One, but with marbles! [laughs] It’s fucked up, but google it! Me and Joakim went all-in on that! We were like…” What the fuck is this?!”. But as Tommy said, if Covid hadn’t happened we wouldn’t have made this album. We had so much planned around ‘The Great War’ that it got pushed aside because of covid, so we felt…let’s do a continuation of the stories because we there so many stories that we didn’t do on ‘The Great War’; ‘Hellfighters’ has been around for a few years, ‘Christmas Truce’ as well, we’ve talked about ‘Stormtroopers’…I mean we talked about that one when we were recording ‘Heroes’…but we didn’t have the right song for the right topic, so if COVID didn’t happen then we wouldn’t have made this album.
The guitars on the new album are way heavier than the last few albums, especially in comparison to 2016’s ‘The Last Stand’, was this down to the pent-up aggression from not being able to play much for the last two years?
Chris: A little bit, yes. But we can’t release a new album that sounds the same as ‘The Great War’, as people would say that it was exactly the same. So, we really wanted to push it, and Tommy and I really pushed ourselves to the limit….and I think that you can hear it. At first, I didn’t really think of it that much, but now that we have been speaking to the press and people have pointed this out…we are thinking “Well, maybe we have done something unique on this one”…but it is so hard to know.
Tommy: You don’t really think about it when you are recording because usually, you are recording to bass and drums, and you don’t really get the feel of the song until it’s done and you are listening to it. But this album is absolutely much heavier than the last one. I think we stepped it up. But also, I think that because Chris wrote half of the album…
Chris: More guitars!
Tommy: Yes! When Joakim is writing a song, he might be focussing more on keyboards, but with Chris, it’s more on guitars. When I write a song it’s vocal lines and harmonies! [laughs].
The album opens with ‘Sarajevo’, very atmospheric and almost instrumental in some regards as there are very few vocals…
Chris: That one was fun because Joakim came up with the idea of ‘Sarajevo’ opening up the album as Sarajevo opened the war itself [the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria prompted the start of World War One], and then we would have ‘Versailles’ closing the album, and we felt that those two needed to be the opposite of each other. So, we needed a dark, moody song, and then Joakim said…”We are not going to have me singing on it, it’s a full song, not an intro, but we are going to have narration on it…”, so I was like…”Well, how are we going to do this?” Because you have to hear what the narrator is saying, and then build it up for the chorus before taking it down again…so that was the first song that we wrote, and for ‘Versailles’, we just swapped it over from minor to major. Everyone should be happy as the war had ended, but we put a twist on it because it was building up to the Second World War.
Dreadnought’ is a particular favourite amongst the new songs, picking up a bit of a Deep Purple/Rainbow vibe here and there, what new songs are you looking forward to performing?
Tommy: Strangely enough, ‘Dreadnought’. I like ‘Dreadnought’, it’s a great song…and of course if I have to be like every guitarist and be selfish…I like the solo, so I am looking forward to playing it live. But, also ‘Christmas Truce’ because that’s such a cheerful song and we’ve played it live already acoustic on Swedish television and it’s such a fun song to play.
The fact that we are talking about what is essentially a Christmas song in March proves just how good a song it is. The video for ‘Christmas Truce’ is incredible; not only is it raw, emotional, and epic, but Tommy; your comedy mustache in it is something special! You drew the short straw with that one!
Chris: [Laughs] Short straw?! No! I saw something when we were getting ready in makeup and I thought to myself…” Is that a mustache?”…” Tommy, you have a mustache!”. Indy had a mustache [Indy Neidell, Sabaton History channel co-host and star of the ‘Unkillable Soldier’ video] and I thought…” Tommy, you should have a mustache…” and he said…” Noooooo!…okay, maybe, fuck it, let’s do it”…and we used it in every video…but it’s a different one in every video! I think that Tommy’s mustache has a future!
Tommy: I think so! I can tell you though; I regret it! That mustache keeps falling off, it’s itchy, and as soon as I’m smiling or opening my mouth too much…it starts falling off.
It is a comedic moment in such a hard-hitting video…
Chris: It’s a very heartfelt story; the first time that I heard it, it just blew me away. It’s amazing what mankind can do even in the hardest of times…”Fuck war, it’s Christmas, let’s be friends and celebrate together, play some football…”
Tommy: Someone told me that the day after it happened when the battle continued, the soldiers who joined the Christmas celebrations – not everyone did – were not allowed to fire their guns that day. They were moved to a different place in case they saw someone from the previous day and wouldn’t shoot.
It’s an amazing story from start to finish, and the video is cinematic in a way that most music videos can only dream of. Now, Chris, you are a graphic designer and have designed album sleeves, inner booklets, etc; what would you say is your favourite album sleeve of all time that is not Rainbow ‘Rising’, because that’s obviously the greatest album sleeve…ever…
Chris: [Exhales] Oooooh! Arrrggghhhh! I’m going to have to say Iron Maiden ‘Somewhere In Time’, the details on that one are mindblowing. It’s amazing. The first Maiden album that I heard was ‘Powerslave’, love that album, and love the artwork, but I absolutely have to say ‘Somewhere In Time’…
Good choice, obviously Rainbow ‘Rising’ is still the greatest album sleeve…ever
Chris: [Laughs] Obviously, of course! It is so beautiful, and I do love it.
Tommy, what’s the next Sabaton song that is going to get the Disneyton treatment on your YouTube channel?
Tommy: [Laughs] Well…
The concept works, it really works!
Tommy: Well, I think so! I can tell you, I have four songs recorded, but I haven’t made the videos for them yet…’Primo Victoria’, ‘Ghost Division’…and then we will see, I might do some from the new album! We will see…
Chris: We need more joy in life, more smiles…
Tommy: Absolutely, and that’s what Disneyton is all about, it’s just about having fun, and people seem to like it.
‘The War To End All Wars’ is available now via Nuclear Blast, more information, here.
Keep up to date with all Sabaton tour information, here.
Follow Chris, and Tommy on Instagram, and check out Tommy’s YouTube channel, here.
Interview – Dave
All live images – Cardiff 2023 Celtography
Special thanks to Paris and Adam at The Noise Cartel, and all the volunteers at the Heugh Battery Museum in Hartlepool for their hospitality.
