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Heavy metal legends, Sabaton are celebrating their 25th-anniversary as a band in fine style with the global premiere of their explosive concert film, ‘Sabaton – The Tour To End All Tours’. Set to land in cinemas on October 11th (North America October 30th & 31st), the concert film was recorded at the sold-out Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam, where 16,000 fans gathered to watch the band during their 2023 European tour, which saw four arena shows – including a sold-out Wembley Arena – on their UK leg. Sabaton drummer Hannes Van Dahl was on the other end of a transatlantic Zoom call from Omaha, Nebraska where the band were special guests of Metal Gods Judas Priest on their North American ‘Invincible Shield Tour’.
It must be a blast for you being out in the States with Judas Priest
It is one of those pinch-yourself moments. I have literally seen them every show on this tour. We finish our show, then it’s a shower, grab a beer and then go out and watch one of the best heavy metal bands in the world every night.
When you are watching Judas Priest, do you find yourself watching and studying Priest drummer Scott Travis, or are you just enjoying the show?
I find myself watching him both subconsciously, and consciously. For instance earlier today I had a technique-related question that I wanted to ask him. Let’s be honest, if it wasn’t for Scott Travis then I wouldn’t be playing drums from the get-go. I have a lot to thank him for and he is still kicking ass, and still enjoying it! You can tell from Scott that it is genuine, and for me, it is a blessing to be out on the road with Judas Priest.
You have the best seat in the house at a Sabaton gig, is it bizarre for you to look out during these US shows and see a seated venue?
A seated audience is something that we are not that used to, but they stand up during the show so it is not like they are sitting down when we are playing. People still get into it and stand up and have a good time. But at first, it was quite strange.
A lot is going on in the world of Sabaton at the moment, the most important being the upcoming cinema release of the Sabaton movie ‘The Tour to End All Tours’, which has also now been confirmed as having a US cinema release.
Yes, we are all very excited about it. We were just talking about this last night; when we came off stage after the show in Amsterdam we were all content. We all thought “Fucking hell, that was a good one!” So we were happy that we managed to capture that. We had a great team working on it, Jens De Vos, the director, we have been working with for years so he knows what we like, and we know what he likes. There is a cool trust process there. It was the biggest show of the tour, it was us, our crew, and 16,000 of our closest Dutch friends…and then some!
The addition of the US screenings proves that Sabaton are a universal band, what do you put that down to?
Oh, that’s a good question! I don’t know the answer to that, but I know what I think and I think it comes down to; a lot of hard work – and these are not in any order, they are just ingredients that I find – and one of the things that I like about Sabaton, and next year will be 12 years since I joined, is that there is a genuine interest in doing it. Everybody is here in this band for the right reason and that was very important for me when I joined, everybody genuinely likes to play music, and that might seem obvious, but it is genuine from both Joakim [Brodén, Sabaton vocalist] and Pär [Sundström, Sabaton bassist] from the get-go. Those are the main reasons I think, but then again, I don’t know the recipe for it…also, have a bit of fun, you know! The majority of the time, we are having a good time. You are playing music with people you respect, and like on a fundamental level.
Have you seen the finished movie yet?
Oh yeah, I was involved in the whole process, both pre and post-production. Fuck yeah, it is amazing! We were like “Where will we screen it? What are we going to do with it? Where can you see a live heavy metal show in the best possible way without being at the show?” and that’s kind of how it all started. And the answer was: a cinema. Could we make that happen, and if so, would people be interested?
Here’s a fun fact; we worked together with a small independent distribution company in Sweden called Folkets Husoch Parker, and this is a company that usually does Indie movies for the Swedish market mainly. So it was quite a unique collaboration between them and our Swedish promoters All Things Live, and they went country by country to see if any cinemas would be interested in screening it. I heard the other day that worldwide is now way over 1,000 cinemas screening it.
It will be special witnessing it on the big scream with incredible sound…
Yes! In Dolby Atmos, it sounds killer, man! I went with my daughter to the cinema about a week before I left for this tour, and it was years since we had been at the cinema. I found myself thinking “How do these places survive? Why didn’t they die out because of all the streaming sites? Why are they still around?” and I realised that it is because you make a whole thing out of it. An event. You go there, buy your popcorn or whatever, and you are not on your phone, you don’t talk: it’s nice escapism and you are there for the length of the movie like we used to do.
It must be a great feeling when you go to a city where you have performed in a small club, and then a theatre-sized venue, and now you are playing in a packed arena.
Yes, it is. We are very fortunate to be able to do that, and the progress that I have witnessed in the 12 years since I joined has been huge. A lot of people ask me “What’s it like playing these massive shows, and what do you think of that?” and I always reply “Yeah but I’m the drummer so I cannot think too much because I have to think about the next few seconds and that’s it!” If you start thinking about other shit, then you will mess up!
The drummer is after all the most important one in the band because he drives the band forward
Finally! Someone says it! [laughs]
We all know that! Now, the ‘Tour To End All Tours’ was not just a triumph because of the scale of it, and the number of people that attended, but it was also a triumph that it happened at all because it was originally postponed because of the worldwide lockdown. There must have been a sense of relief that it did happen.
Back home in Sweden, all of us in the band more or less come from the countryside. And you let the cows out in early Spring, and that’s kind of like what it was like when we went out to play again! It was like “Aaaaaargh!” everyone was out at the same time and it was chaos! [laughs] “We need to play music!” Personally, what I learned from the pandemic other than to wash my hands better, was not to take anything for granted, it was a long time for everyone, and now it is over I am enjoying every single day.
One of the highlights of the tour must have been performing at the Avicii Arena in Stockholm.
Yes, for sure. I had been to a few shows there when I was a kid, it is a spectacular arena and has been around my whole life. Playing a show on home territory, if you will, and selling it out, was a very special night for us, but also a very nervous night! We came in and just did the show. I think that we added one song in Swedish, but other than that…that tour is what you see in the movie, in the cinema. Somebody asked me the other day if we did something special for the Amsterdam show because it was being recorded, and I said that the show was special enough because it was very theatrical.
The Glasgow gig got something special when you added ‘Blood of Bannockburn’ to the setlist, and turned the arena blue and white while it was being performed…
Yeah, man, I love that song! Great fun to play. The Hydro in Glasgow, yes?
That’s the one…
That’s a good venue, it is huge! I remember taking a run in the morning of the show, alongside the river next to the arena. I ran for about an hour down there.
An Iron Maiden-related question for you; will you be able to catch them on the ‘Run For Your Lives Tour’ next year, and if so, what Iron Maiden nugget from the past are you hoping to hear?
Oh, that’s a great question! I mean, Nicko [McBrain, Iron Maiden drummer] is a great friend of mine, and we all went to see them in Detroit a few years back and man, it was a fucking great show! They were so good! I was super impressed. I hope that I get the time to see a show next year, that would be special, as for a nugget from the past…what would I like to hear…I like the hits though! I heard that ‘Alexander The Great’ is back in the set this year, that is awesome! I would like to hear ‘Out of The Silent Planet’! From ‘Brave New World’, now that would be cool.
It is your friends in Avatar opening for Iron Maiden in Europe…
Yeah, man, yeah! That is awesome. I am super hyped for them because that is well-deserved. They are such a great band and such great guys, also, another extremely hard-working band, it is going to be great so if you guys are going then show up early and see Avatar as they are so entertaining.
Iron Maiden have a great legacy and are at the very top of their game, Sabaton celebrates their 25th anniversary this year, what would you say has been the biggest challenge the band has faced in those times?
I can only refer back to what I said earlier; keep it real and for the right reasons. To have open ears and listen to what the fans say, I think that criticism can also be a good thing for a band.
And as cliched a question as it is; what would be the highlight of your time with the band so far?
There are so many highlights. And I don’t mean this as a cliche, but every show I have that gratitude for what I am doing. Last night I had it, I’m in Rochester, America playing drums. You know what I mean? Other highlights would be the Wacken show in 2019 where we played both main stages simultaneously, madness, right?! It was awesome! Me and the original drummer Daniel Mullback got to play a drum solo together on that one, and that was a big highlight for me. Another highlight would be playing in my hometown on the Swedish Tour where we played 50 small shows back home. I come from a tiny city, and we played to what, I don’t know, maybe 800 people? I like being able to see people’s faces, and on the big shows, I cannot do that because I am so far away. Another one is just meeting people in general. Meeting people from all over the world and hearing their stories…it’s one cool package for me, really.
With such a busy schedule, are you able to stop once in a while and take it all in, or is it mostly gig-bus-gig-bus? Are you able to get out much with your camera for instance?
It is what you make it. This tour with Priest, for instance, is a well-planned tour with a good schedule. There are plenty of rest days, and as you said, I am a photographer – maybe 15 years ago I began to shoot photos – and I get up in the morning, grab a cup of coffee, grab my camera, and head out. I can walk all day long. For me, that is a good way of relaxing, I don’t really do that much with my photos, that’s not the point, for me the result is not relevant, it’s the process: taking it, planning it, editing it – DONE! I’ll store them on my hard drive and maybe post a few somewhere – but you have to do what keeps you sane, right? And in a sense, that’s why I started playing drums; it’s a form of escapism and when you are playing drums that’s what it’s all about – everybody should play drums!
There seems to be a great camaraderie amongst drummers, every festival season there are always great backstage shots from Wacken, or Download, of drummers hanging with each other. Zero rivalry, just respect.
That’s an interesting analysis, but I take it for granted that drummers are like that, so I don’t even think about it. I’ve never met a drummer that wasn’t cool to me, it’s the same family, right?! We can be pretty intense, but that’s just being a drummer!
You’ve just posted a pic on your social media accounts of you holding a t-shirt with Cozy Powell on it.
The shirt was just hanging there yesterday, and I thought “Damn, I should post this as I’ve been wearing it for ten years!”. He’s always on my back, I wear it inside-out though, but for me, there is some symbolism there because I know he is there. He is one of my favourites, he is up there with Scott [Travis], Nicko, Keith Moon, John Bonham, and all those badass drummers…Alex Van Halen is another. I got to try out a pair of Cozy’s sticks…and you wouldn’t believe how thick they were! They were unreal…the arms that he must have had! What a badass, a great drummer, and a great musician, something that I’ve learned, and I remind myself even today, is that you want to play musically, right? And a lot of that came from Cozy Powell as he was very aware of what was being played around him; it wasn’t a case of “Here’s a beat, you guys do what you want”.
He was the ultimate drummer and perhaps the only musician who could upstage Ritchie Blackmore night after night.
Ritchie always had good players around him, it was always badass players with him, and that’s still the same today; he has Ronnie Romero for instance, David Keith, his drummer, he’s another good friend of mine. Great players.
When Tommy Johansson announced that he was stepping down, was it always going to be a case of Thobbe Englund returning to the band, rather than a completely new person joining?
When Tommy left the band, it was a natural thing to ask Thobbe back first. Natural, and without any drama whatsoever. With Tommy, we can only say one thing and that is thank you for hanging out with us for 8 years and you go do your thing. Tommy was one of us, and luckily Thobbe wanted to rejoin after his 8-year vacation! I don’t know what he has been up to! [laughs]
‘Sabaton – The Tour To End All Tours’ premieres October 11th (North America October 30th & 31st), cinema tickets for this event are now on sale here.
Follow Sabaton HERE, and connect with Hannes Van Dahl on social media, HERE
Interview – Dave
All live images – Rob Wilkins
