SABATON: interview with Rikard Sundén

Metalfan: Why Sabaton? What does it actually mean? How do you relate to the name, as a band, any special meanings?
Sabaton is a medieval boot armour. It´s a cool name and it fits perfect cause our music is like a hevay metal kick in the face.

Metalfan: What are your influences? Starting from the war-oriented lyrics, and finishing up with the music? Do you keep an eye on the metal scene? I mean, are there any bands you guys are fond of in particular?
The infuences for the lyrics is for us not that hard to get. We just open a history book, read the newspaper or turn on the tv, it´s all there. We are storytellers and write about different wars and about different countries fighting the war.  We don´t sympathize with the nazis, the russians or the americans that some people accuse us to do . The war theme that we have on both “Primo Victoria” and “Attero Dominatus” is nothing more than stories of how things where. Joakim is the one who have done all music so far and he does it very well. He can watch a movie or hear something on the radio for example. And the inspiration he got from that movie or that song, he tryies to recreate the feeling he had when he heard or saw it. We all like bands like Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Accept, Judas Priest, Kiss and so on, and we listen to newer bands too but it was better back in time.

Metalfan: How did the fans in Europe receive Sabaton? What was the overall feedback?
Before we did the tour with Edguy and Dragonforce there were not many people who have heard of us outside Sweden. The tour was a success for us and the feedback was amazing even though no one knew us.  After the tour with Edguy and Dragonforce we have grown and we are able to do small headline tours so we noticed that there is fans for us too. We want to go back to all the places we where on when we toured with Edguy and we will come back on the tour with Grave Digger and Therion and also do shows in new countries.

Metalfan: There are still fans out there who think Primo Victoria's style and sound was definitely better than Attero Dominatus, how do you, as a band member, feel about this? Did you notice any major change in Sabaton's style, did you just go with the flow, or did you just try to make something else?
I think Primo Victoria and Attero Dominatus are similar to eachother. Some of the songs on Attero Dominatus was written at the same time as Primo Victoria and we didn´t want to experiment with a new sound. Ofcourse there will be some who like Primo Victoria better than Attero Dominatus but i think thats good.

Metalfan: I know that you recorded the Metalizer album for the italian label, are there any plans for that album to ever see the light of day or is it just a dead project?
Metalizer is for the moment a dead project and we dont know anything about the future for that album. We dont have any contact with our old label and as far as we know they can hold it for years or realese it tomorrow.

Metalfan: You recently were special guests for Lordi in a few shows, how was it playing with the little monsters? Come on, give us some inside info, were you able to see their faces? :)
You want inside information? Well they are nice people, they did not look like you may have  imagine. Awa the keybordplayer looked like a school teacher, you know in a sexy way and Lordi himself was the only one that you could guess that it might be him. Well  it was great fun to do the shows with Lordi and it was a great opportunity for us to reache a new audience that never would have come in contact whit us otherwise. It was fun cause after a normal Heavy Metal show when the crowd has left the building you normaly see piles of  beer glasses lying on the floor but after the Lordi gig, only popcorn=) So we where realy on the right place cause for many of these kids this was their first Heavy Metal concert ever and many of them will grow up to be a headbanger, and the first band they saw was us.

Metalfan: What can you tell us about the tour with Grave Digger and Therion? Slowly but surely, Sabaton is rising up more and more, what are your personal dreams with Sabaton (that you actually believe could turn into reality)?
The tour is taking place in 15 different countries an contains 30 shows. We have never been to many of the countries we are visiting so this is a great opportunity for us to reache out to new people. We always searching for opportunitys to go to new countries, we want to be on the road as much as possible. My dream and the rest of the guys is ofcourse to do world tours and play on big arenas in front of thousands of people. But to be realistic we want to do more tours and spread our music, be out on the road and have fun. The future will tell what happens.

Metalfan: In 2007, one of the dates for the Grave Digger / Therion tour is in Budapest, Hungary, are the dates final? Any chance you guys could go one more country to the right in Romania and perform for the metal scene here?
I think the final dates are set but if we could choose we would ofcourse come to Romania, we would tour the whole world if we had something to say=)

Metalfan: You announced a new album release for 2007. Is it going to be another album inspired by war or you're thinking about a new approach or why not, perhaps a concept album?
Yes we will record it after the summer (2007)  and we have many ideas for that album and it will most likely continue with the war theme. If it´s gonna be an album like Primo Victoria and Attero Dominatus or a concept album is to soon to tell.

Metalfan: What about taking yet another step in the Sabaton history, do you guys have any plans to release a DVD anywhere in the near future?
Yes there will be a DVD release but it is uncertain when we gonna release it. Hopefully it will be in 2007 but definitive in 2008. It depends on us to get it ready and our label when they want to release it.

Metalfan: How do you see Sabaton's change in style over time, starting from the first demo's and finishing up with Attero Dominatus and the new 2007 album?
Well from our first demo and until today i think it´s a big change. In the begining we played more power metal and Joakim had just started singing so his voice was not that developed that it is today. I think that when we recorded Metalizer (that has not yet been released) you could hear in some songs what we would end up sounding and on the album Primo Victoria you hear more Heavy Metal and we will continue on that track.
Attero Dominatus is pretty much the same as Primo Victoria but on the next album we will take it one step futher and i tell you i´m looking forward to record that album.
 
Metalfan: Before we end this interview, would you like to say anything to your fans in Romania? (Yes, you made it all the way to here too :) )
Well I  got very excited  to play in Romania now. We will come to you and try your beer and do some headbanging,  it´s just a question of when and where.  See you on the road!