Listening session with Sabaton
So people! Another long wait for something to read, but here it is at last.
Some time ago I was invited to a “secret location” to participate in a listening session, Q&A and a meet and greet with Sabaton. For their own reason, I won’t reveal the location, but anyway.
This was kind of a last minute spontaneous kind of thing, so I just booked the bus kind of on the spot, which was no major issue… I thought.
Since I booked the bus at such short notice, I was assigned a seat. And of course, the seat assigned just HAD to be the one with a non functioning poweroutlet. And my computer, the computer I currently bring with me on tour, has a battery time of 50 minutes. Great. Just great.
On top of that, I got a bit rushed in the morning, and because of that, forgot my waterbottle. No biggie, right?
Except that I get horribly motion ill, and to top it off, I had cramps from hell. AND, becuase we aren’t even done yet, we got one of those bus drivers who drives extremly recklessly.
So here I was, in pain, being ill as hell, unable to work.. And the bus gets about 40 minutes delayed. Because why the hell not right? Gladly, I had plenty of time before the session, so it did not ruin my time plan, it was just a little bit of torture.
Once in Stockholm, I headed off to an Espresso House as per usual to have a quick lunch / dinner kind of thing and make myself ready for the evening. I stowed away my stuff in a locker at the central station and headed off to the “secret location”. It wasn’t too hard to find, much to my pleasure although I’ve never been there before.
The first thing that happened was pretty much standing around waiting. And waiting. And after waiting some more, we were finally let in the salon for the listening session. It was a beautiful kind of old school cinema, and I loved the setting. The host spoke a bit before playing us the first five songs of the album.
So, I guess the most important part of this is this: What were my first impressions and opinions?
So, the first song, “The Future of Warfare” is a pretty lowkey but yet hitting opening song. I felt, or feel, that it might set the mood completely for the album – darker, harder, yet not leaving the Sabaton influences. It brought my thoughts back to “Primo Victoria” and “Metalizer” soundfigure, with a touch of “Coat of Arms”, if that makes any sense to anyone.
Second song of the evening, “Seven Pillars of Wisdom” made me throw my hands up in the air out of frustration. The only thing I can say about this song is that it’s “White Death”. It’s the new “Winged Hussars”, so to speak. Lyrically it’s fine, but at this point I’m still too frustrated at that to give a more proper view or insight.
As far as “82nd All The Way” goes, I can’t remember I thought anything special about it, it sort of blanded out amongst the songs, however, a song that REALLY stuck to me was the next one – “The Attack of the Dead Men”.
I had this song stuck in my brain for the rest of the weekend. And as soon as I think of the title, it starts playing in my head again. This one I really liked, a lot. And it made me excited, as it felt relatively new for being Sabaton.
Last song that got played, was “Devil Dogs” which wasn’t a bad song at all, but it brought the thoughts too much back to “Smoking Snakes” (not like ‘Seven Pillars’ though), but all in all – good.
So, I guess you can say I liked what I heard, and it did get me more excited than ever for the new album. And now, it ain’t long left. Just a month, ish.
After listening to the song, the band came into the room and we had a press-conference kind of Q&A, where we got to ask questions to the band and they’d answer. It was a pretty cozy thing to be honest, it felt very down to earth and relaxed. At least in my point of view.
Once the Q&A was done, we all lined up for the photo to be taken, and once that was over – heading home.
Thank you Warner Music and Sabaton for this evening, it was quite the pleasure. It was a spurr of the moment kind of thing for me, but I was not disappointed in doing it! Thank you!
// Sara
Sara Hammerzmith 
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