My friends – I don’t want you to come up to me now and say “it wasn’t that great” or “Carolus isn’t that good of an era”. More people, and close friends, than you’d believe to this, and I’m asking you kindly right now – I don’t want your opinion. I don’t ask for it. I love this album, this era, it’s what I feel inside about it. You don’t have to like it – but you don’t need to come to ME and piss all over my feelings about it. Thanks.
I just finished watching the live-stream of Sabaton’s show at Sabaton Open Air last night. I was a bit bummed that I missed out on it while it was live, but as long as I get to see it – I don’t really care too much about it.
What I do care about, is that I probably missed out on the most epic Sabaton gig I’ve come across.
I’ve seen Sabaton many times throughout the years – all the way back to the Attero Dominatus era, and I’ve seen them live in every era, so far. The Art of War was something special, for sure, with Rockstad: Falun starting up for the first time, and then the album… We are not even gonna talk about the album, because in reality, we already have and you know my feelings about it.
However, Carolus Rex remains my favorite era. Perhaps I’m a bit patriotic – I do love my country and our culture (with that said, I do want to enhance that I like other cultures as well. Might as well put this here, as you are considered a racist in Sweden if you happen to like your own culture, haha). I got the double album, with both the Swedish and the English versions but I’ve always prefered the Swedish one – after all, it’s about Sweden.
As most of you know, at SOA this year they performed Carolus Rex in full, and in Swedish. Of course, I should have known I should have been there, but things collided. I can only take so many weekends off in a month in my job, and sorry to say, Skogsröjet and Sabaton’s shows here came before. So I’m glad this was recorded.
This gig was brilliant, the half of it that we were shown on the stream. I’ve always wished to hear Carolus full in Swedish, so I’m glad I got to do it. I literally cried my eyes out in both “En Livstid i Krig” (A Lifetime of War) and “Karolinens Bön” (The Carolean Prayer) and then, in the middle of the prayer (that I actually like to do as a prayer) I just stopped when I noticed what happened.
Caroleans. FUCKING CAROLEANS MARCHING ON STAGE. GODDAMN FUCKING CAROLEANS FOR THEATRIC EFFECTS.
Can I just cry and die right here? What?
As if THAT wasn’t enough, Jocke comes on stage wearing Carolus effin’ jacket to pull off one of the more epic performances of “Carolus Rex” I’ve ever witnessed. Like.
Can someone shoot me? Of all the fucking gigs I miss, why did I have to miss this one? I’d happily have traded Sabaton this Saturday in favor for this. Goddamn it. Sure, this may not have been the best Jocke has performed vocally, but still. Epic. And the ending, with the Caroleans lining up for “Ruina Imperii”… Oh my lord. This, this my friends. Epic. I’ll admit – I was a little bummed “Ruina” wasn’t actually live, but the Caroleans made up for it.
Another thing that makes me a bit sdbjaksdhka about the whole thing is that I somewhat missed out. Carolus is my favorite era, but because of circumstances, I sort of missed out on the whole tour. A tour that was supposed to be five dates ended up being one, and it feels weird in a way, to miss out on the best era.
Or perhaps, I just made sure to catch one, good show of the era. Like with Deadache and Lordi.
Regardless. Thanks DT for recording this gem. Thanks to Sabaton for writing this album. This was a good way to wrap up a VERY hard weekend with no sleep.
I am very aware that I might come off as a bit fangirlish in this, and that I’m probably not even written it as properly and thought-through as I usually DO write my blogentries about bands, but it’s 2 am and I have slept only 3 hours since 10am Saturday morning… So I’m tired. And in awe. And this is probably the way you should read this.
Sabaton can’t come sooner.
// Sara
Sara Hammerzmith 