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Photo Credit: Christian Ripkens
Interview By Mike Lewis

SABATON has always been a band where it’s not just about the music, it’s about the history. Metal often has a reputation about the “dark” side of content and while this may be true with many death and black metal bands, that doesn’t necessary encompass the entire genre. SABATON could in fact be one of the many bands who could certainly benefit from being labelled as “historic metal” and why not? It seems that any time a band does something a little different that doesn’t fit with what is normally accepted, a new genre is born. In particular though I have been fascinated by their storytelling with World War II and have learned quite a bit that I wasn’t aware of.

With SABATON focused on the historic wars of the past, they have been one of those bands that I’ve long wanted to interview and their tour back in the United States, taking the stage along with metal icons JUDAS PRIEST, finally provided the opportunity. However, it ultimately took some time to finally get things set up and once the interview finally happened, something unexpected soon occurred. As most know at this point, the long-awaited tour was cancelled due to Richie Faulkner’s hospitalization. Hopefully the next year will see SABATON return to the United States with JUDAS PRIEST but even if that’s not the case, with a new album on the horizon it is inevitable that SABATON will be back in some form.

I would like to mention that in general, I’m a photographer and I don’t do too many interviews. Unfortunately, I did have a few equipment issues on my end of things but I at least managed to get Joakim’s audio which is the important thing. Missing from this interview is an early appearance by a suddenly shy nine-year old. My daughter has been a fan of SABATON since she was about three, she started doing concert photography with me at seven and while she had been waiting for an opportunity to say “hello” to someone, anyone in SABATON, her shyness made that a little more challenging.

Enjoy the interview which is the first on a new YouTube channel my daughter and I have set up. Hopefully there will be more in the future and maybe, just maybe, we can get her to come out of her shell to ask a few questions at some point in the future.