Words & Pictures Adrian Hextall / (C) MindHex Media
From the Oxford Dictionary, the word ‘epic’ is defined as “a long poem, typically one derived from ancient oral tradition, narrating the deeds and adventures of heroic or legendary figures or the past history of a nation”. Now, if you’ve never heard anything by Swedish metal titans Sabaton before, then all you need to know is that the word ‘epic’ fits them like a glove. If you have, like me, watched the evolution of this band over the course of many years then you’ll know that the band have never been anything less than epic and the only thing holding them back from delivering the shows we always knew they could produce, was the size of the venue they were performing in.
From their initial foray into the UK many, many moons ago, playing to a handful of people at the Purple Turtle in Camden Town to 2025 where their show now draws an audience of fifteen to twenty thousand people per night, Sabaton have always known that their stage is one of scale, something that needed to be designed to impress and needed to be, well, ‘epic’.
Latest album ‘Legends’, a natural successor to my all-time favourite from the band, ‘Heroes’ was the reason we had all gathered at the O2 on a cold December night. Before the Swedes took to the stage though, the most unusual yet perfect support imaginable came on stage to warm up the crowd.
The Legendary Orchestra (TLO)
The Legendary Orchestra (TLO) is a unique, hand-picked ensemble of elite musicians, formed by Sabaton’s Pär Sundström to perform epic orchestral arrangements of Sabaton’s heavy metal songs as a support act for their 2025 European tour, blending powerful classical symphonies with metal. How many bands out there form a completely new act to perform their own songs as a warmup to the main event? Pretty ‘epic’ if you ask me!
The Legendary Orchestra feature violinist Mia Asano, hurdy-gurdy master Patty Gurdy, and conductor/vocalist Noa Gruman alongside a choir and orchestra. I’ll stop using the ‘e’ word for a while, but the scale of their set is a massive, cinematic, and emotional “never-before-attempted” Sabaton’s experience, showcasing many of the band’s anthems in a grand, theatrical orchestral setting.
It’s a neat trick. Get the crowd to sing along was easily done, play the songs they’re coming to hear anyway and looking around the arena, faces were smiling from the off. It was one of those “I could go home happy” moments as their set finished. Both Patty and Mia played off each other perfectly, Noa sang, conducted, worked the crowd with ease and the choir… wow, the icing on the cake for sure. The instrumentation was excellent, but the choir lifted the sound to something almost heavenly. Stunning work and a great start.
Sabaton
If you’ve followed musical history over the years, then a song from The Crazy World of Arthur Brown probably best sums up a Sabaton show. “I am the god of hellfire and I bring you…… FIRE!” Never a truer word spoken. Having seen Sabaton move from The Forum in Kentish Town through Brixton Academy to Wembley Arena to The O2 (with a few festival headline appearances thrown in for good measure), this is where Sabaton belong. An arena stage, with a massive castle set, a drum riser that could possibly go down in history as one of the best designs ever and so much fire and flame that I believe Dragonforce might have written a song about it all.
With Tommy Johansson having departed to focus on Majestica, Sabaton’s current lineup features founders Joakim Brodén (vocals) & Pär Sundström (bass), along with guitarists Chris Rörland & former member Thobbe Englund (who recently rejoined much to the delight of fans), and drummer Hannes van Dahl. Whilst they were absent at the beginning of the show, we were treated to theatrics from actors performing as Napoleon Bonaparte (cue boos from the crowd), Julius Ceasar (cue cheers from the crowd) and Genghis Khan (cue mixed responses – but he was a tad frightening). It was tongue in cheek stuff but worked the crowd from the ‘B’ stage by the sound desk before Templars in full costume arrived for a speech and unmasking to reveal all the band members who then took to a walkway across the crowd to the main stage to perform opening number ‘Templars’.
And so the fire, flame and thunder continued. The actors returned to the main stage for more monologues (even though Ceasar had been killed off earlier, he returned bloodied but fighting). Napoleon got to dictate cannon fire over the crowd during ‘I, Emperor’, ‘Hordes of Khan’ felt like we had descended into the fiery pits of hell thanks to the use of the flame throwers and dragon cannons and more with ‘Crossing The Rubicon’ ensuring I had no eyebrows left by the time it finished. ‘Night Witches’ saw the return of the Legendary Choir and it lifted the sound so much that at times it was difficult to hear Joakim singing.
SETLIST
Templars
The Last Stand
Hordes of Khan (With Genghis Khan)
I, Emperor (With Napoleon)
Crossing the Rubicon (With Caesar)
Carolus Rex (Swedish version)
The Red Baron
Stormtroopers
Drum Solo
A Tiger Among Dragons
Christmas Truce (With legendary orchestra choir)
Soldier of Heaven (With legendary orchestra choir)
The Attack of the Dead Men (With legendary orchestra choir)
Night Witches (With legendary orchestra choir)
Primo Victoria (With legendary orchestra choir)
Steel Commanders (With legendary orchestra choir)
The Art of War (With legendary orchestra choir)
To Hell and Back (With legendary orchestra choir)
Masters of the World (With legendary orchestra choir)
The Last Battle (Outro)
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