Sabaton

Sabaton is a power metal band from Falun, Sweden. The vast majority of their albums are written about historical events, mainly wars and significant battles. Sabaton has been referred to as one of the "big four" power metal bands, along with Helloween, Blind Guardian, and DragonForce. They are one of the most successful metal bands in Swedish history. History Formation and first albums (1999–2009) Sabaton was formed in December 1999. After the first songs were recorded in Peter Tägtgren's studio, The Abyss, Sabaton was contacted by a couple of record labels. The band signed with the Italian label Underground Symphony, which then released, internationally, the promo CD Fist for Fight. The disc, distilled from two demo tapes recorded between 1999 and 2000, was intended to promote forthcoming Sabaton releases. In 2002, a new album, Metalizer was recorded and was supposed to be distributed by Underground Symphony as the band's debut album. After two years of waiting, during which the band held various performances across Sweden, the album was abandoned. Sabaton signed a new deal with Black Lodge, the metal division of the Sound Pollution record label, and released their second album, titled Primo Victoria in 2005. Brodén stated that the album's title track "kicked off" the band's historical theme. Sundström stated that the band decided to focus primarily on historical themes in their lyrics after he and Brodén watched the film Saving Private Ryan. In early 2005, keyboardist Daniel Myhr was recruited in order to relieve Joakim Brodén of his keyboard duties. In early 2006, Sabaton toured in support of Edguy and DragonForce. The band's third album, Attero Dominatus, was released in Europe on 28 July 2006. In March 2007, Sabaton released Metalizer as a double disc together with Fist for Fight, along with the previously unreleased song "Birds of War".