SABATON Sets Its Sight On Stadiums: 'It's Just A Matter Of A Little Bit Of Time'

By David E. Gehlke

SABATON's new concert film, "Sabaton - The Tour To End All Tours", checks off another item on what is now becoming an increasingly long list of accomplishments for the Swedish metallers. The film's global premiere included 700 cinemas spanning 26 territories — including a late October release in North America. It is not out of reach to suggest they are the closest thing to this era's IRON MAIDEN — a band with a set-in-stone sound, packed concert venues and brand value that goes beyond merchandise and into video games, TV channels and even print magazines. SABATON has also done it without the benefit of a "hit" single, preferring the tried-and-true method of a steady album/tour release cycle that has tacked on fans in numerous territories.

In Europe, SABATON may also be the answer to the question everyone has been asking for the last decade: Who will replace the likes of MAIDEN, METALLICA and JUDAS PRIEST when they call it a day? SABATON is now very much that band and they have the receipts to prove it. While North America is an entirely separate and more difficult manner, one would probably not be wise to cast doubt on SABATON bassist and manager Pär Sundström, who, during his chat with BLABBERMOUTH.NET, shared some insight on why the band's slow-and-steady model has them winning the race.

Blabbermouth: Of all the things SABATON has done, from video games to a History Channel to cruises and more, where did a movie rank in terms of priority?

Pär: "Any project we do always gets a lot of love. This is probably the highest priority at the moment. Then, it will be music or something else. It all goes in waves. We don't want to half-ass something. At the moment, this is the number one thing we're working on."

Blabbermouth: Has a movie always been on the list?

Pär: "The thing is, we are pretty proud and satisfied with our live performance, especially what we did on our last European tour, the one we filmed. It's a pretty impressive production from our side. It required a lot of effort to pull together and a lot of people to do it. It turned out really cool. We were a little bit sad that only 24 cities in Europe got to see it. That's why we wanted to record it. When we were rehearsing for the tour, we built up the whole thing and we did the rehearsals with the fire and pyrotechnics—everything. We rehearsed in a gigantic studio for a week. While doing that, we also took the chance to record our instruments, then go down and sit in the audience, so to say, and watch our own show with the lights and pyros and listen to the sound. It was there when we said, 'This is pretty cool. It's a shame there are only 24 cities.' So we said, 'Let's record it.' We recorded some of the shows. We saw that Amsterdam was the coolest one. It was one of the few venues where we could do the full show. Then we edited it and thought about what we were going to use it for. It wasn't until we talked about it with our promoter in Sweden, 'We don't know how we're going to put it out. The sales of Blu-rays and DVDs are pretty much gone. There's no distribution model for it.' We thought about streaming services but were not sure. We said, 'What about the cinema?'"

Blabbermouth: Did you learn anything about the movie industry?

Pär: "I can't say that I know so much about the movie business. I'm not a movie producer at all. We learned about the distribution model for cinemas. It wasn't any news to us that a lot of cinemas aren't doing that well. Since the launch of streaming services, they're looking for cool stuff to show. They were pretty happy to receive our movie and to have a concert film in the cinemas. It wasn't that easy. There are those distribution companies that already have cinemas connected. You turn to them, and they make sure that the cinema screens it. We did it the other way. It was way more work. This way, we could ensure that the distributors, when they took on the movie, knew they were excited about it. It's been a super-exciting trip. I'm very proud of what we've achieved so far."

Blabbermouth: Do you feel like this is one of your first real cracks at breaking into the mainstream?

Pär: "I still think it will be the core of SABATON fans going to this. I don't know if it's going to reach so far outside of our main fanbase. I hope, of course, that there are some random people who are like, 'What is this cool thing? I'm going to see it.' But I doubt that people who are not familiar with the band will discover us through this. It is, after all, work to get your ass off the sofa and go down to the cinema and pay the dollars to see the movie. I'm not sure that it's going to reach so far outside of our fanbase, but I hope."

Blabbermouth: You have said that this was your biggest production to date. What's the next step for SABATON in terms of a live show? How can it get bigger?

Pär: "We pretty much have the same, let's say, mentality for a long time. We max out what we can at those venues. You can't really go so much bigger in terms of production within these venues. If we go to the next step, which would be stadiums, we could do a new bar to be raised. We can't get so much bigger within these venues. There are some limits to what you can do financially with the ticket sales and also what you can build when doing a tour, like how much you can build during a day. We can fine-tune it and do a few things that look a little bit better if we do it again, but it's difficult to get that much more into our stage show."

Blabbermouth: Do you come away with any level of satisfaction from this? Or is it always a matter of topping what you've done?

Pär: "Of course, I'm satisfied with what we pulled together. It was so fun to play. We thought of so many details. We really put our hearts into it. I think the shows we did for 'The War To End All Wars' were perfected. It is what it was. We were all satisfied with every detail, but we always looked to the next challenge. It's like, 'All right. We did it. We did it really well. Now let's see what we can do next.' It's a natural way of progressing and evolving. We always have to fight with ourselves for everything we do. We don't really look to the industry and other people. We've always gone on our own road. We've ignored what other bands are doing and just looking into how we do it. I think SABATON has done a lot of stuff that other bands haven't done. We still have control. We have our own management; we are the management. We are the owners of all the rights. We control and run the mail order. We have our own history channel. Our own crews, festival. Our own magazine, a physical print, which I don't think so many others are doing these days. We will continue to do things our way. We always look to, 'Okay. We did this. Now, let's do something new.' But we are doing it."

Blabbermouth: Do you have a roadmap or plan for SABATON to break into stadiums in Europe?

Pär: "Of course we can. I'm not worried at all about that. It's just a matter of a little bit of time. We'll be there. We've already proven that SABATON can continue to grow. I have no doubt."

Blabbermouth: North America is a little harder to break. Do you have longer goals in mind considering the makeup of the territory?

Pär: "We have a lot of plans for America and you will soon be made aware of some of them. We know what works for us and that is to play shows. It's always been the strongest thing. We just played more shows in the past in Europe than we did in America. I'm not worried that SABATON will also become what we are in Europe and America. It will take a little bit longer time. We'll get there."

Blabbermouth: What have you learned from touring with JUDAS PRIEST over here? You're probably picking up a portion of their audience along the way.

Pär: "We've toured with a lot of bands over the years and take everything from them, so PRIEST is one of them. I think what we learned from this is that we have 25 years as a band. A couple of years ago, we toured with PRIEST on their 50th anniversary tour. They are more than twice our age and still enjoying it. It also means that the ups and downs of a band's career, like, 'All right. There are a couple of years where maybe not too many people show up; then you push through. A couple of years later, maybe more people show up at your gigs.' There are the ups and downs of a long career ahead of us. We have had 25 years. Sure, we've had a rocky road, but it's always pointed upward for us. What there is to learn about touring with bands like that in their career is that if it points down at some point, we have to push through and turn it around. Maybe it's the times that are changing, but giving ten more years and pushing through, maybe times will change again. We've learned over the years that we have existed as a band and also territories, regions, countries—sometimes you are more popular in one place and sometimes you can't play in a place. Then, a couple of years later, it's doable to play gigs there."

Blabbermouth: You bring up a valid point regarding North America. If you want to put a starting point down, perhaps it would be the release of "Carolus Rex" in 2012.

Pär: "That was also when we decided we would push harder. We didn't agree on that with everyone in the band. Since then, we have been able to work and have been pushing upwards. If it always doesn't go fast, it goes in the right direction. I'm happy about that. We've been a band for 25 years; we've been touring hard for 15 years. We have a lot of time to do this. I have no interest in a quick road and instant success. I'm totally cool with a slow and steady growth instead of a quick hit. What comes easy can also be lost easily. It's not so easy for us to lose the fans that we have built up slowly over the decades. I'm very comfortable with where we are."

Blabbermouth: Thinking ahead, where are you with the next studio album?

Pär: "We've been working on it a lot, and we are pretty far into the process. That's what I can say at the moment. [Laughs] We started to work on it last spring. Then, we took some breaks because of the tours. We took our time and we're taking our time because it needs to re-ignite something. I'm not going to tell people what it's about. It's not about the First World War; we've left the era behind. Now, it's something different. There's a lot of cool stuff we can do with it. We needed some time to work on everything around the songs. It's been super exciting."

Photo credit: Ryan Garrison