SABATON To Enter Studio In April

Metal Wani's editor in chief Owais "Vitek" Nabi recently conducted an interview with vocalist Joakim Brodén of Swedish metallers SABATON. You can now listen to the chat in the YouTube clip below.

Asked about SABATON's plans to work on the follow-up to 2014's "Heroes" abum, Joakim said: "We start recording in a few weeks. Actually, most of the songs are written. We're still finalizing some of the last songs. It's always good in the end when the time comes and you start doubting yourself. You should have that self-hatred and doubt, because then you punch… do the final push into the studio. So the plan is to record in April and part into May, and then we're doing the festival summer [season]. Our hope is to have the album in late summer [or] early autumn."

Even though the bulk of the music for SABATON's forthcoming CD has already been composed, Joakim says that he likes having a couple of extra tracks to consider when deciding on the final running order. "I don't wanna write fifty songs and choose the best one, because that means you didn't care about every song as much as you needed to, but I also want one or two songs too many written for the album, so you can feel the rhythm of the album," he explained. "We'll record them all anyway, and then we'll remove stuff, so we get a nice rhythm of the album."

As for the musical direction of the new SABATON material, Joakim said: "It's a mix of [the familiar SABATON style and some new elements]. It's the hardest line to walk there is, because if you take too big of a step, you are disappointing yourself and the fans, I guess, and if you do not have the guts to take any step at all, you're also gonna disappoint yourself and the fans."

He continued: "We never set out to change in a specific direction. I mean, we always have some odd songs on some albums — let's say 'Cliffs Of Gallipoli', which is our SAVATAGE-meets-MEAT LOAF-meets SABATON piano thing. And I think it's cool, as long as it's within the realm of rock music. Some songs are a bit harder than normal; some songs are a bit softer than normal. We said, 'Instead of focusing on go harder or slower, let's focus on be better.' And better sometimes means harder. Better sometimes means softer."

SABATON released a special, three-disc limited-edition deluxe version of "Heroes" in the U.S. and Canada in April 2015 via Nuclear Blast.

Limited to 5,000 copies, this deluxe edition includes two discs of live audio recorded on the 2014 Sabaton Cruise in addition to the original ten "Heroes" album tracks.

Released on May 16, 2014 via Nuclear Blast Records, the "Heroes" cover artwork was created by Péter Sallai. A number of bonus tracks were made available, including cover versions of songs originally written and recorded by METALLICA, BATTLE BEAST and RAUBTIER.

"Heroes" was tracked at The Abyss, the recording studio in Pärlby outside Ludvika, Sweden owned and operated by record producer and musician Peter Tägtgren (HYPOCRISY, PAIN).