SABATON's JOAKIM BRODÉN Already Has 'Some Fun Ideas' For Follow-Up To 'Legends' Album

In a new interview with Jason Saulnier, Joakim Brodén, vocalist and frontman of Swedish metallers SABATON, spoke about a possible follow-up to the band's eleventh album, "Legends", which came out in October 2025. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We're always working on music, but it's not until we hit songwriting mode where we go all in. Everybody in the band writes music. I'm the main songwriter, and it never really stops, so I'm always playing around with music because it's fun. I usually take a break for six months or so after we've recorded an album because being part of the pre-production and songwriting and then all of the recording and the mixing, I'm pretty blown out by music at that point. So I usually don't write or do anything for six months. But after that, I start getting ideas, but I might not... I'm not finishing a song, if you know what I mean. I'll write half of a song, and if I hit a wall, I'll just [say], 'Okay, leave that for later.' It's fun to gather all ideas and inspiration, and then I start working with whatever I got when it's time to make a new album.

"We're still touring on ['Legends'], but, yeah, I have some fun ideas. But I don't know what... We don't actually know what we're gonna do with the next album, theme-wise, because we usually have a theme with our albums. We're still trying to figure that out. We have a bunch of ideas, obviously, but which one we're going with, I have no idea [as of] now."

Brodén also talked about SABATON's musical progression, particularly since the band's debut album, "Primo Victoria", came out more than two decades ago. He said: "When we make the album, I'm okay with it, [with] every song, [and] I know that I tried my best at least. And if I listen back to some of the first stuff from the first album, yeah, I wouldn't do it that way today. [Laughs] I think any songwriter would have the same problem. In the beginning, you might have the ideas but not the experience to make it into a song. These days it's... The trouble is more getting that unique cool idea. If you have that great idea, it's really easy, with 20 years-plus of experience to make that into a SABATON song. So, [there are] advantages [and there are] disadvantages, but I guess… I think both from a songwriting and production-wise, it is a slight upgrade, but I also realize, depending on... Since we're not a revolutionary band, but we're an evolutionary band, so there might be not too much difference between album four and five, but if you listen to album two and eight, there's been some evolution going on. So I guess it depends on what era of our songwriting or the sound we had do people prefer, and it goes with any band as well. If you discover a band, let's say you're in your late teens, whichever era that was where you discovered that band and whatever blew you away, that's always gonna be your era of that band. Whatever came before, you might discover that or after, but there's always gonna be whatever you discovered that artist with. And that's hard to compete with. But I guess as long as we try and do our best and actually enjoy what we're doing, we can live with it and hopefully enough people are gonna enjoy it so we can keep doing it."

Last week, SABATON released a new version of the band's 2025 hit "Templars" featuring Leigh Kakaty of platinum-certified, chart-topping rock powerhouse POP EVIL. The song is now available on all DSPs and digital download providers via Better Noise Music.

The new single arrived on the heels of "Yamato", in which SABATON partnered with the popular online video game "World Of Warships" and its developer Wargaming. Since its release in March, the single continues to buzz with north of 7.5 million Spotify streams, while the music video has tallied 4.6 million views alone, landing looks at Blabbermouth, Metal Injection, NME and more. Meanwhile, Louder raved, "'Yamato' is yet another stirring, oh-so-epic tune to be added to their arsenal."

The band had previously partnered with World Of Warships and Wargaming for "Bismarck" in 2019. Among the most popular tunes in SABATON's catalog, the latter has garnered more than 124 million Spotify streams to date, while the gripping music video has tallied over 111 million views and counting. Landing plugs from Metal Insider, Blabbermouth, Ghost Cult magazine and more, Revolver magazine praised, "SABATON has made a career by writing kickass hooks about extremely specific moments of military history, and between Wargaming's world-class attention to detail and the band's artillery nerdom, this was a match made in heaven."

SABATON also dropped its latest full-length offering, "Legends", at the end of 2025. Beyond racking up nearly 200 million total streams, it incited the applause of Kerrang! who rated it 4/5 and raved, "SABATON do one thing, and after 11 albums there doesn't appear to be an off switch. But by Odin, they do that one thing better than anyone else." Louder marveled at how "it does stretch their battlefield into something closer to a cinematic universe, with them still marching at the front of power metal's ranks."

SABATON will embark on the "Legends On Tour" trek across North America this month. The tour kicks off on September 23 in Halifax, Nova Scotia and wraps on December 12 in Fort Lauderdale. POP EVIL and WINGS OF STEEL will serve as support. The band will also bring "The Legendary Tour Part 2" to Europe in April 2027, following the huge success of the first tour that saw them sell out enormous shows at London's O2 Arena and Manchester's Co-op Live.