Video Premiere: SABATON's 'Fields Of Verdun'

Swedish heavy metal heroes SABATON have released the official music video for the song "Fields Of Verdun". The track is the first single from the band's ninth full-length album, "The Great War", which is due on July 19 via Nuclear Blast Records. The band's 20th-anniversary record will be a concept effort covering stories from the First World War.

Bassist Pär Sundström comments: "We chose 'Fields Of Verdun' to be the first single since we felt it represent the album perfect, a classic SABATON metal song which we cannot wait to include in the future setlists.

"The story of the battle of Verdun is also very representative for the album since it has all elements that identifies with 'The Great War'. Verdun is so much WW1 that we decided to hold the first album presentation in this city, inviting journalists from around the world to not just hear the album, but also understand the story behind it.

"It is the first single from the upcoming album even if we just released 'Bismarck', but that song is not from the upcoming album. We decided to write 'Bismarck' outside the album since the story does not connect to WW1 and also that it was recorded at a different time. The meaning of this song was a tribute to all fans who have contributed over the years by sending us ideas for future songs, please continue with that!"

"The Great War" track listing:

01. The Future Of Warfare
02. Seven Pillars Of Wisdom
03. 82nd All The Way
04. The Attack Of The Dead Men
05. Devil Dogs
06. The Red Baron
07. Great War
08. A Ghost In The Trenches
09. Fields Of Verdun
10. The End Of The War To End All Wars
11. In Flanders Fields

SABATON started recording "The Great War" exactly 100 years after the end of the First World War (November 11, 1918) and took three months of intensive work to complete the album with longtime producer and collaborator Jonas Kjellgren at Black Lounge studios. The disc was mastered by Maor Appelbaum and the artwork was once again created by Peter Sallaí.

"This is not the first time we sing about stories from this period in time, but now we felt the timing was right to make a full concept album about this war," the band said.

Side by side with the album, the Swedes have worked hard to make their 20th year anniversary a very exciting year, and also started the SABATON History Channel — a unique collaboration between the band and multimedia historians Indy Neidell and Timeghost, capturing the power of social media to tell stories about the wars, battles and heroes behind SABATON's songs.

"This is the biggest album we have taken on so far. There is so much depth and story around the songs that we never had before," bassist Pär Sundström states. "Expect many surprises as we have tried new things and we also went back in time to a concept we know a lot of you love. 'The Great War' has been created side by side with the SABATON History Channel to make 2019 the most exciting year in our 20-year history.”

SABATON's new disc is the group's first with guitarist Tommy Johansson (GOLDEN RESURRECTION, REINXEED),who replaced Thobbe Englund in 2016.