Anyone familiar with Swedish heavy metal heroes SABATON will know that their love and passion for incorporating lyrical subject matter of war and history runs deep throughout their career. From their albums such as The Art of War or Carolus Rex, their highly militaristic stage show, or their recent endeavour with the Sabaton History Channel on YouTube, the Swedes’ passion for history is more than evident. Now, SABATON are on the cusp of releasing their ninth studio record The Great War, no guessing what the concept is there this time round, and will headline this year’s Bloodstock Festival. Ahead of the album’s launch next week, we asked vocalist Joakim Brodén and bassist Pär Sundström to share with us their top five historical moments in no particular order!

D-Day (June 6th, 1944)

Joakim Brodén: I’m gonna go with D-Day for one, partly because it’s the beginning of the victory. In a way the beginning of what is known for today so it’s not only historically important but for me on a personal level too.

Armistice Day (November 11th, 1918)

Pär Sundström: I guess Armistice Day, where you could hear the cheering from Switzerland all the way up to North of France when the war ended [on] 11/11.

The Winged Hussars [Battle of Vienna] (September 12th, 1683)

Pär: The Charge of the Winged Hussars. This would be because I think that this has also inspired so many people. It has inspired Tolkien to write parts of The Lord Of The Rings trilogies.

Joakim: Riders of Rohan…

Pär: …and the attack on Helm’s Deep.

The Galipoli Campaign (February 17th, 1915 – January 9th, 1916)

Joakim: I guess also for me Galipoli. Emotionally for me I guess. Knowing of the story and the hell. For us knowing and writing the songs, and then going there and it looks like paradise and then you almost stumble into a trench and you are reminded of the hell that happened there. And there’s the reconciliation that there is no bad blood between New Zealanders and Australians. They go to Turkey every year and they go to celebrate and remember. There’s no bad blood between them that’s cool.

The Coronation Of Carolux Rex (December 14th, 1697)

Pär: The coronation of Carolus Rex. There would be a sort of a parade through the city and guns are firing and basically the whole country should be there.

Joakim: Yeah that crazy thing where they wouldn’t let the bishop crown him either. He would take the crown [and say] this is between me and God and nobody else. He was a bit of a mad man, bit of a megalomaniac.

Witold Pilecki (1940-1943)

Pär: All wars are horrible, so all of the stuff that we write about are horrible, but they can be exciting and interesting too. I think one of the most interesting stories we ever covered was reading about Witold Pilecki. He was a Polish guy who volunteered to be put into Auschwitz, faked his ID that he would be put into Auschwitz to infiltrate it and escape from there with all the information that he thought he would need with the proof of what was going on inside of there. He took it all the way to the people who would be in charge of deciding whether or not they could stop it. Realising they didn’t stop it and then try to do it all himself. I think that’s the story that is the most inspiring and one of the most important things that we have covered.

Joakim: Going to Auschwitz basically in person, infiltrating it, going back trying to get something to happen and they didn’t believe him so he goes back to fight in the wars of uprising. After doing that, he’s captured (and this is the most ironic thing) the Soviet Union comes rolling in and he’s executed as a traitor. Of course that was what they said, but they obviously didn’t want a hero who could lead a rebellion against them.

Norwegian Heavy Water Sabotage (1940-1944)

Pär: Our song Saboteurs is about the Norwegian sabotage of the water and the prevention of Germany to create the first atomic bomb and that would be an interesting story. It’s obviously covered in multiple movies and books and just how it was actually done and performed is a really deep and very interesting story.

The Great War is set for release 19th July via Nuclear Blast Records.

Like SABATON on Facebook.