SABATON Frontman: 'If We Can Make Somebody Laugh And Crack A Smile, Then All Good'

In a brand new interview with California Rock News, vocalist Joakim Brodén of Swedish metallers SABATON was asked about his band's knack for injecting humor into its live performances. "It came slowly over time," he admitted. "You look at SABATON these days. The camo pants, the image with military history, it looks like it was well thought out, but it's just like whatever worked stayed. The rest we kind of took away. So there was never a master plan. We enjoy playing heavy metal, so, in the beginning, if you look really way back, we were trying to be cool, or trying to look evil, or, you know, all of this. But in the end, at a certain point, you're having so much fun one night, you're laughing and you start making jokes that you normally wouldn't do, you guys start making fun of each other on stage because everybody was in a good mood and the crowd was in a party mood and then the crowd went wild. It's, like, 'We don't have to look evil and shit? All right! So we can take a piss out of each other like we were doing on the tour bus. Okay.' Yeah so, slowly but surely, more of that comes in, so there was never any time where we said we should have more humor in our show, but over the years , slowly but surely, things come in. And, I mean, sometimes we take it too far as well. Of course, we dialed it back then, because we ourselves realized, you know, oh, well, it's becoming some kind of stupid caberet. No, we're a metal band, let's focus on that and if we get a good idea or a good joke, sure let's do it, but let's focus on the music. That's the main thing, but if we can make somebody laugh and crack a smile, then all good."

SABATON's eighth album, "The Last Stand", was released in August 2016 via Nuclear Blast. The follow-up to 2014's "Heroes" was once again produced by Peter Tägtgren (PAIN, LINDEMANN, HYPOCRISY).

Earlier this month, SABATON kicked off a North American co-headlining tour with German thrash veterans KREATOR.

SABATON bassist Pär Sundström told Sticks For Stones in a recent interview that the band will not "do that much touring" in 2018. "We have been touring extensively the last years, and we did a lot in 2017 and 2016," he said. "In 2018, we need to focus on a new album. We have to take a little bit of time off from touring and focus on a new album. It's difficult to keep up the songwriting cycle that you used to have when you're touring more than ever, so we will have to take a little bit of a break in touring to make a new album."

SABATON in 2016 parted ways with guitarist Thobbe Englund and replaced him with Tommy Johansson (GOLDEN RESURRECTION, REINXEED).