Legends

After 20 years of writing historically based albums that deal with specific wars and specific time periods, Swedish power metal champions Sabaton decided to do something different on their 11th studio album. *Legends* recounts the stories of famous warriors across many time periods and many lands, from history book fixtures like Genghis Khan and Joan of Arc to lesser-known figures (at least in the West) like Lü Bu, China’s Flying General, and the wandering samurai Miyamoto Musashi. “We wanted to sing about so many of these people for such a long time, but they never fit the theme or concept of the albums we’ve been writing,” vocalist and songwriter Joakim Brodén tells Apple Music. “We are probably idiots not to realize this before, but they do all have something in common—the Templars, Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Joan of Arc—they’re all legends. We usually love to dig up stuff that nobody’s ever heard about before, so we had to give a little bit on that to make this record. Obviously, you wouldn’t be a legend if you weren’t well-known.” Below, Brodén details each track. **“Templars”** “This was one of the first subjects we designated when we talked about different legends we could sing about. We already had some musical ideas, and we felt right away that this would be the Templars song. I sent a demo of an intro, pre-chorus, and chorus to \[bassist\] Pär \[Sundström\] and asked him, ‘Which legend?’ And he answered right away, ‘Templars.’ So we were on the same page.” **“Hordes of Khan”** “Genghis Khan was also one of the first legends that came to mind. The song did give us a bit of a problem with the music video, though, because going out on the Mongolian steppes, learning how to ride horses, and filming that is certainly out of our budget. And we wouldn’t have survived, probably. So we did a very different video there, with a little bit of a nod to *Night at the Museum*. And this is a tricky one live. It’s got a lot of syllables, and the verses are long. Every time we come to halfway through the first chorus, I’m like, ‘I need a break.’” **“A Tiger Among Dragons”** “This is about the ‘Flying General,’ Lü Bu. I had heard the name, maybe in a game like *Dynasty Warriors* or something, but it was Pär who came across him. At that time, me and \[guitarist\] Chris \[Rörland\] and \[guitarist\] Thobbe \[Englund\] were working on this song idea with a lot of war drums going on because we wanted to utilize a different soundscape. So my mind went, ‘War drums, Chinese general—yes. That’s what we’re looking for.’ Pär wrote the lyrics on this one and had this great idea where in the pre-choruses we would have a female choir repeating, just before the chorus starts, and calling in a whisper. A lot of the little details like that make this song sound different.” **“Crossing the Rubicon”** “This one was a very late addition. We didn’t have a Julius Caesar song yet, which annoyed us to bits. The same goes for Alexander the Great, but everything I wrote around that idea was pretty much shit. So we put Alexander aside and focused on Caesar. A sound engineer friend of ours who I’ve been writing music with before had some ideas for a song, and that triggered me creatively. We started bouncing ideas back and forth and came up with this nice Caesar idea just weeks before recording started.” **“I, Emperor”** “This is our Napoleon song, but nowhere in the lyrics does it say anything about Napoleon. In the bridge, it says, ‘Soldiers of my old guard, I’ve come to bid you all farewell…’ That’s the speech Napoleon gave to his guard before going into exile, but you’re going to have to know your history. We made it quite complicated, but many fans figured it out already. Musically, it’s very Sabaton—all the classic elements are there. I’m insanely proud of the pre-chorus because it’s beautiful and catchy and has this little suspended chord that is giving it a French vibe somehow.” **“Maid of Steel”** “We couldn’t resist the wordplay here. It’s cheesy, but we thought it was cheesy in the right way. This is our Joan of Arc song, and to me, it feels like how I wrote songs 15 years ago, or maybe more. It was very instinctive. I think what I heard in this song is that it’s like you’re running, but you’re almost falling forward, and you have to run faster to keep up. You’ve got to stay alert. I think this turned out better than expected, because as a songwriter, it’s easy to underestimate the songs that came really easy and fast like this. Just as it’s easy to overestimate the songs you worked really long and hard for.” **“Impaler”** “This one is funny for us, because Vlad the Impaler is a legendary figure, for sure, but is he legendary because of a work of fiction? How many people would know Vlad the Impaler if we didn’t have Bram Stoker’s *Dracula*? I think less than 10 percent of the people who know him today. And the song is the story of the historical figure, not Dracula. But the fact that myth exists around him, or that this work of fiction exists around him, makes it even more fun.” **“Lightning at the Gates”** “This is one of the trickiest ones in many ways, because Hannibal is a very well-documented figure and a great general. The story of him crossing the Alps is an iconic one, and that’s the image I had in my mind as we were making the music, so we went with that. But by only talking about him crossing the Alps and not his triumph at the Battle of Cannae, it feels like we’re doing him a disservice almost. So that’s one where we had to lean into the emotional language of the song. You can’t always try and squeeze in all the information and facts that you would like.” **“The Duelist”** “The legend of Miyamoto Musashi, the wandering samurai, was one I was familiar with—at least of him as a swordsman. When I started doing my deep research for the song, I realized there was much more to this guy than just being a warrior. He was a philosopher and an author, and I realized I could not leave that out of the lyrics. So I had to read his book, *The Book of Five Rings*. It’s not at all a light read, but if you are into Japanese culture or that sort of philosophy, I recommend it absolutely.” **“The Cycle of Songs”** “Senusret was one of the great pharaohs of Egypt. There aren’t many cultures or civilizations you can go this far back with and still have a solid writing system or any kind of record of what went on. In this case, we have a record. What’s cool about Senusret is that he was a military commander who was deified by his people while he was still alive—declared God, basically. While that was normal once a pharaoh died, it was unusual while they were living. His subjects wrote songs and hymns in his honor, and that’s the only material we could find that wasn’t really boring archeology, so we went with that.” **“Till Seger”** “This is one our drummer Hannes \[Van Dahl\] came up with. The main theme of the song really sounds like a Swedish folk melody, so we couldn’t get away from the fact that it sounded like Sweden to us. Me and Pär argued about what legend to do for this song, because Sweden does not have legends on par with Caesar. Few countries do. But the one we have, Gustavus Adolphus II—the Lion from the North, as he was known—we already covered him on \[Sabaton’s 2012 album\] *Carolus Rex*. But then Pär said, ‘It’s our album. Who says we can’t do it again?’ So we rolled with it. Unfortunately, there aren’t many people who will understand the lyrics. But you don’t have to know every detail about what is being said to enjoy the song.”

As brilliant as they are ridiculous, Sabaton continue to bathe in the blood of rivals on fortress-crushing 11th album.

After several albums that explored the conflicts and calamities of the 20th century, SABATON have headed much further back in time for their 11th full-length album. "Legends" eschews the focus and narrow, temporal view of recent efforts in favor of a handful of stories, honoring mercurial figures in...

Phil Cooper reviews the new album from power metallers Sabaton. Read his review of 'Legends' here on Distorted Sound!

A review of Legends by Sabaton, available October 17th worldwide via Better Noise Music.