On May 21, 2017, the heavens wept as Swedish power metal gods Sabaton played a sold out show on a Sunday night at The Underground in Charlotte, NC. This momentous occasion did not go unnoticed by lead singer Joakim Brodén, as it was the eve of the final show of their first headlining US tour.
After making the drive to Charlotte, we arrived early at The Underground to find a rain-soaked line of SpongeBob and day-glo at least 300 people deep. Remembering there was a Ninja Sex Party concert next door at The Fillmore, we breathed a collective sigh of relief and made our way to the door.
We entered a venue whose sole purpose was to rock. If you’ve never been there, The Underground is a small, but great, venue with multiple bars and no bad seats. Sound check was underway, and everyone was running around getting ready for the show.At this point, it was nearly time for the show to start, so we dug into a good spot and waited as everyone started to pour in.
First up, was the amazing symphonic metal band Leaves’ Eyes. Neither of us really knew what to expect from this band, and the experience can best be summed up in two words: Holy Shit!
Leaves’ Eyes was fantastic. This Norwegian-Germanic supergroup combines the voice of Liv Kristine (Theatre of Tragedy) with the entirety of famed German death metal band (former grindcore), Atrocity. The two lead singers, Liv and Krull (Atrocity), work incredibly well together, blending her melodic, operatic voice with his death metal growls to form a “beauty and the beast” arrangement that when combined with the blistering guitar work of Pete Streit was quite memorable. Most of their material draws heavily from Norse mythology, as you might expect given their pedigree.
They played a relatively short set (seven songs) including an encore in which Krull returned to the stage wearing a battle-helm and swinging a very large sword to perform Blazing Waters to huge crowd approval.
Next up, Battle Beast hit the stage opening with “Straight to the Heart” from their current album Bringer of Pain. This was another short set, with a few familiar songs, like “Black Ninja” and (my favorite) “Bastard Son of Odin.” I like these guys, but I’m not a huge fan of them live. They’ve got A LOT going on at once, and the live experience loses some of the clarity you get in the studio. Still… they put on a good show and Noora Louhimo sounded amazing as always.
After a short break, the lights went out, and the music started. It was time to go to war, and Sabaton did not disappoint. They opened with “Ghost Division,” followed by “The Art of War,” and by the third song in, “Blood of Bannockburn” (one of my personal favorites), I thought my face was going to melt off like that scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark (you know the one).
The setlist, below, reads like a greatest hits album, and Joakim Brodén thanked the crowd repeatedly for showing up on a Sunday night. At one point in the evening, they played fan choice “Gott mit uns,” with vocals in Swedish (by overwhelming audience vote), and the place went nuts.
They followed this up with the declaration that this was their first headlining tour and they could play whatever they want, for as long as they want, and then launched into the opening guitar riffs from Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.” After a few seconds, they all laughed (fucking Swedes, man…) and got back to business with “Resist and Bite.”
Simply put, this was an incredible show. If you had a chance to go, and you missed it, you should be kicking yourself in the ass for the next year until they return. This show gets a perfect 5 Metal Boots! We had a great time, and can’t wait to see them again.
SABATON SETLIST
Ghost Division
The Art of War
Blood of Bannockburn
Attero Dominatus
The Last Stand
Union (Slopes of St. Benedict)
Sparta
Screaming Eagles
Carolus Rex
Gott mit uns
Resist and Bite
The Lost Battalion
Winged Hussars
Night Witches
Primo Victoria
ENCORES
Shiroyama
To Hell and Back
