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Metal Hammer

Entertainment

Rich Hobson

"They're this generation's Iron Maiden." Canons, gas masks, castles and hellfire: power metal's biggest band Sabaton just conquered the UK's biggest arena

Sabaton Iron Maiden United Kingdom Napoleon Bonaparte

Sabaton are this generation's Iron Maiden. Theatricality? Check. Songs about historical events? Check. Enormous, bar-raising live shows? Big ol' check. But more than that, the Swedes are challenging themselves and reinventing their live experience between tours, keeping up with the kind of mega-live extravaganzas we've come to expect thanks to the likes of Parkway Drive, Ghost and even rising stars like Castle Rat.

So here we are: power metal's biggest band, playing the biggest arena in the UK. Manchester's Co-Op Live might not be sold out, but the 10,000 odd-fans who are here fill the space comfortably. And where they don't, Sabaton's impressive stage production surely does.

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Let's get something out the way early: there's no tanks this time. They might've been "the tank band" for the better part of a decade, but after taking that theme to its logical conclusion with the bonkers Tour To End All Tours in 2023, this time they've gone for something completely different.

A massive castle has been erected on the main stage, but the show actually starts over on the small B-stage in the middle of the room. There, Napoleon Bonaparte - or an actor with an accent straight out of 'Allo 'Allo at least - introduces the theme of the band's new album: Legends, a colourful cast of historical figures soon jostling Napoleon for the spotlight in the form of Genghis Khan, Julius Caeser and a Templar Knight.

It sets the tone for the night ahead; heavy metal panto, but with Monty Python's sense of humour and more pops and bangs than a wildfire hitting a firework factory. Sabaton have taken to arena shows like ducks to water, and even with a healthy showing of newer tunes in the set - Templars, Crossing The Rubicon, A Tiger Among Dragons - the sheer bombast and energy of each song makes them feel like well-worn anthems, a chance to howl along and risk tennis elbow from over-enthusiastic fist-pumps.

Between the pillars of fire, exploding cannons, a full backing choir and a cast of costumed extras, Sabaton spare no effort to put on the best show possible (at one point, the band thank their hundred-member plus crew who help them put everything together). But Sabaton aren't limited to their stage, either. It's a striking sight to see them marching across a bridge that dangles above thousands of fans below, but even more impressive when a masked, gas-spraying Joakim Brodén goes on a march through the middle of the crowd, getting right up close to the audience.

Even accounting for metal's history of stunning, maximalist live shows, it feels like something we've never really seen before and certainly not on this scale. If you're worried about what the future of metal might hold, rest assured: Sabaton prove heavy metal is as innovative, inspiring and gleefully OTT as ever.