Swedish metallers SABATON were recently forced to postpone their European arena tour, which was supposed to happen in March/April 2022, "due to continuing COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on global live events and travel." However, SABATON frontman Joakim Brodén told Finland's Tuonela magazine that he and his bandmates are still expecting to return to the road later this year. "That's our main priority," he said. "And the only reason that we are not on tour is that we physically can't or aren't physically allowed. It will take the threat of prison or bankruptcy to stop us from doing that. Unfortunately, when it comes to touring, dealing with a tour in several countries is much more complicated than a single one because of governments. So that's, unfortunately, the reason why we had to postpone the European tour. While in certain countries, everyone gave us 'thumbs up' and it's clear, we can do it, in other places, it was unclear, in certain places it was a clear 'no,' and at that point we can't physically do the tour, which is sad. But new plans are being made at the moment. And I am not too pessimistic, actually, about 2022. Actually, quite the opposite. I get to fucking go on stage again. And that's a great thing." SABATON will be touring in support of its tenth studio album, "The War To End All Wars", which is due on March 4, 2022 via Nuclear Blast Records. The concept LP of 11 brand-new songs was written and recorded during the COVID-19 global pandemic and once again dives deep into the atrocities, miracles, and events tied to the early 20th century's World War I. In a recent interview with Canada's The Metal Voice, Brodén said about the musical direction of SABATON's new material: "It's very much a SABATON album in that way. We've been an evolutionary band always and not a revolutionary band. There's always surprises on a SABATON album but we're never gonna flip the coin and do something totally different on every song on a new album. There's gonna be surprises on every album. "It's always subjective," he continued. "I think it's pathetic when an artist goes, 'It's the best album we've ever made,' and they keep promoting the same tired line. I say it's up to the listener to decide that, but I know for a fact that everybody in the band, without even sitting in the same room together, because I sort of shipped out the pre-mixes to everyone, and everybody — this is the only time in our history this has happened — everybody came back with, 'Fuck. That sounds great.' Everybody is super happy with the production. We were always happy before, but it was, like, 'Maybe this, maybe that.' Now it was more like, 'Okay, yeah, I have some suggestions and ideas, but wow.' We're really happy with the sound." SABATON is considered to be one the most important bands to emerge from the Swedish modern metal scene, having been honored with five Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards (including "Best Live Band" three different years) and nominated several times for the Swedish equivalent of the Grammy Awards, the Grammis. In 2016, SABATON's "The Last Stand" album debuted at No. 1 in three different European countries and cracked the Top 3 in four others. Joakim Brodén (vocals), Pär Sundström (bass), Chris Rörland (guitar), Hannes Van Dahl (drums) and Tommy Johansson (guitar) curate a festival of their own, Sabaton Open Air, that started back in 2008, as well as their own forward-thinking Sabaton Cruise which has been held since 2009.
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