"Heroes", the latest album from Swedish metallers SABATON, was recently certified gold in the group's home country for sales in excess of 20,000 copies. The band states: "With 'Carolus Rex', it took until middle of September until it reached gold, and now 'Heroes' has achieved the same status in much shorter time. We are eternally thankful and could not think of any better way to celebrate then to start our Swedish open-air tour today. Thank you all for supporting us and music in general!" Note: The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) in Sweden has revised the sales requirements for albums to reach gold status in the country twice in the last seven years from the pre-2002 level of 40,000 to the current 20,000. "Heroes" sold around 3,100 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 99 on The Billboard 200 chart. Released on May 16 via Nuclear Blast Records, the "Heroes" cover artwork was created by Péter Sallai. A number of bonus tracks were made available, including cover versions of songs originally written and recorded by METALLICA, BATTLE BEAST and RAUBTIER. "Heroes" was tracked at The Abyss, the recording studio in Pärlby outside Ludvika, Sweden owned and operated by record producer and musician Peter Tägtgren (HYPOCRISY, PAIN). In a recent interview with The Metalithic, SABATON vocalist Joakim Brodén stated about the songwriting process for "Heroes": "As I was writing the album, I was suffering from extreme performance anxiety since this is the first album with the new lineup, and if I had fucked up and written a bad album, everybody would have blamed the new boys." SABATON played its first show with new drummer Hannes Van Dahl on November 16, 2013 at the Metal Hammer Paradise festival in Germany. SABATON recently toured the U.S. and Canada as direct support to American metallers ICED EARTH on their "Worldwide Plagues" North American trek. Opening each show on the six-week tour were Dutch metallers REVAMP (featuring NIGHTWISH singer Floor Jansen).
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