Written by:	Baz Anderson
Published:	October 17, 2010
Event:	Sabaton: World War Tour (Website)
Location:	Corporation, Sheffield, United Kingdom
Galleries:	Sabaton, Alestorm - Sheffield, England, 16th October 2010 by Baz Anderson (46)

A dark and wet Autumnal Sheffield would tonight become a war-field. The Swedish Sabaton were in town, and ready to take us all to the trenches. One year on from Sabaton's last tour over here, this time finding themselves the headliner, and also selling the venue out - a feat DragonForce couldn't do as headliners last year. Before the main event however, there was a matter of some Finnish guys and pirates to attend to first.




Thaurorod took the stage to a great audience, already up for a night of fun. The Finnish guys tentatively took the stage, but soon found their rhythm with the aid of a jubilant audience firmly behind the band. Musically they sounded like a hybrid of all the big Finnish bands out there today, all encompassing within a stereotypically keyboard-laden coating. The band didn't give a great deal to remember, but they certainly did have their great points and did a good job entertaining the audience.



The venue was about to become twice as packed as everyone's favourite, Alestorm were about to bring their circus into town. Opening with "Heavy Metal Pirates" the band gave somewhat of an impression of being more down to business tonight, while still not escaping from their fun, party sound they bring to the audience. The sounds coming from the keyboard do get somewhat irritating over time, Alestorm really do bring a cross between metal and circus music that does have a wide range of possible effects on people from eccentric worship to total disgust. As it was, Alestorm put on a somewhat resigned, but still extremely entertaining show for the baying pirates and wenches of the audience.



Sabaton are loved in Britain, and so it is no surprise that after an introduction of Europe's "The Final Countdown", the room exploded with energy with the cheese and pomp of "Ghost Division" to kick things off. Joakim made sure the Sheffield knew that they were (honestly) the loudest city on the tour so far, and by the reaction from the crowd after every song, that is actually very believable. It had seemed the whole midlands of England had travelled to Sheffield for this one, and weren't going to let the band go without a chant after each song.



Energy extremely high, the up-beat "40:1" seemed to push everyone over the edge, as from "Final Solution" onwards, it seemed the audience were trying to recover in the extremely packed, hot and sticky room. "Price Of A Mile" was a great addition to the setlist, not being one of the fastest songs, but having a great methodical stomp along with some great lyrics.



Somewhat of an encore later, and the energy levels were rising to the brink once more. "Coat Of Arms" sounded fantastic, but it was with "Primo Victoria" that the room jumped up and down to what could be the band's signature song. The show eventually had to come to an end, and even though the room was hot and stuffy, you would be hard pushed to find someone who hadn't just experienced an amazing show from one of the hottest bands in this country right now. Britain loves Sabaton, and it would seem the feeling is mutual.







An interview with both Sabaton guitarists Rickard and Oskar be seen at this location.

Thanks to Adam for the accreditation.
Written by Barry Anderson.
Photos by Barry Anderson.