An Awkward Awakening

The air fell heavy on the fields of Dessel, Belgium on this warm evening on the 27th June 2014. Harris Brown, a big fan of both Sabaton and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic stood in the front rows before Main Stage 2 where soon his favourite band of all time was going to appear for a 1-and-a-half-hour-set. The excitement in his eyes shone with the intensity of a thousand suns as he held his dearest fan souvenir, a little Rainbow Dash plushie, in his right hand. In his mind the character voiced by Ashleigh Ball would definitely enjoy a show of these titans of Power Metal who sang about the happenings of wars throughout history with unmatched enthusiasm. An awesome character like her would love Sabaton, even though it would never come to her seeing a Sabaton show.

Finally, after the Black Metal legends Behemoth had cleared the stage, the Sabaton introduction song "The March to War" started playing. The crowd roared like the entire German Luftwaffe dive-bombing the event grounds, the atmosphere became highly charged with an energy the likes Harris had only felt rarely; it felt utterly amazing! Hannes Van Dahl took the stage, sitting behind his drum kit and drumming along with the song as per usual, soon followed by Pär Sundström, Chris Röhrland and Thorbjörn "Thobbe" Englund. The final seconds of the introduction rang out, and as per usual, Hannes blasted away on his drums, producing a drum roll for the arrival of everyone's favourite vocalist; Joakim Brodén.

The floor started to shake with the intensity of the double bass drum and Brodén's thunderous voice announcing the band and the first song of most sets the band played since the release of "The Art of War"; "Ghost Division". The song about the titular Ghost Division tells the story of a Panzer Division under Erwin Rommel on the Wesern Front during World War II. They were dubbed the Ghost Division after covering 200 miles in a single day, pushing the front line northwards from Champagne to Dunkirk. Joakim couldn't help but smile after finishing the song. Harris knew that he lived to be on stage and entertain his fans, and seeing the fans enjoy themselves always put a huge smile on his face.

But as is the case at live shows, there's no time to rest on the huge stage packed with military gear, from guns and helmets welded together to form the microphone stands to impressive pyrotechnical battle tanks that served as a pedestal for the drum set. The intro to the next song had already started; A whistling sound from the speakers formed a melody that went directly to the heart. Sabaton had just released a new album by the title of "Heroes" in which they sang of the heroic tales of soldiers and commanders in World War II. This album also featured this song called "To Hell and Back" about a young man called Audie Murphy who ended up being one of the most decorated soldiers of America. However the song doesn't directly focus on his deeds in the war but more his struggle to live on after it with a severe case of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Harris had meanwhile forced his way to the second row, wanting to have a chance at a hand shake with his heroes. Out of nowhere a fist flew at his face; the girl before him was windmilling her arms like wild and had hit him under the chin by accident. She immediately turned around to apologise for her carelessness; a sense of humanity he didn't often see at shows like this. Apparently shows on the continent where much tamer than those in his native UK...

A brief break in the set after "Carolus Rex" saw Joakim talking to his audience the first time that night. "Holy fuck, Grasspop! I really have no fuckin' idea what I should say..." The crowd laughed hysterically at Joakim's speeches every time, but this time it was more of a confused chuckle as he seemed to try very hard to keep a laugh of his own in. "You know, this is our fifth time at this festival, and I saw the vods for every single one of our performances here..." The crowd was trying hard to think of a reason he would say this to the audience tonight. It seemed kind of off for him to bring this up, but the crowd rolled with it, if only a bit less enthusiastic. "What the fuck was wrong with you guys the first four times we were her?" A collective "Huh?" was heard, Harris himself thought there was a shit storm brewing between the band and the audience on this night. "We fucked up a lot at those four shows... And apparently you guys were either too high or too drunk to notice." He burst out laughing and couldn't stop for about half a minute. "Anyway, it is so great to see all of you stayed this late to see us. We're all really happy you guys are here. But back to the important things... Just two weeks ago we had the pleasure of walking along the fortifications in the woods near Bastogne, where the 101st Airborne Division held their ground against the Nazis; you may know them as THE SCREAMING EEEEAAAGGGLLLEEESS!"

Furious head banging followed as the band struck up their song about an American paratrooper division that was one of the few divisions sent into France before the D-Day invasion of the 6th June 1944. The fast-paced song grabbed even the most heavy and hard to move heads at the festival with impressive force, causing a vivid wave of heads moving up and down with each beat of this over 200 beats per minute fast track. Joakim's thunderous voice echoed through the venue of the Graspop Metal Meetup and could have probably still been heard a few towns over.¨

Also Harris went along with the heavy beat and stamped his foot in the beat, until a slow Waltz rang out. A sign of the band's little tradition of celebrating "Midsummer Night" with their fans. A buffet and booze was brought on stage along with 6 of the loyal fans. The girl in front of Harris was chosen to join the band on stage for some traditional Swedish food and Aquavit. Shortly after welcoming the fans on the stage the band opened fire on the Christian fans by playing their most requested song; "Swedish Pagans". After a bit of a wonky solo on behalf of Chris Rörland the song concluded with the drunken Viking chant that can be heard on the intro and outro of the studio version.

From one bit of Swedish history to the next with the neck breaking Speed Metal anthem "The Lion form the North" about the Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus who reigned supreme in Sweden during the 30-years War between the Protestant and Catholic Leagues of Europe. Joakim seemed to struggle with the high notes in the song a tad as Harris thought, but it was still spectacular. While the fans ate and drank Swedish specialities the show continued on the stage with fire and wrath of the lion from the north.

"Hey, I'm fucking happy right now! Graspop is the best fucking festival ever! Give a big hand to the planning committee of Graspop!!!" A roar gripped the crowed, enthused about being dubbed the best festival by their favourite band. "Oh, and let's have a look at the set list... Oh, a requested song... Actually, today 100 years ago someone was shot in Sarajevo, which caused World War I, and this story happened here in Belgium in World War I, not too far away from here... THE PRICE OF A MILE!!!" This song hadn't been played live in several years, so long the band was requested by both fans and the planers of the festival to put it on the set list for this show.

A song directly written about the battle of Passchendaele but meant as a message against the senseless deaths of Millions upon Millions of young men in the trenches of Europe during both World Wars. The song stood at monumental 7 minutes long and had always been a fan favourite. Even Harris, who liked the band for its heavier tracks, could enjoy the song and felt quite compelled by its message and almost always had to wipe a tear from his eyes when the song came on on his phone or playlist in Windows Media Player. He was deeply moved by the happenings of the wars anyway, but this song with its lament-like vocal line and hard-hitting lyrics just gave him the rest. Even the deadest of rocker hearts could shed a tear for those fallen so young and so absolutely senselessly.

Joakim then talked to the audience again; "We have a little problem... For the next song we need three guitars, but we only have 2 guitar players and I am totally shit!" The crowd would have eaten from his palm by this point, they really didn't care about any of that, they wanted to see and hear Joakim try and play. The guitar tech brought out a black Gibson Les Paul and handed it to Joakim, who took it off him awkwardly. "Well, this is embarrassing... There's at least 25 people watching me now!" An uproar of laughter could be heard through the crowd as the Brodinator hung the guitar over his shoulder and started playing the main riff of "Smoke on the Water". Chris and Thorbjörn obviously had to make fun of him for being bad at playing the guitar, but something completely unexpected happened when Joakim channelled his inner Kirk Hammett and started playing the intro to Metallica's "Master of Puppets". Pretty impressively well, some would later add to their accounts of the events. Harris was pretty blown away that Joakim could actually play it and was the first one to applaud for the great performance which was cut short by the announcement of "Resist and Bite".

"Resist and Bite" had quickly become a fan favourite after the album "Heroes" had been published. No wonder; it was a solidly composed nicely arranged song that felt both heart-felt and aggressive. A mixture that always made heads turn within the Metal community. But the best was yet to come; "Gott mit Uns", a song about the Battle of Breitenfeldt which saw the Swedish troops lead by Gustavus Adolphus stand victoriously against the Austrian army during the 30-years War, the first real conflict without a clear winner or loser as both sides suffered horrendous losses and damage to infrastructure and cities. During this anthem-like song praising the Swedish war effort Harris decided that now Rainbow's time had come to join her Heroes on stage; with a pretty forceful throw the little plushie sored over the heads of the first row and security, landing softly directly behind one of the stage monitors.

The song came to a close and little Rainbow Dash grabbed Joakim's attention; He walked over, shaking his head with a smile and picked up the little blue bundle of awesome. "Are you serious, Graspop? Fucking My Little Pony? At a Sabaton show? You guys are absolutely fucking crazy!" Though his words did not reflect it, Harris saw the wide grin on Joakim's face as he decided to stuff the little Pegasus in the pocket of his fake Kevlar Vest and finish the show. Harris had one hell of a time at Graspop that year and definitely planned to return to maybe throw a Twilight Sparkle at Chris Bowes of Alestorm or an Applejack at M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold. Anyway, it was time to start heading either in direction Calais to catch a ferry home or to the bar stands to keep the party going. Ah, who was he kidding? Of course he'd stay behind and have maybe one or two pints.