New Favorite Band: Sabaton!

KristenDec 19, 2023

First, it is important to understand a few things:

I like metal music. Almost exclusively. Head-banging, make your ears bleed metal. Always have, always will.

My first concert was Ozzy Osbourne and I think I was something like 14 years old. I actually got to meet Ozzy, who was a pretty cool old guy, and made sure none of the scumbags working at the coliseum got their grubby mitts on my young self while I was wandering in places I shouldn’t have been! Nice fella, happy to see that a kid loved his music and chatted for a few minutes before he kinda politely showed me to where I was supposed to be… the general admission floor area. My love for music took off. I love dancing with a passion and without music, there’s no dancing. They are a wonderful, glorious pair! Throughout my life, my favorite bands have most certainly changed but it’s always been metal for me.

My son also likes metal music. He listens to a more varied collection of musical styles than I do, but it’s metal that calms him and makes him feel good. When he was a baby, he’d fall asleep when we started playing Korn, System of a Down, Slipknot (my top 3 for many years) and he still does!

If you know anything about autistic people, they can dive deep into their topics of interest! DEEP! My son loves history, but not just any history. His interests lie in post-Renaissance military history. I love linguistic anthropology, and he loves military history…. not really a match made in heaven but we make it work!

He thinks I am a little nuts when I start dancing, banging, or any other bodily expression of my enjoyment of music. His expressions are limited to drumming a little with his hands and tapping his foot. He might bounce his head a little if he’s really enjoying it. Maybe. He’s quite a bit more reserved than I am.

A while back, he said to me, “Mommy! I have found the best band! You HAVE to hear this!”

He grabbed the TV remote, quickly opened up YouTube and searched for “Sabaton”. I asked him, “Son, why are you searching for foot armor?” rather quizzically. In case you don’t know, a sabaton is the part of a suit of armor (medieval style armor) that covers and protects the foot of the wearer.

He just said, “You wait. You’re gonna love this!” with a huge smile! A smile like that is unusual for him, so I let him do his thang. He brought up this song called “Attack of the Dead Men” and played it for me. I was immediately pulled in! Somewhere in the middle of the song, I remember thinking “OMG, my frigging autistic kid just turned me onto the best metal band I’ve heard in years! Daaaammmmnnnnnn!”

So, after “Attack of the Dead Men”, we watch several more videos. All awesome. Every. Single. One.

So now I’m getting impressed. Every band always makes at least one song that I don’t like, no matter how much I like the band and their music. Or do they? I haven’t yet found a Sabaton song that I don’t like!

So he starts to excitedly tell me about Sabaton. They are a Swedish heavy metal band that makes music almost exclusively about military history. European military history so far. I have heard a few songs about Americans in the World Wars but, yeah… it’s not all about Americans, despite what most Americans seem to think! The music is truly awesome and I’m really into it!

On top of that, the band itself is filled with some pretty awesome people, too! They aren’t greedy, they don’t appear to have let their fame go to their heads. There are younger guys in the band, there are some closer to my age, and one or two somewhere in the middle. I really appreciate the songs where they collaborated with Apocalyptica! The orchestral metal sound sets off their music!

So, to make a long story a little less long, spend a few hours listening to their live stream on YouTube. You’ll totally understand. You’re welcome. >> Sabaton LiveStream <<