By the time we sorted out tickets for this show we could only get tickets for the balcony as although it was a Monday night in January the show was sold out in advance which for a venue of this size is pretty impressive as this would normally have been a pre-Christmas show, the fact Sabaton left the biggest show on the UK leg of their current European tour till January is a sign of just what a great reputation they have for storming live gigs.
We arrived just after 8pm which sadly these days means we missed almost all of Opening act Battle Beast's set only catching the closing number that to me made them sound like a mid-80's Iron Maiden fronted by a very full throated woman and they were going down a storm judging by the reaction the already packed Forum gave them.
Soon enough it was time for Delain who over the years have become a consistently great support act without really becoming a great headline act and it was great that current Bass Player Otto was even able to be back on tour after his life threatening on-stage accident last year let alone in the sort of form they are in.
They opened with Mother Machine that saw Charlotte Wessels doing everything she could to get the crowd on her side and it worked as the moment she asked everyone to clap along and the whole place joined in, Get The Devil Out Of Me was next and upped the dramatic goth edge to their sound as Martin's Keyboards seemed to swirl around the Forum as Charlotte ran all over the place.
Army Of Dolls always goes down well and sounded a bit edgier than it did the last time I saw Delain opening for Within Temptation last year at Wembley arena. Sleepwalkers Dream still sounds great as it has whenever I've seen them and the bands energy was infectious and they got everyone clapping along on Pristine as she bounced around the stage yelping at us.
Not sure what the next two songs were but I think the first one was Keep up the dream which was followed by something off of April Rain that may have been Stay Forever but I'm not certain before we had a good sing along to Not Enough and they closed with a storming run thorough We Are The others a song that has become the bands battle cry that left almost everyone smiling and cheering as they took a bow.
Almost the moment Delain left the stage the first chant of Sabaton Sabaton went up quickly followed by a massed humming of the chorus of Swedish Pagans as this was one up for it audience so that by the time the bands traditional entrance music of Europe's The Final Countdown came on the entire Forum sang along not only to the words but to the music as well!!
Then on comes The March To War as we look at the stage set up that includes a drum riser that looks like a tank, Barbed wire in front of the upper runway and a huge battle scene at the back of the stage as Sabaton Run onto the stage to thunderous applause and launch there London Invasion with Ghost Division That Joakim belts out once he finally arrives on stage, they sound immense and the battle metal is upon us.
It is time to Go To Hell And Back a real tight evocation of how awful it is to be stuck in the middle of an awful war full of crunching riffs and scattergun drums do we need to duck for cover, well no as in-between songs Joakim begins the bands seemingly at odds comedy routine joking that they are going to play some Village People tonight by way of introduction to Carolus Rex that has everyone singing along to it like it is In The Navy, although obviously it sounds nothing like it but they do look just the tiniest bit camp as a band it has to be said.
Soldier Of 3 Armies has skull crushing riffs played at ferocious speed and pace by Thobbe and Chris as they run around and seem to take swings at Par on the bass and Joakim hammers home the songs message in his vocals. He is very thankful in-between songs for the fact they have sold out the Forum on a Monday In January and for the first time in the set gives us an option as to if they should sing Gott Mit Uns in English or Swedish while mocking our English lack of language skills he was then surprised when we all voted to hear it in Swedish! It sounded great in the correct language and most of the crowd appeared to sing along as well!
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The Art Of war as ever was a highlight of the set and had some of the best interplay between the guitars when they weren't pulling faces behind each-others back's and camping it up which when you are singing about such serious stuff is an interesting approach but none the less it was nailed and had a bit more crunch than the last time I saw them at Koko a couple of years ago.
7734 went by in a blur of strafed guitars as they mounted the lower part of the tank come drum riser and then blew us apart with 40:1 and Joakim was now fully in command no matter what his band did behind his back or how Far From Fame they may feel it isn't that far as for any serious Metal fan they are an un-missable live act these days.
But what's this Joakim has strapped on a guitar and the rest of the band are refusing to play with him especially as he starts off by playing the riff to Billy Jean no no no don't do that, so he then gives us some of Masters and Puppets that gets a bit more approval from the band before they play Resist And Bite with the extra guitar filling out an already very full on sound, the rest of the band cheer as his guitar is taken away!
We then get to vote on the next song choice will it be Lion From The North or Smoking Snakes well the clapometer gives it too Smoking Snakes and they blitz through it at full charge. At the end of it Joakim rips up the set list as he gives in to the audience who have been screaming all night long for Swedish Pagans how can they not play it even if it's not in the set-list, it got the biggest cheer of the night and the biggest sing along before they closed the set with Uprising that they asked some of the fans they had seen at gigs all over the uk to choose a good choice even if I'd have asked for the Cliffs of Gallipoli. Still Uprising was a great set closer and they left to monstrous cheers.
They came back for the encore and the cheers were deafening as they Launched into Night Witches that had much fun and games between the guitarists and then we got a full on version of Primo Victoria that had everyone punching the air and clapping along before they thanked us all profusely once more and finished things off with Metal Crue that ensured that everyone left the Forum grinning at the glorious onslaught that is Sabaton Live a band that have to be seen live to fully get how great they are!
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