Sabaton At Centre Bell

Our most recent outing to the Centre Bell in Montreal featured a double bill of a great band that I had recently discovered, and another which I, and most of the planet, have been listening to for years.  Opening the night was Heavy Metal heavyweight, Sabaton.  I was able to shoot the band during their visit to Montreal, and was immediately drawn to them.  Often referred to as one of the Big 4 of Power Metal bands, Sabaton have carved out a pretty cool niche for themselves.  All of their songs are about historical events, mostly dealing with wars.  As a bit of a history buff myself, I was enthralled by their music and pretty much bought their entire back catalogue shortly after that show.  Lead singer Joakim Brodén has the perfect voice for the band, and you can't help but smile as their other remaining original member, Pär Sundström on bass, and all the other band members as well, spend their time with big smiles on their faces.  Sure, it might seem odd considering the subject matter, but their happiness spreads like a wildfire and touched everyone in the building.  This year, as an opening act, their stage production was a little scaled back, though Sabaton still had their tank themed drum riser.  There was nothing scaled back about the performance though, as they opened with Ghost Division, a song about Rommel’s push into France during the Second World War.  The musical blitzkrieg continued as there were no prisoners of war taken on this night.  Everyone followed along to the marching beat of their captors willingly.  Sabaton's most recent album was 'The War To End All Wars' from 2022, so hopefully we'll be getting some new music from then soon.  All of the photographs were taken at f/3.2 using various different shutter speeds, focal lenghts and ISO.  Keep scrolling for more photographs of Sabaton taken during their Centre Bell performance.

If you would like to find out more about Sabaton, you can follow the link to their website.  If you would like to see the photographs that I took of Judas Priest, who performed later that night, you can follow the link.  Our world is, sadly, a world of conflict.  It's often said that the best way to avoid repeating the horrors of war is to not forget them.  Sabaton accomplishes this, keeping us aware of the past, in a musical and entertaining way.  Be sure to check them out if they are playing near you.