Gig

Sabaton - Gig Review & Photo Gallery 5th September @ MC Arena, Melb VIC

KJ Draven

metalhead, playlist connoisseur, Eurovision fanatic

/10

Sep 7, 2025

7 min read

Sabaton
‍MC Arena, Melbourne VIC
September 5th, 2025
Support: Amaranthe

The triple vocalist attack of Amaranthe makes them more than a mere opener. With songs that combine djent and synth it’s a powerful display of crowd pleasing metal. A bulk of the general admission tickets were scanned early, filling the floor area and headbanging to songs like ‘Fearless’ and ‘Damnation Flame’. ‘Strong’ is a set highlight - a dramatic ballad that’s a duet between clean vocalists Nils Molin and Elize Ryd. Whenever Ryd asked for hand claps everyone participated. The band had their own branded risers too, ensuring they filled their portion of the stage as their sound filled the arena. There’s a great contrast to our headliners, with ‘PvP’ written about the “digital battlefield” for the Swedish national e-sports team. The vocal interplay between clean harmonies and growls is so impressive, especially on newer tunes like ‘The Catalyst’ and ‘Re-Vision’. ‘Amaranthine’ might have started slow, with Ryd singing solo to backing tape, but the build up drew everyone in and there was a tonne of arm waving for the guitar solo.

There were a bunch of top shelf parents who had their kids with them. A+ folks.

There was some great stage banter, with the vocalists getting the crowd chanting and saying their goodbyes, only for drummer Morten Løwe Sørensen to refuse to leave the stage and gee the crowd up for ‘That Song’. With the beat matching, they threw in a verse of Queen's ‘We Will Rock You’. The segued straight into ‘Drop Dead Cynical’ whose disco thump had the arena jumping before Amaranthe took a final bow. It’s a headline worthy performance that had the crowd fired up and needing to catch their breath.

The crowd came down between sets by asking the mic roadie to “sing for us”. He was amused but didn’t oblige.

The energy ignites again when Sabaton takes the stage with a rousing version of ‘Ghost Division’. The band paused after two songs to acknowledge the warm welcome from Melbourne for their first headline tour. They jumped straight into ‘Red Baron’, with a circle pit breaking out as the crowd chanted “higher” on cue. Kicked off a trilogy of The Great War tracks including the title track and ‘Fields of Verdin’.

The circlepit started rowing during ‘Bismarck’, which is a bit off because it’s not about a row boat. But who’s gonna tell them?

There’s a fair bit of hijinks on stage too, with guitarist Chris Rörland sticking picks to Joakim Brodén’s head and the road crew bringing Brodén a pink Hello Kitty guitar to try out. So he led the crowd in ‘Master of Puppets’ and ‘Smoke on the Water’. He keeps playing for ‘Resist and Bite’. The heavy synth of ‘Soldier of Heaven’ changes the mood to the point where Joakim throws in a couple of lines from ‘Dancing Queen’.

With cheers of “Sabaton” ringing out, Joakim wondered why they hadn’t been here more often before introducing new song ‘Hordes of Kahn’. Despite Legends being plastered across the drum riser it’s the only new song they play. There’s plenty of classics though: ‘The Attack of the Dead Men’, ‘Carolus Rex’ in Swedish, ‘Night Witches’, and ‘The Art of War’.

Joakim noticed the guys dressed like bananas up the front. There’s a bunch of banter which includes a rendition of ‘La Bamba’ with the crowd singing “banana” and Joakim doing a Minions impression to massive laughter and cheers. The paradox of their live performance is in full effect since these moments of levity come between the ferocious ‘Stormtroopers’ and beautiful ‘Christmas Truce’.

‍‘Cliffs of Gallipoli’ is arguably the highlight of any Aussie Sabaton show, as Joakim noted it sits in reserve for tours down under. He took a fan’s Australian flag and showed the audience it was adorned with the Sabaton logo. Spotted in the crowd was a fan dressed as a knight templar with sword and Swedish flag, as well as a blue coated soldier.

Joakim announced there would be no encore break to squeeze in as many songs as they could, noting they hoped to come back once new album Legends has been released, the crowd wasn’t happy it was coming to an end but jumped and sang to all time classic ‘Primo Victoria’.

The ‘Swedish Pagans’ singalong was epic and continued well after the band intended.

An impromptu “Sabaton… Sabaton” chant broke out again until Brodén asked for silence so we could hear the flutes that introduced their closing song - ‘To Hell and Back’. It’s a hell of an anthem to end on, with punters jumping, waving and chanting along.

I took my dad to this one, since he brought me up on heavy metal and hard rock, and is a big fan of symphonic metal. He said it best - seeing these two in an arena was his “grand final day”.

Hopefully we get the tank next time!

Words by KJ Draven @kjdraven‍

Setlist

Ghost Division
The Last Stand
The Red Baron
Great War
Fields of Verdun
Bismarck
Resist and Bite (preceded by jamming ‘Smoke on the Water’ and ‘Master of Puppets’)
Soldier of Heaven
Hordes of Khan
The Attack of the Dead Men
Carolus Rex (Swedish)
Stormtroopers
Christmas Truce
Night Witches
The Art of War
Cliffs of Gallipoli
Primo Victoria
Swedish Pagans
To Hell and Back