Next up was Sabaton. Before they started, they've showed us what they got: a powerful arsenal of guitars, riffle shaped microphone telescopes, demining crew and drums placed upon a real tank. We were ready for the history lessons. At 21:30h the curtain fell and huge screen appeared before us. Intro called The March to War announced the beginning of a sweet torture. Sabaton's tradition is to start the concert with the Ghost Division song and famous phrase: „Hello Zagreeeeb! We are SABATON and this is GHOST DIVISIIIIIIIIOOOOON!!!“. The battle has begun as the arena was full at this time and burning. The band played mixture of classics like Primo Victoria, Union and Swedish Pagans, and some newer stuff with the highlights on the last album „The Last Stand“, the one they are promoting on this tour. 17 songs that passed were played flawlessly, some of them presented theatrical like Sparta. While Accept's performance was less audience oriented and mature, Sabaton's was filled with stunts, humour, laughter, jokes and surprises. Joakim used Croatian words on few occasions like when he greeted us with „dobra večer“ (good evening) and called his new guitarist Tommy Johansson a „šupak“ (asshole). From that point on the audience shouted „šupak“, less than a word „sabaton“ which brought tears of laughter to Joakim's face and made new guitarist angry at his band mate. Also vocalist Joakim decided to go with showing off his guitar and keyboard playing skills. The only slower songs was „The Final Solution“ played acoustic. The vibe was soft, emotional and inspirational as the whole arena raised their phones and lighters which was also seen on a huge screen from the perspective of a band. Being in a first few rows I managed to find myself on a screen :) Another surprise for me was song „Shiroyama“ because it ignited the fan base more than „Primo Victoria“ which is fucking impossible to do. „To Hell and Back“ was a bad choice for a closer and it all should have ended with „Shiroyama“. Before they left the stage bass guitarist Par waved the Croatian flag and got huge amount of cheering and applause. It would be great if they could make theathrical performance for every song on the setlist. I would like to see that on some of the future best of tours. Also the setlist is not perfect without Attero Dominatus, The Art of War, Coat of Arms and Metal Crue.

intro 1: In the Army Now
intro 2: The March to War
01. Ghost Division
02. Sparta
03. Blood of Bannockburn
04. Swedish Pagans
05. The Last Stand
06. Carolus Rex
07. Union
intro 3. Diary of an Unknown Soldier
08. The Lost Battalion
09. Far From The Fame
intro 4: Dominium Maris Baltici
10. The Lion From the North
11. The Final Solution (Acoustic)
12. Resist and Bite
13. Night Witches
14. Winged Hussars
15. Primo Victoria
16. Shiroyama
17. To Hell and Back
outro: Dead Soldier's Waltz/Masters of the World

All three bands proved to be able to interact with the hearts of their fans in a different ways sending them to a state of ecstasy. This gig was an excellent start of a concert season of 2017. We witnessed probably the best heavy metal show in a long time. Good job guys!

If you want you can take a look at our album review of Sabaton's newest studio battle „The Last Stand“ HERE.