Reportedly dropped from Sabaton for their unwillingness to commit to three years straight of touring, the quartet of Oskar Montelius, Rikard Sundén, Daniel Mulback and Daniel Mÿhr were probably left wondering two things: 1.) Where do we go from here? And, 2.) What do we do with the surplus of camouflage pants we own? In a matter of months, both questions were answered pretty quickly, as the quartet created Civil War, thus trading in their camo pants for confederate gear. (Not really – the band plays it pretty casual.)
Factoids:
Formation: 2012
Locale: Sweden
Personnel: Nils Patrick Johansson (vocals), Oskar Montelius (guitars), Richard Sunden (guitars), Pizza (bass), Daniel Myhr (keyboards), and Daniel Mullbeck (drums)
Style: Power metal with a Dio twist and Civil War-themed lyrics.
Latest album: The Killer Angels (Despotz Records)
Leaving a big band like Sabaton (they’re big in Sweden) could been career suicide for the gents in Civil War, but not so, says Sunden. It’s exciting. “To try out your ideas and get the reaction from fans and media was a bit nervous, but we believed in this from the start. With Sabaton, we struggled for many years before media and fans started to appreciate what we did. Of course, those years have helped us, but we never got this kind of reaction on the first album with Sabaton.”
The Sabaton songwriting team consisted of one man: Singer Joakim Broden, so writing tunes for Civil War proved to be a breath of fresh air for the band. “It was only the solos we did so yes, it´s really refreshing,” admits Sunden. “We all contribute with our ideas and that brings more variation to the music and with the wide range of Patrick’s voice you can do pretty much everything.”
Johansson’s vocals: Dio in the house. “There is really no need to write a song with him in mind,” states Sunden. “Just focus to write good music and let him do the vocal line and he will do magic.”
Conceptually speaking, The Killer Angels details the Civil War (duh), yet according to Sunden, the manner in which Swedes approach their history is far different from Americans. “Not here in Sweden. Our history has in some wicked way become a property to the Right Wing and the Nazis, even though it has nothing to do with it. All bands who sing about it is consider playing white power music. With Sabaton, on the latest album [Carolus Rex], we sang about our history but only because we knew that we could pull it though without to be considered as a white power band.”
What’s next? “We have a few shows left in Europe and booking shows for next year,” finishes Sunden. “We also started to write songs for the next album. We knew from the start that 2013 was gonna a soft start for us. Several of us had babies so we have said “no” to many gig offers. Next year there will be more shows.”