Joakim Brodén

Joakim Brodén — born in Sweden in 1980 — is Sabaton's singer, keyboard player and principal composer, and the author of a thematic decision that defined the band's identity. Sabaton writes exclusively about military history. Every track deals with a specific battle, campaign or figure — the defence of the pass at Thermopylae, the Polish pilots in the Battle of Britain, the seventeenth-century Swedish Empire, the nurses of the First World War. The lyrics are researched, dated and verifiable, and the band avoids glorifying war itself: the focus falls on people in extreme circumstances. That choice turned the group into a rare case of a metal band with an involuntary educational function. Museums and institutions of historical memory began collaborating with them, and a considerable part of the audience came to the band through interest in the subject rather than in the genre. His voice is low, articulated and cleanly projected — an unusual register in European power metal, dominated by high tenors. That gives Sabaton a weight matching the material. Brodén writes practically the whole repertoire and is, alongside Pär Sundström, the only member present since the founding in 1999.