I recently attended a Judas Priest concert and was pleasantly surprised. Not by the band in question; no, the British heavy metal quintet successfully churned out hits from more than four decades. This is despite the fact that their frontman, Rob Halford, is nearing his mid-seventies. Regardless of his age, I expected Priest to put on a good show and they delivered.
The surprise was instead elicited by their opening act: Sabaton.
Frankly, I timed my departure to hear as little Sabaton as possible while still catching Priest. Sabaton, for those unaware, is a Swedish power metal outfit whose material usually discusses wars and other significant historical events.
I was not exactly looking forward to their set, as I am a staunch power metal hater. The subgenre combines fast drum beats and uplifting riffs to create both the cheesiest thing you’ve ever heard and the catchiest, hence making it something I try to avoid when possible. I would describe it as the kind of thing one would listen to to hype themself up before participating in a historical reenactment.
Despite my expert planning, I arrived with about five songs left in Sabaton’s set. As I looked around the darkened stadium while trying to find my seat, something piqued my interest: about half of those wearing band shirts were repping Sabaton. I had never seen so many people wearing T-shirts for the opening band, especially one as corny as Sabaton.
There were a couple of possible explanations for this. Maybe Priest is just less popular than the other band numbers-wise? Nope, Priest is one of the top 20 metal acts on Spotify while Sabaton isn’t even in the top 100. Perhaps the merch stand was already out of Priest merch so attendees could only buy Sabaton’s shirts? That wasn’t it either, both band’s merch tables were alive and well.
The most reasonable explanation was that a large percentage of those attending the show had terrible taste in music, bad enough that they would choose Sabaton over Judas Priest; but somehow, I doubted that. Maybe I was unjustly giving them the benefit of the doubt, but something told me that there must have been something more to the Swedish group than met the eye.
It wasn’t until I found my seat that I realized what it was.
The band’s energy was palpable. They were jumping up and down, headbanging in sync, and the lead singer was prancing around the stage like he was having the time of his life. While I’m sure that Sabaton has performed to much larger audiences than the approximately 5,000 metalheads that were gathered in front of them, you wouldn’t have been able to tell from their performance.
It is often challenging for the opening act to win over the favor of the concertgoers; the attendees didn’t go to the show to see them, they came for the headliner. With little to no regard for that fact, Sabaton had the audience wrapped around their finger by the time they the end of their set.
In spite of my distaste for their subgenre, I too found myself getting caught up in the joy produced by the band. I was bobbing up and down in my seat, clapping along, and even singing parts of songs that I had never heard prior to that night. Like I said, catchy.
Once Sabaton had exited the stage, with their closing track still reverberating through my head, I finally understood why so many people enjoy them: their stage presence.
How Sabaton perform on stage goes against the norm for metal bands. A lot of musicians in the genre take their art, and therefore their live performances, very seriously. This partnered with the fact that metal can often be a very technical style to play results in a distinct lack of stage presence.
While the technicality of the genre is a valuable aspect that must be preserved, it ideally would be paired with an improved stage presence.
The on-stage dramatics that can commonly be found within the genre are… not exactly mass appealing. These antics can usually be found in more extreme metal subgenres like black metal and death metal, and can include blood, guts, and gore. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea and can alienate some potential onlookers.
So what about the metal bands whose audience isn’t necessarily the type to enjoy having blood thrown on them, real or not? Instead of turning to their more extreme counterparts, they should do a complete 180 and look where inspiration is rarely taken by metal bands: boy bands!
There is a surprising amount that metal bands can learn about stage presence from the primped twinks that made up *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, and New Kids On The Block. One of the main reasons that teen girls (and boys) begged their parents to buy them tickets to these shows was how the band performed on stage.
When you take away the chiseled abs and mediocre songs, the only appealing thing that these groups have left is their choreography. That is a big part of what got everyone so excited to go to their shows. The same could be true for metal bands.
No, I don’t think that a 73 year old Rob Halford should be doing a fully choregraphed dance number while playing. However, small things like headbanging in sync or jumping up and down, despite how stupid they sound, can go a long way in getting the crowd engaged.
When asked, five out of five non-metalheads I surveyed, including my mother, said that they would be more inclined to attend a metal show if there were choreographed movements. Most said that their willingness would at least double, with one interviewee saying it would increase tenfold.
Even for those who already enjoy attending metal shows, sometimes we yearn to have a little whimsy that the choreography at pop concerts can bring.
This is something Sabaton clearly understands and it certainly paid off for them, as I was able to put aside my aversion and enjoy the show.
They’re no Judas Priest though.