Attero Dominatus is Sabaton's second studio album. It was released on 28th July 2006.
Information
- The phrase "Attero Dominatus" comes from latin and means "destroy tyranny", which refers to the song of the same title about the capture of Berlin in 1945 and the fall of the Third Reich.
- Initially, the band planned to release a double disc album as their debut, because they had so much written material from Primo Victoria session, but the band's then label Black Lodge Records, refused.
- Not every song (around 50%) from the Primo Victoria session was finished at the time of recording that album, so the band had to put extra focus to finish and polish the remaining compositions for this release.
- The album was recorded in a hurry, because of their upcoming first major european tour with Dragonforce and Edguy.
- The master tapes were finished just an hour before the band got to the airport for the tour.
- Myhr's tape recorder for his synthesizer broke down during the recording session for the album, the keyboard parts had to be played by Joakim because Daniel couldn't get off his work to fix his equipment.
- The only keyboard track actually played by Myhr on the album is for the In The Name Of God.
- The bandmembers quit their jobs after recording this album to fully focus on Sabaton.
- The album was re-released in 2010 on Nuclear Blast Records with three bonus tracks after the band signed a deal with them.
Background
MY MEMORIES FROM THE RECORDING OF ATTERO DOMINATUS
"We started recording this album right after the New Year's celebrations in early 2006, and we really had to be quick.
We had our first major european tour as a support for Edguy and Dragonforce coming up, which left us with about 3 weeks to record, mix and master the album, and on top of that, we had to rehearse for the tour simultaneously and teach a replacement keyboarder our songs, since Daniel couldn't get time off his work.
The deadline was set very tight, but our amazing engineer Tommy Tägtgren worked around the clock at times and somehow we managed to complete the album without making any compromises except sacrificing sleep in favor of rehearsing and recording.
We were all very anxious about being able to create a worthy sucessor to Primo Victoria and that pushed us beyond what we thought was possible in terms of recording marathons and nighttime rehearsals.
Songs like Back In Control was completed composition wise way past midnight one night, and Daniel had to lay down the drums the first thing in the morning, after only 40 minutes of reharsal and 3 hours or so of sleep.
We had fun as hell though, even though our patience was wearing thin at times from lack of sleep and exhaustion.
Nobody got killed and what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger, right?
I personally think that we would not have been able to complete this album without the lessions learned during Primo Victoria recording and a sinister song like Rise Of Evil really benefited from being recorded under such circumstances.
When you're tired as hell, it's pitch black outisde, and the temperature stays below -25 degrees Celsius, you don't have to dig deep to find the evil within to make the song even more sinister.
I really think this album has something no other Sabaton album has, but the problem is that I can't seem figure out what it is. The sound of the album does not differ much from Primo Victoria, the differences is rather in the songwriting and the atmosphere which is quite different in a subtle way.
I clearly remember that the lack of sleep affected our humor so much, that one night when a cheap keyboard demo-song was triggede by mistake while we were trying to sleep, and Rikard started singing along we all burst out laughing and singing along ourselves for 30 minutes. It's on video, and quite a bizzare sight.
Maybe we'll include it on a future DVD and make a complete fools out of ourselves." /Joakim
WHAT ATTERO DOMINATUS MADE TO ME
"I remember the first time Joakim showed me the Rise Of Evil and I said that was the best Sabaton song ever. I have other favorites now, but it is still one of my absolute favorites.
I remember our first real tour with Edguy and Dragonforce, and we learned so much. We had so much fun and we really learned how to compromise as a group and friends in good and bad conditions." /Mullback
WHY I HATE TAPE-RECORDERS
"I remember I felt a bit excited when I arrived at the studio. It was the first time I was going to record something professionaly."
I spent all my days off from work recording the stuff I actually knew how to play. My track were recorded on a ADAT tape recorder. The stuff that I hadn't gotten the chance to learn was recorded by Joakim."
Towards the end of the whole session, I had a phonecall when I was at work.. The tape-recorder had broken down. My synth-choir sound didn't synth-choirs anymore. The sound was compared to a flock of sheeps on drugs. I had no chance to get back to the studio before the deadline that were only a day or two away."
It was chaos. So Joakim had to sit down and record all the keys again in a hurry.
The only track of mine that were saved, was the background synth for In The Name Of God. We never used tape-recorders again after that." /Daniel Myhr
QUITTING THE JOB "Me and Joakim were working on the same job and realised that recording an album and then go on tour to be away for 3 months wouldn't work out.
We quit our jobs with pleasure and started recording the follow-up to the success of Primo Victoria, and the following tour was one of the craziest so far." /Rikard[1]
Pär: "For Sabaton's second release, we decided once again to work with Tommy Tägtgren. This time we came more prepared and knew more of the sound we were looking for. We were in a rush since we were going on a big European tour right after the recordings — and it was really right after. We left the studio with the final master only one hour before departing to the airport!"[2]
Joakim: "You could call it the sister of "Primo Victoria". We had written so many songs back then because the subject of war touched us so much that we first wanted to release a double album. But that seldom goes well. (...) Again this time Tommy Tägtgren is our producer, he has the studio together with his brother Peter and we are very happy with it. However, our schedule is even tighter than last year. But we are always learning more and can organize ourselves better than before. You just have to learn certain rules and then follow them."[3]
Joakim: "Our original plan was to release a double album. Some of the new songs were already there when we released "Primo Victoria". Not all, of course, but some. We had some difficulties with our Italian label at the time. So we decided to bring out the disc ourselves and put in the money ourselves, instead of bothering with them. We couldn't afford a double album for that. We originally wanted to release the albums at the same time in order to underline their togetherness. Both have Latin titles and at the end show a parallel with the tribute song. Both albums are war-related and end with a funny song that says 'OK, seriousness is over, let's drink beer!'."[4]
"We initially experienced many problems with wanting to release our music to the labels, and so over the years, in the absence of a record deal, we have written and written until we had a whole load of songs. When we went into the studio for Primo Victoria , we had too many songs to put on the album, so we had to choose what was and what was not. Some of the songs were in a state at that point where we felt that they were not completely finished yet. Anyway, we have saved all these surplus songs for Attero Dominatus. It is therefore mainly lightly processed old material that strikes the clock. In addition, we have used the same studio, the same producer and we have not bought any new guitars, haha! But this is also how we wanted it; not experiment and try to create the same familiar sound that the fans have come to expect from us. In fact you can see this album and the previous one as a kind of first and second part."[5]
Rikard: "Primo Victoria and Attero Dominatus are similar to each other. Some of the songs on Attero Dominatus was written at the same time as Primo Victoria and we didn't want to experiment with a new sound."[6]
Pär: "Of course, not every song on the last album was written when the Primo Victoria was recorded. But we had the ideas for several songs. They were not yet completely finished and were therefore not used for Primo Victoria. We thought okay, the song needs some finishing touches, let's just leave it there and then take it for the next album. We always did that with us, the focus is on songwriting and not on the release of albums. We had already recorded two songs in the production of Attero Dominatus, but then we said "No". We can make more out of the songs, let's leave them for the next album. There were two, three, maybe even four songs where we thought they are almost done but we don't want to concentrate on them now but use them for a later album. This is also the main reason why Primo Victoria and Attero Dominatus sound very similar, because the songs were mostly written at almost the same time, in the same time period."[7]
Joakim: "We got down to work, and our inspiration was so strong that we came up with the idea of making a double disc. I don't know if you know, but during the recordings for the Primo Victoria album, 50 percent of "Attero Dominatus" was already written. From the label, however, our enthusiasm flared - Ah, no double album! That is why we had to wait a year to market "Attero Dominatus". This also explains why the track structures of the two albums are so similar..."[8]
Lyrical themes
Following hot on the heels of their powerful debut, the second Sabaton album also deals with various subjects on the theme of war, ranging from the fall of Berlin at the end of World War II (Attero Dominatus) to a condemnation of modern-day religious terrorism (In The Name Of God).[9]
Joakim: "(...) So the next album is also about war in all its facets. This time Falklands and Sarajevo will also be there. (...)"[10]
Track listing
- Attero Dominatus – 03:43
- Nuclear Attack – 04:10
- Rise Of Evil – 08:19
- In The Name Of God – 04:06
- We Burn – 02:55
- Angels Calling – 05:57
- Back In Control – 03:14
- Light In The Black – 04:52
- Metal Crüe – 03:42
Re-Armed edition bonus tracks:
- Für Immer (Warlock cover) – 04:36
- Långa Bollar På Bengt (Svenne Rubins cover) – 02:52
- Metal Medley (Live In Falun 2008) (Metal Machine/Metal Crüe) – 06:12
- Nightchild – 05:12
- Primo Victoria (Demo Version) – 04:11
Lineup
- Pär Sundström - Bass
- Joakim Brodén - Vocals, Keyboards
- Rikard Sundén - Guitars
- Oskar Montelius - Guitars
- Daniel Mullback - Drums
- Daniel Myhr - Keyboards
25 years of Sabaton listening session
References
- ↑ Attero Dominatus (Re-Armed) booklet
- ↑ metalshockfinland.com
- ↑ burnyourears.de
- ↑ metal.de
- ↑ zwartemetal.com
- ↑ metalfan.ro
- ↑ hardharderheavy.de (WebArchive.org, retrieved 01.02.2020)
- ↑ werock.bg
- ↑ Sabaton.net
- ↑ burnyourears.de