Primo Victoria by Sabaton

Primo Victoria, the debut album from Falun, Sweden's Sabaton, came out in 2005, the Latin title meaning "Victory First", and it plants the band's battle flag in power metal with a flourish. They had already made a full-length, Metalizer, but label fights held it back until 2007, so this record, cut in 2004 at Abyss Studios with Tommy Tägtgren producing, became their first.

Joakim Brodén's gruff, commanding voice roars over marching double-kick drums, huge keyboard fanfares and Oskar Montelius and Rikard Sundén's galloping guitars, with Pär Sundström on bass. The subject matter is war history, the band's lifelong obsession, and the title track is the fist-pumping standard-bearer. Nuclear Blast reissued it in 2010 as Primo Victoria Re-Armed with six bonus tracks, and that edition reached number 43 in Sweden.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.