Sabaton have given ‘Templars’ another charge into battle, recruiting Pop Evil frontman Leigh Kakaty for a new version of the track.
Originally released in 2025 to introduce Sabaton’s 11th studio album ‘Legends’, ‘Templars’ now gets a fresh injection of hard rock muscle. Kakaty’s vocals push against the Swedish heavy metal veterans’ distortion, pounding drums and enormous chorus without losing the scale of the original.
The collaboration made its live debut at Louder Than Life in Louisville, Kentucky, where Kakaty joined Sabaton onstage in front of tens of thousands of festivalgoers. The pairing also makes sense beyond the studio: Pop Evil are joining Sabaton on their upcoming North American tour, giving the bands plenty more time in each other’s orbit.
Sabaton have made a habit of finding new ways into their history-heavy metal. Earlier this year they released ‘Yamato’, created in partnership with World of Warships and developer Wargaming, following their previous collaboration on 2019’s ‘Bismarck’. ‘Yamato’ has already passed 7.5 million Spotify streams, while ‘Bismarck’ sits above 124 million.
The new ‘Templars’ arrives after ‘Legends’ closed out 2025 with nearly 200 million total streams. More than two decades into their career, Sabaton clearly aren’t treating the back catalogue as museum property.
