Hannes van Dahl

Hannes van Dahl
Instrument	Drums
Birthday	18.01.1990
Birth place	Skövde, Sweden
Years active	2008 - present
Time in Sabaton	2013 - present

Hannes van Dahl (born Karl-Hannes Dahl, 18 January 1990 in Skövde) is a Swedish drummer. He is the current drummer of Sabaton.

Career & Personal Life

Hannes got into the music by his older cousin. After hearing Metallica's "Ride the Lightning" album with his cousin in a tent in a backyard, he wanted to become a drummer. "It was a thunderstorm outside, it was raining a lot. My older cousin gave me a boombox and said "this is what you should listen to". He got interested in drums because of Metallica's "For Whom the Bell Tolls" where he had no idea what sound (the drums) that was. His cousin made him mixtapes that included acts like Iron Maiden, Metallica, Judas Priest and Nightwish.

Hannes plays drums since he was 14 years years old (2004). When he was 16 (2006), Hannes became a drum technician and started to tour with bands. He played in a Swedish melodeath/metalcore band Downthrust which formed in 2008. At the age of 19 (2009), his drum teacher was a Swedish multi-instrumentalist Snowy Shaw. Since 2010, he played in a Swedish progressive/power metal band Evergrey. He played drums on Evergrey's 2011 album "Glorious Collision".

In 2011, Sabaton supported Evergrey on tour in North America and that's how they became friends. Hannes did his first four concerts in Sabaton in 2013 as Snowy Shaw's drum-tech. The same year, he left Evergrey and joined Sabaton when Snowy Shaw was leaving the band, and recommended Hannes as his replacement.

Pär Sundström got in touch with Hannes and invited him to play with the band. Hannes admitted that he was tired of touring at the time and had a full time job at a studio and that his expectations were very low and was sure that the offer would go to someone else. (...) It turned out to be extremely fun and I sat there with a smile on my face playing the songs, and when I having fun I’m on so when I got the question to join the band I said yes.

It took him a month to learn Sabaton songs by himself. Then, Hannes practiced around 2 weeks with the band.

In 2020 Hannes joined a project called Spin The Wheel launched by video game maker Metal Reels, which includes Biff Byford (Saxon), Eric Peterson (Testament), Jay Jay French (Twisted Sister) and Cecilia Nappo (Black Mamba).

He's left-handed.

In his free time he likes to cook Italian dinner, ride on a skateboard, read books, listen to music, play video games, ride on a snowmobile. He also enjoys fishing, drinking coffee, spending time with family, spending time outdoors in the silence. He also admitted that he likes to spend time with Sabaton band members. It’s great to be able to play music locally without playing a show. Just being able to get together and jam. We love to fuck around and play covers and stuff.

He's married to Floor Jansen (Nighwish). Their daughter named Freja was born 15th March 2017.

Trivia

• His favorite Sabaton songs to play live: The Lion from the North, Winged Hussars, The Price Of A Mile, Attero Dominatus.
• Hannes favorite Sabaton song to listen to is The Art of War
• His favorite drummers are John Bonham from Led Zeppelin and Keith Moon from The Who. He admires Bonham for his technique and Moon for his madness on stage.
• His most important bands: Led Zeppelin, The Who, W.A.S.P.
• His favorite albums that he played on: Evergrey - "Glorious Collision", Sabaton - "The Last Stand".
• His favorite album he didn't play on: Pantera – "Far Beyond Driven"
• Record that had the biggest impact on him was Judas Priest's "Painkiller".
• His favorite metal song from a drummer's point of view is Judas Priest's "Painkiller".
• First record he ever bought (with his cousin) was a bootleg cassette of Metallica's "Ride the Lighting".
• Motley Crüe's debut album was the record that made him want to play in a band.
• The record he plays more often than the others is Mercyful Fate's "Into The Unknown". It's also one of those records he started listening to thanks to the drums.
• Records that always make him feel good are John Mayer's "Battle Studies" or any of James Brown's albums. makes you all groovy and start dancing and shit!!.
• Record he listens to when he's down is Mastodon's "Leviathan".
• Record he would reccomend: Decapitated - "Carnival is Forever".
• Record with favorite title: D-A-D - "DIC·NII·LAN·DAFT·ERD·ARK".
• Record with favorite cover art: Kind Diamond's "Them". the mood is set before you've heard any of the music.
• 5 most important records for Hannes:
  • Metallica - "Ride the Lighting"
  • The Who - "Who's Next"
  • Led Zeppelin - "II"
  • Judas Priest - "Painkiller"
  • W.A.S.P. - "The Crimson Idol"
• The greatest record of all time according to Hannes is Led Zeppelin's "II".

Appearances

• To Hell and Back (2014)
• Resist and Bite (2014)
• Heroes (2014)
• Live on the Sabaton Cruise 2014 (2015)
• Heroes on Tour (2015)
• Blood of Bannockburn (single) (2016)
• Burn in Hell (single)
• The Last Stand (2016)
• Bismarck (single) (2019)
• Fields of Verdun (single) (2019)
• The Red Baron (single) (2019)
• Great War (single) (2019)
• The Great War (2019)
• Angels Calling (single) (2020)
• The Attack of the Dead Men (Live in Moscow) (single) (2020)
• Livgardet / The Royal Guard (single) (2021)
• Defence of Moscow (single) (2021)
• Steel Commanders (single) (2021)
• Kingdom Come (single) (2021)
• Christmas Truce (single) (2021)
• The Great Show (2021)
• The War to End All Wars (2022)

References