The Sword

When Age Of Winter, The Sword’s debut, impacted the planet back in 2006, hipsters and headbanger’s alike were transfixed by the band’s channeling of Black Sabbath and use of vintage equipment to achieve a classic rawk sound. The Sword continues on that same beaten path on Gods Of The Earth, an excellent album with a burlier, surlier metallic vibe than that of its excellent predecessor.

Massive Sabbathian riffs and fuzzed out distortion are the centerpiece of Gods Of The Earth. It’s all about riffin’ till ya can’t riff no more when it comes to this Austin-based, much buzzed about quartet. Vocalist J.D. Cronise delivers his lyrics in a style similar to a young ‘n virile Ozzy Osbourne, but this album starts and ends with its riffs. “Lords” will bulldoze over your without any mercy or consideration for your well being. “To Take The Black” and “Maiden, Mother, And Crone” conjure up images of pre-Leviathan Mastodon, while “Fire Lances The Ancient Hyperzephyrians” will rip your heart out and gnosh on it for breakfast. That’s not to imply that Gods Of The Earth is vicious like death metal; it’s just that The Sword rawks as though it’s existence depends on cranking out riffs that are potent enough to end your life. Sometimes, I want to dislike this band because they attract so many hipsters –the epitome of faux music lovers- but these young turks make edgy, blues-metal that’s impossible to ignore.

— Amy Sciarretto
03.04.08

When history looks back on the first decade of heavy metal's 21st century resurgence, it will do so through the increasingly vast libraries of Guitar Hero. The Sword unleashed a gloriously unpretentious and multi-hued slab of Black Sabbath-inspired doom-retro-stoner-whatever metal on 2006's Age of Winters, casting out a lure for both current heavy metal fans and those who left the fold when hair metal brought the preeminent outsider music in to be devoured and nearly destroyed by the general public. "Barael's Blade" and "Winter's Wolves" sounded like relics unearthed in the basement of a Birmingham steel mill during the initial New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement, a genre that the Austin, TX, quartet seems intent on re-resurrecting on its sophomore release, Gods of the Earth. This time around, however, the bong has been removed, resulting in a less murky, more thrash-oriented journey through time (think Metallica's Kill 'Em All instead of Sabbath's Master of Reality). The riffs are huge, the rhythms are sneaky and brutal, and the "guitarmonies" are effortless, due with little doubt to the band's epic touring schedule. In fact, everything's been turned up, except the vocals. Singer and guitarist John D. Cronise has the spooky tenor and bluesy inflection of "War Pigs"-era Ozzy, but little of the power. Much of that can be blamed on Gods of the Earth's "riff-centric" production, which beats Cronise's voice, despite it being double-tracked, into submission each time it (thinly) tries to rise above the carnage. It's so noticeable that standout cuts like "Maiden, Mother & Crone," "The Frost-Giant's Daughter," and "Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians," the latter of which boasts a title that would make 2112-era Rush red with envy, never reach the nosebleed seats, where they're so obviously aiming and so many potential new fans are sitting. That said, if this had been the Sword's debut, they'd be carrying the tattered flag of the second coming, as there are moments of sick bliss lurking around every key change, deconstructed bridge, and ride-heavy off-rhythm. Third time's a charm, right? ~ James Christopher Monger, Rovi