Seventies Ass Kickin Metal
‘In a land of misty Carpathian forests, hunt by the light of day, demons have taken revenge on my soul, wolves hunt at my door, blood from my sword ......etc etc. (This is what you have in store, listener/reader. I need to lay off the beer whilst reviewing!)
Conceived in Texas, The Sword formed in early 2004, with their live sound quickly becoming a hot ticket in their local vicinity and were soon snapped up and released their debut ‘Age of Winters’ in 2005. This their second cd, Gods Of The earth, follows quickly on its heels.
How about some of these for song titles, ‘How Heavy This Axe’, ‘Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians’ (827 in scrabble), ‘Maiden, Mother and Crone’, states very firmly that The Sword are of the Seventies style of Metal. Taken straight from early Sabbath, The Sword are generations moved from this great sounding band. But are they Masters of Reality, or the shite that was Born Again. Theres only one way to find out......FIGHT! (sorry, TV Burp withdrawal!)
The album is a class above when it comes down to how traditional metal should be played, thrash riffs, doom riffs, sludgy riffs, stoner riffs, castle riffs, all in all riff-mungous! For me I can either take it or leave it, musically its brill, vocally its a bit of a let down for me, if anything its Ozzy like in its style. Dont hate me, I was brought up on Dio, Gillan, Coverdale, Plant, Rodgers etc and I expect singing and not Mister Cronise. Its like Ozzy singing Dio’s lyrics of mountains, monsters, witches, battles and lances! If you were born in the 1500’s and suddenly find yourself in the 2000’s, or if your every waking day revolves around The Rings trilogy then this is right up your keep. Its not new, but what is nowadays, its Metal by seventies numbers.
Production values are stifled, bass is unclear as are the vocals. It sounds too much like he’s recorded the vocals wearing a suit of armour, buried under a tonne of top soil, whilst chewing a Texan Bar for good measure. What he lacks in vocal prowess he makes up in sheer axe mastery. The thunderous drumming and epic guitar work take centre stage thanks to the uncomplicated production. Just drop the vocals and get a new singer, concentrate on the riffs any you’ll be huge
Fans of Sabbath, Mastodon, Slayer, Pantera will lap it up in droves. Straight up seventies metal homage of the highest order. It rocks like a bastard