The Sword: Getting Medieval on your A**

Imagine old sounding, raw, Black Sabbath-ish heavy metal with medieval/mythological type lyrics. I give you “The Sword“. Thats my take on them. If you don’t know who The Sword is then your not alone. I first heard them on Guitar Hero II and quickly became a fan. Perhaps I’m behind on things as usual but what else is new. This is what Wikipidia has to say about The Sword:

2003 in Austin, Texas by JD Cronise. Cronise, a guitarist and vocalist who had played with Those Peabody’s, searched out a number of musicians before finally assembling the band completely with rhythm guitarist Kyle Shutt, bassist Bryan Richie and drummer Trivett Wingo.

In support of their first album, they toured the United States with the likes of …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Lacuna Coil and In Flames; Europe with Clutch and Nebula; and Japan with Lamb of God. They contributed the song “Under the Boughs” to the Invaders compilation also on Kemado Records. A cover of their song “Freya” from Age of Winters appears on Guitar Hero II. Their lyrics often deal with Norse mythology. Currently, the band is writing their follow up for “Age of Winters” which is due to be released in the spring of 2008. The band recently stated on their MySpace page that they will be releasing a split 12″ with Witchcraft in the fall of 2007 which will contain two unreleased tracks from each band.

The C.D. I bought yesterday is The Age Of Winters. The sound is dirty, simple heavy metal. Its not the greatest mix in the recording world but it does the job. They don’t try to fancy things up with all sorts of ambient sounds and shit. The sword does for Metal what Jet (I despise these guys) does for rock. Keeps it simple while keeping it interesting. The only complaint I have is the same as all the others I see and that is the vocals. The vocals are too muddy. Hard to hear but understandable.

I ordered this C.D. about two weeks ago when I ordered Dale’s (the fantasy band contest winners) C.D.. It took awhile to get here and Dale, if you have not got your CD yet, hang in there, man. Anyway, long story short, I got tired of waiting and bought the CD at FYE. Today the CD came in the mail. Had I waited one more day I would have to think of something else to give away in the next contest. I will post the next contest this week sometime.