The Sword - Warp Riders

John "J. D." Cronise – vocals, guitar
Kyle Shutt – guitar
Bryan Richie – bass
Trivett Wingo – drums, percussion

I first heard The Sword when playing “Freya” a little while back on Guitar Hero, and I was a little gutted. I had listened to the likes of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin and just thought “how the hell did I miss these guys, was I asleep or something?” Some moments of Google-Fu later I discovered that the Austin formed Quartet had in fact only come together in 2003 and much to my relief that I hadn’t actually missed them back in the late 70’s or early 80’s. Suffice to say that The Sword are not fashionable, not auto-tuned, but do have an unrelenting bombastic unapologetic swagger well worth a listen. Every time Guitar Hero comes I guarantee you that Freya will blast out at full volume.

Some have likened them to Manowar, and I’ll give you that, yes, the premise of a lot of their material has that D & D / Conan The Barbarian theme to it, but thankfully, no loincloths in sight! I don’t buy into the Manowar thing to be honest, the Sabbath / Zeppelin name check is there, but they also reminded me a bit of The Hellacopters.

Their 3rd album, a concept album, Warp Riders, drafts in the experienced Matt Bayles as their producer. So has anything changed? Well, it’s still unmistakably The Sword that’s for sure, but if it were possible, I’d say the sound had gotten a little more, “grander”. The machine gun timed drum rolls provide a fantastic drive to the album, with Trivett Wingo going at it with typical precision. The guitars lock into the beat fantastically well, with a terrific rich sound from Richie and Shutt. And what about “JD”, singer songwriter, guitarist? As a guitarist, songwriter, great. As a singer? He’s not atypical that’s for sure, but there are a couple of moments where it’s a little too raw.

Warp Riders tells the tale of Ereth, an archer banished from his tribe on the planet Acheron. A hardscrabble planet that has undergone a tidal lock, which has caused one side to be scorched by three suns, and the other enshrouded in perpetual darkness, it is the background for a tale of strife and fantasy, the battle between pure good and pure evil. The opening track, "Acheron/Unearthing the Orb", is a 3 minute 43 second instrumental, which is a brave move. It certainly sets the scene, and it almost shifts The Sword into the full on Thrash Metal camp. It’s a slow deliberate build up as one would expect of a concept album, and a fitting prequel to Tres Bruges (Three Witches), the first single released from the album. Tres Brujes itself has some great guitar hooks characteristic of The Sword, with JD’s “edgy” vocals making it perhaps the obvious choice first release.

Oddly, The Sword are probably one of the most suited bands to doing a concept album. Tracks such as "The Chronomancer I: Hubris" come in at a “Dream Theatre” like whopping 7 minutes 35, but with their music being uncompromising and unrelenting, the songs do indeed merge into a story, in a good way. There are enough clever changes in each song that breaks it up, be it a change in tempo, or a nifty turnaround, it just works.

It’s a great The Sword album, but the stand out point will be down to whether you take to JD’s style of vocals.