Review Summary: The Sword channels bands such as Thin Lizzy and ZZ Top for their fifth LP to create a southern stoner rock album that proves they are one of the most exciting bands in the last 10 years.
The Sword are a rock band hailing from Texas. Their sound is noted for emulating bands like Black Sabbath instrumentally & vocally. Their first two albums saw them dive into a strong doom metal sound that quickly gave old metal fans a nostalgic feel. They have progressively moved towards a more hard rock/stoner metal sound as heard on their most successful LP "Apocryphon". They were compared to a mix of Black Sabbath & Led Zeppelin and it still stands as one of my favourite albums. Their newest and most experimental full length "High Country", sees them take a more direct southern hard rock approach channelling bands such as: ZZ Top, Thin Lizzy, Queens of the Stone Age & of course Led Zeppelin.
While these songs don't have the heavy thrashing guitars that warp riders and its predecessors had, these guys still rock hard with perfect cohesion and beautiful guitar riffs to create an amazing hard rock album. Tracks like the opening song "Unicorn Farm" & "Agartha" see the band experiment on another level. These tracks have a very psychedelic dub-step vibe to them that was shown slightly on Apocryphon. It fits perfectly with this album and is a breath of fresh air in the rock genre. "Seriously Mysterious" has a pop feel to it with the simple drum beat but nevertheless, an interesting and fun track to jam too. The first track they released "High Country" stands out as one of the most ZZ top influenced tracks with a Sword twist on it, as a very southern guitar riff moves along throughout the track. A lot of fans don't like when their favourite metal bands "go softer" or change in a new direction. "Early Snow" gives off an older doom metal feel that sounds like it could've been on Warp Riders with its sludgy guitars but ends with a horn section in the background that just shows how innovative these rockers from Texas are. Not putting them in the same stature as Black Sabbath, but they used strings, synthesizers and other unconventional instrumentals for metal music in "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" and it's one of their best in my opinion. An abundance of tracks like "Suffer No Fools", "Mist & Shadow", "Tears Like Diamonds", "The Dreamthieves", "Buzzards" and the Gods of the Earth-esque "Ghost Eye" blast through your speakers and sound like the sword back in their heyday. They showcase their talent and ability to make technical hard rock songs just like the bands they channel throughout High Country. The versatility continues with the acoustic guitar song "Silver petals" but isn't always welcomed as the slow ballad "Turned to Dust" drags along and is the weakest and most boring track on the album. "Bees of Spring" is the closing track and while it's not the strongest, it has its strong moment. It starts off slow and but then bursts into a Thin Lizzy filled guitar riff that is one of the best and most memorable on the LP.
The Sword are changing and innovating their sound and we have to accept it. These guys aren't the modern Black Sabbath band everyone fell in love with. They are a hard stoner rock band that shred as good as anyone these days. If this album came out 40 years ago, they would easily be in the same caliber as Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. "The Sword is a bladed weapon used primarily for cutting or thrusting" and they prove just how powerful they can be with this LP.
