### The Sword: Warp riders

#### 24/11/10 || Habakuk

Cool Science-Fiction is definitely something that will raise my interest. Take notes, bands around the world. If you put out an album with an awesome cover like this, it’s pretty safe to say I’ll be at least checking it out, old escapist that I am. If you then back it up with good music, I’m fully convinced. It doesn’t work with shitty Sci-Fi stuff. No wait, I do like Nocturnus. That doesn’t matter though, this album here doesn’t fall into that category, neither lyrics- nor music-wise. I wouldn’t know what Sci-Fi music sounds like, to be honest, but it’s probably something along the lines of the Bespin Bar Swing stuff. Which is not exactly what these four dudes are going for.

The Sword play a style that mixes heavy metal with stoner, and although the genre names might imply otherwise, the “heavy” in their sound actually stems from the groovy stoner direction, whereas the stones twin guitar action and Paul Di’Anno-vocals instead seem to be borrowed from classic heavy metal. Alongside these musical outlines a loosely connected story is told – in two parts, like with all self-respecting concept albums – about some exiled archer dude who finds an orb, then there’s this ancient goddess awaking from her slumber or something, then they lose me, but in the end the sky cries tears of fire, and that’s always cool regardless of whether you understand why or not. In short, we get served a particularly good kind of epic cheesiness that remains abstract enough to be filled with our own weird imaginations.

The songwriting comes across as a bit self-indulgent from time to time with lengthy instrumental passages, but it doesn’t turn proggy or anything, it just seems they had a lot of ideas to fit in. When they condense those into slightly shorter, catchy and chorus-centered rockers like the awesome “Night city” (which gives me a big “Killers” vibe, for some reason), the title track or “Tres brujas”, they really hit the spot. The rest is by no means bad, but takes some more patience to get into. Great is the urge to switch songs to those mentioned above at times, but then again that would mean one would actually miss quite a few awesome moments (often more head-noddingly laid-back in nature) simply due to ADHD.

The general level of quality is high enough to keep even my itching fingers off the skip button though, so rest assured: if you have an interest in the mentioned genres, are looking for a grooving Sci-Fi tale (and I know you are, although I agree that Barbarella never gets old) and can appreciate a few more relaxed passages alongside the rockers, give this a shot. And if you aren’t happy without the sound specifics, here’s a little rundown: The production is full and warm but still transparent enough for the bass to shine through and lead guitars to be separated. The drumming is tight, but not warranting a thorough dissection. When all is said and done, “Warp riders” certainly is among the best stuff I’ve heard this year, which is why I’ll end this with a grateful shout-out to forumer Farlus for the heads-up!

- Information
- Released: 2010
- Label: Kemado Records
- Website: www.swordofdoom.com
- Band
- John D. Cronise: vocals, guitars
- Kyle Shutt: guitars
- Bryan Richie: bass
- Trivett Wingo: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Acheron/Unearthing the orb
- 02. Tres brujas
- 03. Arrows in the dark
- 04. The Chronomancer I: Hubris
- 05. Lawless lands
- 06. Astraea’s dream
- 07. The warp riders
- 08. Night city
- 09. The Chronomancer II: Nemesis
- 10. (The night the sky cried) Tears of fire