The Sword reviewed
The Sword
Gods Of The Earth
(Kemado)
If Gods Of The Earth can’t accomplish it, then The Sword might as well submit to the fact heavy metal’s community, especially the so-called “real metalheads,” are never going to accept them.
Main Swordsman J.D. Cronise and his crew (guitarist Kyle Shutt, bassist Bryan Richie, and drummer Trivett Wingo) could brand Venom tattoos on their foreheads, grow their hair down to their ass cracks, paint themselves with the blood of aborted fetuses, and conjure the Dark Lord himself onstage at a gig, and the purists still wouldn’t be impressed. After all, some of these guys had the audacity to play – gasp – indie rock before giving their souls to heavy metal and unintentionally spawning “hipster” metal: a bunch of moppy-haired cool dudes playing metal for irony, they say, not passion.
It’s hard to imagine anybody not passionate about the genre enjoying Gods Of The Earth, though, because it is a M.E.T.A.L. record. It’s also heavier, faster, more nimble, and better than its predecessor, 2006’s Age Of Winters, where Cronise was simply content with sounding like Black Sabbath and their lumbering, hazy riffs. Cronise and Shutt wisely pick up the pace this time, dumping a trail of gunpowder behind songs like “The Black River” and “Fire Lances Of The Ancient Hyperzephyrians,” which otherwise could have easily been just two more love letters to Tony Iommi. The fireworks are helped along by Richie, who sounds determined to break every one of his drum heads.
Gods never sounds like retaliation, though — this isn’t Cronise trying like hell to prove how metal he really is. No, The Sword just sound like a better band this time, likely because they actually are a band this time. Technically, they were on *Ages* too, but Cronise had all that album’s pieces in place before he brought the other three onboard, and at times, it felt like a solo project. The quartet sound like a cohesive unit on Gods, especially Cronise and Shutt, who deserve bona-fide “metal guitar tandem” status for “Lords” and the slash-and-burn “How Heavy This Axe,” where Sconise laments limbs weary from “ripping, slashing, cleaving blows” and facing “an endless host of foes.”
Axes, cleaving blows, endless foes, wizards, kings, frost giants, snow-covered tundras? Monstrous riffs? Huge hooks? Why aren’t metal fans supposed to like these guys again?
— Trevor Fisher
