If you're looking for something to wake up the neighbors or piss your mother off then The Sword is the band for you.
What does The Sword sound like? Imagine an elephant, wearing a black leather motorcycle vest, stomping its feet into a pile of dirty garbage.
The guitar riffs weigh about as much as an 18-wheel semi truck, and the drums and cymbals are pounded on so hard that Ozzy Osbourne would mumble to his wife, "Sharon, love, can you turn it up? I like this band. And where's the bat, I'm hungry."
"Age of Winters" is the Austin-based band's debut album. It was released on Feb. 14, and if you hold a seashell up to your ear really close and then smash it on the pavement, you're getting into the right mood to experience The Sword.
The most refreshing aspect of The Sword's sound is the music does the talking, or rather the screaming. Most of the jams are primarily instrumental-based with oozing guitar parts melting together until the volcano erupts into all-out metal chaos.
"March of the Lor," — track eight — is actually an instrumental in eight movements. And this song isn't anything like the multi-movement tunes you heard your high school orchestra play, when the band director announced, "Don't clap between the movements. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart would not approve."
On the other hand, The Sword probably wouldn't mind fans burping along to the rhythm of the movements and would most appreciate some head banging.
The first movement, "Through the Breach," opens with some precise cymbal tapping that grows into a full-fledged slashing guitar riff by the time the second movement, "Iron Ships on Seas of Blood," takes over. The rest of the six movements climb between mountains of evil, screaming guitar parts and valleys of sinister drum breaks.
A unique and admirable aspect of the band is that the lyrics are actually audible, which is quite a rare occurrence in the current world of heavy metal. The ordinarily undistinguished screaming is so over, and The Sword knows it — thank goodness.
So when the band wants to communicate, "I would mount your heads on bloody spears/Outside your palace gates," the listeners know. The lyric comes from the fourth track, "Winter's Wolves," and can be easily understood after just one listen.
By making the lyrics intelligible, the band is saying to listener, "We have something to say, and we want you to know what it is."
The Sword's lyrics may not change the world, but they will be something to ponder while rocking out to "Age of Winters" in the basement of your parents' home while playing video games.
The Sword will perform in Lansing at The Temple Club, 500 E. Grand River Ave., on April 13.
