The Sword

Here's the announcement from Blabbermouth:

THE SWORD To Release 'High Country' Album In August
Austin, Texas metal luminaries THE SWORD will release their new album, "High Country", on August 21 via Razor & Tie. Recorded in Austin, the CD was produced by Adrian Quesada and mixed by J. Robbins.

"High Country" features 15 new compositions and will be released simultaneously in CD and double vinyl formats.

In conjunction with the release of "High Country", THE SWORD will embark on a 25-show European tour. The trek begins on release day, August 21, at the Pstereo Festival in Trondheim, Norway and ends in Bristol, U.K. on September 19. The band will be touring throughout the remainder of 2015 and 2016.

Dates for the first international leg of the "High Country" tour are:

Aug. 21 - Trondheim, Norway - Pstereo Festival
Aug. 22 - Oslo, Norway - Parkteatret
Aug. 23 - Goteborg, Sweden - Sticky Fingers
Aug. 25 - Helsinki, Finland -Tavastia
Aug. 27 - Stockholm, Sweden - Debaser Strand
Aug. 28 - Malmo, Sweden - KB
Aug. 29 - Copenhagen, Denmark - Lille Vega
Aug. 30 - Hamburg, Germany - Rock Café St Pauli
Aug. 31 - Berlin, Germany - Magnet
Sep. 02 - Wien, Austria - Arena
Sep. 03 - Munich, Germany - Magnet
Sep. 04 - Milan, Italy - Legend
Sep. 05 - Salzburg, Austria - Rockhouse
Sep. 06 - Winterthur, Switzerland - Salzhaus
Sep. 07 - Stuttgart, Germany - Universum
Sep. 09 - Antwerp, Belgium - Trix Club
Sep. 10 - Tilburg, Netherlands - Extase
Sep. 11 - Cologne, Germany - Luxor
Sep. 12 - Paris, France - La Boule Noire
Sep. 14 - Nottingham, United Kingdom - Basement
Sep. 15 - Glasgow, United Kingdom - King Tuts
Sep. 16 - Manchester, United Kingdom - Academy 3
Sep. 17 - Wolverhampton, United Kingdom - Slade Rooms
Sep. 18 - London, United Kingdom - Underworld
Sep. 19 - Bristol, United Kingdom - The Thekla

THE SWORD's fourth album, "Apocryphon", sold nearly 17,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 17 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD was produced and engineered by J. Robbins (CLUTCH, JAWBOX) at Magpie Cage Studios and features cover art by famed comic book artist J.H. Williams III (Batwoman, Promethea).

Asked by Radio Cannon in a 2014 interview how he feels the metal scene has evolved since THE SWORD started, the band's guitarist, Kyle Shutt, said: "It's funny, because I think when we started people reacted differently to us because the metal scene was dominated by these macho, wrestler-looking types, screaming at you, etc… And bands like that are dying out. It's becoming a lot more rock 'n' roll. And I also notice that heavy metal journalism in the last ten years is so much more positive compared to when we started. It was so negative back then. And you gotta have haters, you know what I'm saying? It's just that there used to besome serious debates about us on message boards where people would try to figure out what we did and have these crazy theories that we were like, this pre-packaged band. It was so hateful for no reason, and nowadays people are so much more accepting. I think music just got so terrible for a while and so many shitty bands got shoved down people's throats by record labels throwing money at record stations and I think people just started looking past the bullshit and are much more open-minded now, with awesome bands like GRAVEYARD and BOMBUS. Or AMERICAN SHARKS, from Austin. Just cool heavy bands getting exposure."


Read more at http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/the-sword-to-release-high-country-album-in-august/#QYSMEQUyRkrfGSku.99

15 Tracks!

This is some good news! Looking forward to it!

Nice, I'll have to check that out.

One of these days I hope they record their cover version of Parasite by Kiss, saw them perform that live and it smoked.

S.D. wrote:

One of these days I hope they record their cover version of Parasite by Kiss, saw them perform that live and it smoked.  

That would be awesome!

nevermore wrote:

S.D. wrote:

One of these days I hope they record their cover version of Parasite by Kiss, saw them perform that live and it smoked.  

That would be awesome!

Agree

I hope this new album is better than their last one. They need to vary up the tempo from song to song. Their last album sounded like one long, plodding tune. No variation and boring. I hope they haven't peaked with Warp Riders.

And yea, a cover of 'Parasite' would be bitchin'!!

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I hope this new album is better than their last one. They need to vary up the tempo from song to song. Their last album sounded like one long, plodding tune. No variation and boring. I hope they haven't peaked with Warp Riders.

And yea, a cover of 'Parasite' would be bitchin'!!

I enjoy all their albums, but I don't think they've topped Age of Winters yet.

I think Warp Riders is their best. I like them all though.

I still think some of the difference between Warp Riders and Apocryphon was losing their original drummer, who was also one of the songwriters and did a lot of the arrangements.

S.D. wrote:

I still think some of the difference between Warp Riders and Apocryphon was losing their original drummer, who was also one of the songwriters and did a lot of the arrangements.  

I liked the last two, but have to admit that there was just something I felt was missing, and I don't listen to them as much. I loved Trivett's drumming.

I have to agree that the missing ingredient on Apocryphon was the drums. Trivett got such an amazing sound out of a minimal kit. I dig all the albums but love Gods of the Earth the most.

Oh, by the way, stoked about a new album!

The title track from the new album is streaming here: http://www.theswordofficial.com/

Interesting, nice to hear them expanding their sound again, I was afraid they were painting themselves into a corner on the last album. A little more mid to late 70s sound on this track. Now I'm curious to hear the rest.

S.D. wrote:

Interesting, nice to hear them expanding their sound again, I was afraid they were painting themselves into a corner on the last album.  A little more mid to late 70s sound on this track.  Now I'm curious to hear the rest.  

Sounds good to me and I like the cover art. I think I'll preorder the vinyl like I did with Apocryphon.

Heavy shades of ZZ Top on that new tune.

I'm not sure if it's possible to have a band based in Austin Texas and not end up with some ZZ Top influence. It seems to be in the water down there...or maybe it's the BBQ sauce.

S.D. wrote:

I'm not sure if it's possible to have a band based in Austin Texas and not end up with some ZZ Top influence.  It seems to be in the water down there...or maybe it's the BBQ sauce.  

One of the most popular venues in Austin is "Stubbs BBQ", it's a BBQ restaurant that has a big lot in the back where they built an outside stage and have concerts. That was the first place I saw The Sword.

Taking the "high" in High Country to the max here...

http://www.indiemerch.com/thesword/item/35845

New tune's not bad. Looking forward to hearing some more from these guys.

It appears The Sword knows their target audience and is marketing accordingly.

The new tune sounds good! I'll pass on that stash bundle package.

More pot-inspired goodies from The Sword.