The Sword - Gods of the Earth Review
by Mark Hensch
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Back in 2006 an album called Age of Winters stormed out of nowhere and took the hipster world hostage. For better or worse, that divisive record forged a scrutinized career for stoner metal outfit the Sword. Now, come 2008, the band is back with their latest, Gods of the Earth. With detractors still crying "false metal" and the fickle world of indie getting restless, the heat is on for Gods to be a truly divine album. With all this in mind, do these Gods dwell in Heaven, Earth or Hell?
The answer, I think, lies in the middle. The Sword, for all their Dungeons & Dragons imagery and pretenses of epic metal, are mere mortals when all is said and done. Gods of the Earth feels like the work of demigods rather than outright deities, fitting comfortably in that rare breed of solid but still flawed albums.
It is worth noting that the flawed portion of Gods is much smaller than the solid section. There are no truly bad songs per se---all are actually quite memorable in and of themselves---but two key album factors definitely knock this down a few points.
The first defect is the drumming. Though the skins beating on this and all other Sword efforts has been both consistent and proficient, Gods features some drum bashing that borders on aggravating. Despite some moments of legitimate wizardry, the order of the day here appears to be a clashing, cymbal-heavy sound more akin to St. Anger era Metallica than I am personally comfortable with. I will admit the metallic din does work for some of the songs, but overall I found the repetitive clatter a bit distracting.
Secondly, the love them or hate them vocals that have always been a sticking point inherent in the Sword's sound still remain. Raw, hazy, and mildly monotone in nature, the Sword's lyrics have always either inspired hypnotic trances or insipid boredom. Very little changes with that here, so be forewarned.
Outside of these shortcomings, however, Gods of the Earth is actually a pretty decent offering. I would even go so far to say that the Sword not only defeats the sophomore slump here, but outright slay it.
The reason for this lies in a few subtle flourishes the Sword injects into their latest. "The Sundering," for starters, opens with a graceful acoustic swell the band has not attempted previously. The kickass "Lords," meanwhile, dances and spins with slow-motion harmonics before settling into the Sword's more familiar stoner groove. "Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians" tries kicking things up into the gritty, fast world of High on Fire and largely succeeds. Hell, there are even a few well-played death metal howls in there. "Under the Boughs" drifts by on a fluid tempest of medieval folk interlaced with crushing riffs, all before the duo of "The Black River" and "The White Sea" ends things on a conceptually epic high note.
Though the Sword has not yet worked all the kinks out of their relatively friendly stoner metal sound, they are trying new things and improvement appears a given in the ages to come. As such, Gods may not be heavenly but at the very least worth checking out.
The Sword's Gods of the Earth
The Sundering
How Heavy this Axe
Lords
Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians
To Take the Black
Maiden, Mother & Crone
Under the Boughs
The Black River
The White Sea
CD Info and Links
The Sword - Gods of the Earth Rating:8.0
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