The Sword - Gods of the Earth - Music & Performance - CD

The highly anticipated sophomore album from the Sword has arrived. With GODS OF THE EARTH, the Sword prepares to build upon the foundation they laid with their critically acclaimed debut age of winters and will continue to lead modern day metal's forward charge. Recorded at Folkvang Studios in Austin, TX, GODS OF THE EARTH instantly conveys what words can only try to describe: The Sword is not to be taken lightly. From the moment the album's lead track "The Sundering" explodes, it is immediately apparent that the Sword has upped the ante on a sound all it's own. More ambitious, more accomplished and simply bigger. GODS OF THE EARTH'S huge, mountaintop-friendly hooks, thunderous drumming and oceanic bass lines cut through the air like a scythe, while the ominous vocals of front man J.D. Cronise weave fantastical tales rife with myth and mythology.

For all of metal's emphasis on strong production values and professional recording techniques that have done so much to highlight the best aspects of even the most extreme music, it's still refreshing to hear a metal album produced from what's clearly an indie rock perspective, allowing exchanges of polish for grit and a sense of accessibility more refined recordings lack. Such is the case with Gods Of The Earth, the second release by Austin, TX rock scene products and heavy metal revivalists The Sword, which provides a pleasingly modern retake of heavy metal's first and second classic periods while still managing to create a sound that's all their own.

Gods Of The Earth is a metal album through and through, from the title, to the cover -- a skeletal hand thrusting an enormous sword up through the ground, surrounded by scads of Led Zeppelin-style iconography -- to the song titles -- referencing classic heavy metal themes like Norse mythology ("The Frost-Giant's Daughter"), warfare ("The Black River"), science fiction (lead single "Fire Lances Of The Ancient Hyperzephrians"), and fantasy ( "To Take The Black," inspired by the novels of fantasy writer George RR Martin) -- to the music, which takes the rough, heavy crunch of '70s metal innovators like Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, and -- most importantly -- Black Sabbath and marries it to the twin guitar harmonies of NWOBHM stalwarts like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. There's even a touch of early '80s thrash, Metallica style, to offset any possible tendency of the riffs to turn to sludge.

But for all of the heavy metal influences that Gods Of The Earth wears proudly on its denim-jacketed, band-patch-covered sleeves, this album is not some soulless attempt to recreate the sound of a different time for the pleasure of the nostalgic set, or the smug actualization of the ironic crowd; it's a powerful, modern record in its own right. Whether it's singer/guitarist J.D Cronise's thin voice wailing above the chaos through the chorus of powerful paean "How Heavy This Axe," or the classic metal intro re-imagined in "Lords," or the thunderous epic majesty of an instrumental track in "The White Sea," Gods Of The Earth seizes your attention, bashes you over the head with a blunt object and makes you love every minute of it.

Performer	The Sword
Music genre	Heavy Metal
Music release type	Album
Media format	CD
Original release date	2008
Edition	Domestic Edition
Is collectible	Y
Has parental advisory label	N
Number of discs	1
Track listing	The Sundering, Frost Giants Daughter, How Heavy This Axe, Lords, Fire Lances of the Ancietn Hyperzephyrians, To Take the Black, Maiden Mother & Crone, Under the Boughs, The Black River, The White Sea, [Untitled Hidden Track]
Record label	Kemado
Songwriter	Sword
Track name	The Sundering
Music media format	CD
Is edited	N
Is enhanced	N