Thursday, March 3, 2011

Review: The Sword: Warp Riders [A]


Artist: The Sword
Album: Warp Riders
Released: April 2010
Label: Kemando Records
Genre: metal

Purchase date: 7 Sep 2010
Format: mp3 files
Source: eMusic

Although I never used to like to admit it, I've always had a soft spot for harder-edged music. The Sword is a metal band from Austin TX. Warp Riders is their third album, with a sound that leans more toward classic hard rock that's reminiscent of early Black Sabbath.

Warp Riders is a science fiction concept album. The story involves a swordsman, a time-traveling wizard, a starship, and space pirates, and I'm not going to try to make sense of it. The music is what counts, and it's great. This is hard-driving guitar metal with a strong 1970s vibe. Even the album cover looks like hat of a '70s scifi novel. The band plays extremely well together, and the music is a whole lot of fun. Looking over my iTunes play history for music from 2010, this album has the most plays.

If you like hard rock or metal, I highly recommend it.

Rating: A


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