One of the foundations of the metal revival of the past ten years, Austin TX’s The Sword have released two flawless slabs of vintage heaviness on Kemado Records, toured the world with Metallica, and were honored to grace the past three editions of Guitar Hero. This summer, the band casts its gaze to the stars for Warp Riders, their third full-length and their most ambitious effort to date. Hitting stores on August 24th via Kemado Records, it is the band’s first concept album and is fittingly grand in scope both lyrically and in terms of musical craftsmanship.
This also marks the first release where the group has worked with an outside producer. Helmed by Matt Bayles (Pearl Jam, Mastodon, Isis), Warp Riders is anchored by an epic science-fiction narrative. The storyline is a psychedelic space opera that explores temporal themes of death and rebirth.
The album also finds The Sword expanding their range from pure metal to include bone-crunching hard rock at large. Rather than dampening their sound, the band actually sounds more amplified than ever, spewing out some of their most scalding riffs to date and channeling an unearthly bellow from their low end.
