Artist: The Sword
Album: Age Of Winters
Label: Kemado Records
Tracks: 9
Review By: Ol’ Yeller Jacob

Two things are striking about The Sword at a first glance of the CD cover. One: There is a strong medieval fantasy theme to the artwork, with a strong female presence. Two: The Sword, while perhaps a rather apt name for a band so preoccupied with swords, girls, and girls with swords, is rather bland. Though they might not admit it, “Age Of Winters” seems rather a common title, too.

The Sword is to medieval fantasy what Mastodon is to large creatures of the sea. Listening to “Age Of Winters” is rather like getting a chance to prance around with your favorite fantasy characters. This is only a sample of the lyrics, “A sword of fire and an axe of cold/ Vision of the Sibyl has foretold/ Armies gather on the battle-plain/ All will fall and the Earth will die in flame.” The rest of the lyrics continue on very much like that, which compliments the artwork very well. Sometimes a one track mind can be a bad thing, but in this case the lyrics and artwork serve as a glue to hold everything together.

Musically, The Sword travels similar roads as Mastodon. Formula: Do something simple, sing a bit, then throw in some tasty guitar riffs. Repeat as needed. While it works well for Mastodon, for The Sword it starts to get tired five songs in. Too similar guitar work and tones and way of singing makes the album blend into one long song. It’s lyrical/iconographic gimmick is really what creates the interest for this album.

It’ll be interesting to see where The Sword are an album or two down the road. Whether they are still plugging away at the same thing while becoming washed up way before their age, or if they can create enough of a musical shift to keep things interesting from the beginning to the end... it will honestly be their choice.