New Blog Plan, plus, you probably already know this, but The Sword rules.

So I have a new plan for my blog, to keep me posting more often. I will give myself a couple flexible topics to talk about each week and try and keep up with them. I have decided that tuesday will be entertainment day. On tuesdays I will discuss music, art, books, movies, plays, operas, you name it.


My first line of business will be to talk about a band I should have discovered a long time ago. Many of my friends have listened to them for years, but I have only recently discovered The Sword. If you are like me and have been living under a rock, The Sword is a metal band from Austin Texas. Their style is classic in every way.

Their four man arrangement, guitar/vocalist, guitarist, bassist, drummer is classic. Their music echoes the classic styles of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Their riffs are classic and once you hear their album Warp Riders your first thought could easily be, this album is an instant classic. The "classic-ness" of this band goes above and beyond the retro style. The song structure, performance and energy are all superlative.

If you have a hankering for a sweet riff, look no further than The Sword. Warp Riders is filled to the brim with awsome riffage. Some are quick and energetic, some are sludgy and powerful, others are just melodic and catchy, but you are guaranteed to find yourself humming them when you're in the shower. They also have the impressive ability to take a riff and really develop it as the song goes, much in the way Iron Maiden is famous for.

The vocals are very reminiscent of Ozzy's early work with Black Sabbath. J.D. Cronise offers a hollow but powerful sound with a strong blues influence. On top of that, his lyrics are just fun. Warp Riders, for example, has a classic sci fi theme to it and the lyrics really just make you excited about space travel, witches and lawless lands. The best part of Cronise's lyrics is that they have a mythic quality to them. They talk of epic scenarios with a sense of both familiarity and folklore, all of it adding together to form an awsome listening experience. In other words: you probably already know this, but The Sword rules.