The Sword – Low Country

Never one to rest on their laurels, The Sword have veered away yet again from their swashbuckling roots with new release Low Country. Formed in 2003 in Austin, Texas they trail blazed onto the music scene with some seismic stoner/doom metal. Their 2015 release of High Country saw them go into a hard rock vein and on September 23rd 2016, fans can hear an acoustic version of this available via Razor And Tie Records. Produced by their bass guitarist Bryan Richie, it is a challenging but rewarding listen to hear these songs stripped down to as mellow as you could possibly get.

The album eases in with the short, sweet, breezy shuffle of ‘Unicorn Farm’ followed by the quirky guitar interplaying from John D. Crone and Kyle Shutt in ‘Empty Temples’. The stirring verses with lead vocals from John feature a chorus of “Let go of all that bind you, your God will always find you.” Other songs of note are the title track with its bleak grooves that follow the uptempo bluesy intro. ‘Mist And Shadow’ is so laid back, you can hear fingers sliding across guitar strings. ‘Early Snow’ is the heaviest track here with a distorted bass guitar groove, punctuated by a piercing guitar solo and a brass section.

The haunting melodies of ‘The Dreamthieves’ just wash over you through headphones. A touch of ‘Solsbury Hill’ in the intro of ‘Ghost Eye’ leads into an emotionally heavy lyric of “Ghost eye watches that sees into your soul” repeated in the outro and the album ends with the stirring, uplifting folk patterns of ‘The Best Of Spring’.

Album track listing :-

Unicorn Farm.

Empty Temples.

High Country.

Mist & Shadow.

Seriously Mysterious.

Early Snow.

The Dreamthieves.

Buzzards.

Ghost Eye.

The Best Of Spring.

The Sword band line up :-

John D. Cronise – Lead vocals/guitar.

Kyle Shutt – Guitar.

Bryan Richie – Bass guitar.

Santiago “Jimmy” Vela III – Drums.