I stumbled across The Sword a little over a year ago. Austin, Texas might be known as the “Live Music Capitol of the World” but much of the music they stress tends to be of the country and folk variety. Not so much emphasis on heavier music. So when I heard about this heavy band hailing from Austin I thought I’d check it out. Keep Austin Weird and support the locals, right? 🙂

Overall I like The Sword. A Black Sabbath-inspired band, certainly with a lot of homage to the ’70’s but with some thrash inspiration as well. The vocals aren’t the most powerful thing, but it’s hard to imagine The Sword with anything else. Plus how can you not love song titles like “Lament for the Auroch”, “How Heavy This Axe”, “The Frost-Giant’s Daughter”, and my favorite “Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephrians”.

I haven’t had a chance to see them live, even though they are home-town boys. The few Austin shows they’ve had since I discovered them I wasn’t able to make for various reasons. They’ve been on tour with Metallica, which is great for them. Whenever they do come back to Austin, I do want to check them out.

Two videos today. 

“How Heavy This Axe”, so you can get a feel for the band themselves (bell-bottoms and all):

“Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephrians”, just because it’s an interesting concept video.