By John Z.
The Sword Bring The thunder With Their Latest on Kemado, Gods Of The Earth
You know the old saying, looks could be deceiving? This is especially true of the Austin, Texas-based quartet, The Sword.
Just because they don’t look like they could smash your face in with their brand of classic heavy metal doesn’t mean they can’t deliver the goods. Raised on the furious sounds of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, The Sword released their critically acclaimed debut, Age of Winters, in 2006, an album peppered with lyrics referencing folk-lore and mythology, and set to the backdrop of muddy guitar riffs and humongous drums.
Two years later, The Sword has released Gods of the Earth, its sophomore Kemado release. It slays.
The Sword drummer, Trivett Wingo, recently burned up some of his precious cell phone minutes by speaking to Death+Taxes about the band’s latest release, among other things metal.
Do you think this record was more of a group effort? Because a majority of Age of Winters was written before the band was really in place.
Kyle [Shutt, Sword guitar player] wrote thirty percent of the new record and of course, J.D. [Cronise, Sword guitarist-singer] wrote the rest. He comes up with the arrangements, lyrics and vocal melodies. I don’t really write, per se, but drummers are under credited. You hand me the song and I make the beats, but, of course, I don’t get any songwriting credits.
Are you happy that J.D. decided to put you in the band and ditch that drum machine while he was experimenting with that one-man band stuff?
Drum machines are pretty weak shit. I think he wrote those songs and demoed them that way, because he needed drum tracks to hear what the songs sounded like. There were no drummers that would play the songs the way he liked. J.D. was fond of my style and I’m sure there were a bunch of drummers that could have been in The Sword, but he didn’t want to play with any of them. He had these songs and once I moved to Austin, he was like, Cool, you live here now? You could be in this band.
Do you feel like there is a revitalization of heavy rock, especially when you look at what bands like Pelican, Mastodon and The Sword have done in the last year and a half?
I don’t think there is revitalization, but there is more attention being given to it. There have always been bands playing hard rock and heavy metal. The press just turns more attention to other types of music.
What do you think you guys bring to the table in terms of new blood into the scene?
I think there is a void for people who want real heavy metal and not just screaming about shit.
You know, when I put on your record and I close my eyes, I think of classic Sabbath, from like 1971. What about you? Our music is simple yet effective. When you look at Nirvana, they took the world by storm and their music was so simple to play. So what does that tell you about the need to have things complex? There is no need for complexity in music. You know, we don’t need this Guitar Center culture where everybody and there brother puts a clip on YouTube showing them shredding. To me, it’s almost like extreme sports in music and who the fuck wants that? It’s not cool.
