The Sword - Age Of Winters
By: Travis Farrenkopf |
Thursday April 06, 2006 |
The Sword's Age of Winters is an epic, sonic adventure. The Sword have blended the sounds of Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden to create a retro-metal soundscape with constant, ground-shaking bass drum beats and enough cymbals to make your ears bleed - if the distorted guitar doesn't get to you first, that is. Although there isn't anything new or inventive on this album, it is still a treat to listen to and will be an excellent gateway for newcomers of doom metal.
The album opens with "Celestial Crown," which starts off with thirty-three seconds of guitar crunch before a slow, pounding bass drum enters. The tempo slowly increases as the track changes over to "Barael's Blade" and the outlandish lyrics begin ("Porged by the crow-mage from shards of darkness, honed by the half-breed to vorpal sharpness). The guitar is slow and exaggerated with a few melodic riffs that bring to mind Lynyrd Skynyrd (which is, needless to say, fun).
The entire album flows flawlessly together, the tracks building off of one another, until the entire length gets stuck in your head. Don't be surprised if you start having a peculiar desire to play dungeons and dragons after listening to this album.
