Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Every riff-a-holic's wet dream, February 23, 2006
There hasn't been an album which is this bursting at the seems with huge, super heavy, rumbling, meaty, crushing, Sabbath-inspired, fret board smoking riffs since Mastodon's "Leviathan" was released in August of 2004. Frontman J.D. Cronise sings melodically (almost in an Ozzy Osbourne-esque tone), so he sometimes takes away from this Austin based band's intensity. But, luckily, the punch the guitars pack is definitely powerful, visceral, and great enough to make up for the vocals. The riffs cascade, groove, and storm like tumbling logs, and the rhythms crunch, crash, and flatten like a truckload of falling bricks and steel bars. The album begins with a brief instrumental ("Celestial Crown"), which has pounding, lumbering riffs. That song is mid-tempo, but some songs, like "Freya" and "The Horned Goddess," are blistering, with speedy, churning guitars (plus, the latter track also has a mini guitar solo.) Track six, "Iron Swan" begins with soft strumming and percussion rattles before rocketing into a fast, propulsive guitar lead and eventually segueing into crunchy, punching riffs. But this disc's best track is probably the epic, very Mastodon-esque instrumental, "March of the Lor." According to the C.D. booklet, this instrumental is divided into eight "movements" (parts). Even if one or two songs get to be kind of repetitive, it only makes sense that the guitarists (Kyle Shutt and the aforementioned frontman J.D. Cronise) would have to recycle a couple riffs when the album is this full of them. All in all, "Age Of Winters" is easily the best doom metal C.D. of the past year and a half, and it is absolutely essential for everybody who enjoys the genre, as well as fans of Black Sabbath, High On Fire, and Mastodon.
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39 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Metal Snob says: "Buy it! You won't be sorry.", April 10, 2006
I tend to be a picky listener and I don't always like a band until I've heard them a few times. (Opeth and Coheed & Cambria come to mind.) But from the instant I sat down with The Sword's latest, I was hooked. The riffs, my God, the riffs! These guys come out of the gate swinging their vorpal blades hard. And AGE OF WINTERS combines terrific songs (no weak ones in the litter) with clear, heavy production.
Extra credit for the Scandinavian myth-inspired lyrics and the Art Nouveau cover design. I strongly recommend this album. Get it; you absolutely won't be sorry.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
refreshing, finally, July 28, 2006
I love heavy music, but when you hear something that might strike up some interest and then the singer starts screaming his guts out, it's a complete turn off. What ever happened to good, hard, stripped down metal riffs and vocals. Finally a band that actually gets it. I heard The Sword a few months ago on a comcast music channel and immediatly went out and bought the cd. It's been stuck in my cd player ever since. Last night I drove 3 hours to see them live and it was worth every mile. Alot of people have complained about the vocals on this album, but fot me this was one of the selling points. I'd love to cram the mic down the throat of some of these idiots that do nothing but scream through every song. To me that takes alot away from the music. Heres a frontman who dosnt try to overshadow the instruments with an annoying singing voice. Sure, they sound like Sabbath, but I'm in my 20s and thank god somebody from my generation wants to bring some Sabbath-type metal to modern times. Dont forget, this band just formed 2 years ago and this is their first album, their not rich, so to all of you leaving reviews complanining about recording and sound quality, maybe you should stick with bands that have been out for a while. Support The Sword and bring metal back to where it should be.
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