After a two-year hiatus, The Sword reunited in August for a tour celebrating the 15th anniversary of its seminal album, Warp Riders. On October 24, the tour stopped at The Beacham in Orlando, Florida, for a night of three distinct styles of heavy rock.
On the day of the show, the door and set times were pushed back almost 90 minutes. Fans who didn’t notice the time change had an extended wait outside the venue. However, all was forgiven once the show started.
Atlanta rockers Moon Destroys opened the night with plodding doom and stoner rock. Most songs were slow burns, using repetition and slowly building intensity. Juan Montoya played psychedelic lead licks over Charlie Suárez’s thick, sludgy guitar grooves, all backed by pounding rhythms from drummer Evan Diprima and bassist Arnold Nese. Suárez sang in a soft drone on songs that ranged from slow, melodic soundscapes to heavy mid-tempo rock.
Next up was Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol. The band knows the name is ridiculous, and the music matches that irreverence. If Primus played doom metal, it might sound like Rickshaw Billie’s. The Austin, Texas, trio delivered big, crunching riffs over rumbling beats while singing things like “1-800-EAT SHIT.”
Leo Lydon sang in a nasally voice while chugging on his high-slung, eight-string guitar, backed by jackhammer drums from Sean St. Germain. Aaron Metzdorf played his bass like a guitar, picking, palm muting, and playing string-bending licks like on a lead axe. Everything was hard and built for head-banging, like the chugging “Sister Militia” and the slow, Sabbathy “Gravedigger” that ended the set.
Austin quartet The Sword then played a headlining set that combined the hard rock riffs of Iron Maiden and Led Zeppelin with slow doom metal and occasional thrash metal. John D. Cronise’s vocals were barely audible, swallowed by the heavy riffs and Santiago Vela’s pounding drums. But that’s OK. The vocals aren’t the emphasis in The Sword’s songs. Several songs were instrumental, and those that weren’t had long wordless sections. This is about the riffs. Each song from The Sword featured at least a half-dozen infectious guitar riffs, often with Cronise and Kyle Shutt harmonizing their riffing.
The setlist featured all six The Sword albums. They started with five songs from other albums and a droning cover of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” before going into the Warp Riders segment of the show. The band never talked about the album, shared any stories, or gave insight into why they commemorated it with this tour. Instead, they let the music do the talking, playing the entire album in order, starting with the furious instrumental riff-fest “Acheron/Unearthing the Orb” and ending with “(The Night the Sky Cried) Tears of Fire.”
Cronise and Shutt alternated between playing lead and rhythm guitar, trading off licks like a competition. A few times, such as on the rapid-shifting riff-fest “The Chronomancer I: Hubris,” Shutt seemed impressed with his own playing, and relieved that he pulled it off without a mistake.
After completing the Warp Riders section, the band took a short break and returned for an encore. They started with a rarity, “Daughter of Dawn,” a song only released as a bonus track on the Japanese edition of Warp Riders. After that, they closed the show with “Winter’s Wolves” from the band’s 2006 debut, Age of Winters. The song careened between slow doom metal and rapid-fire thrash, showcasing the band’s repertoire of infectious riffs.
It was a night for headbangers who appreciate tempo shifts, soaring guitar solos, and intricate guitar riffs. Though Cronise’s vocals were unintelligible, every note on guitar and bass was crystal clear, from the dueling solos to the chugging power chords to the classic rock riffs. Riffing is what The Sword does best, and that show was a good showcase for those skills.
