Austinist Show Review: The Sword @ Emo's

Metal was alive and well at Emo's outside stage last Thursday night as local shred heroes The Sword christened a European tour. Heralding the release of their new album, Age Of Winters, the foursome, true to their reputation, conjured up the tenth level Were-Griffyns of Rock. Supported by Torche, ASG, and Golden Axe, it was a loud, hairy evening. All of which was tenuously held together by a mysterious force: the irony of Metal retread.

Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath (arguably the "first" heavy metal bands, heard of 'em?) propelled us through puberty, but we snubbed their offspring. Somewhere in the mid to late nineties we became aware of the inherent badassitude of a beaten-up Iron Maiden tee, but didn't know why. Since then, no significant developments have caught our attention.

From the Dungeons & Dragons references that dominate their lyrics to the Medieval cover of their new album, these Swordsmen wear those early influences on their cloaks. Bombarded with this, the show itself left us with questions as to what we were really witnessing. We saw plenty of familiar faces (leading to some "since when do you like Metal?" stares), yet there was a conspicuous lack of devil-horn hands held aloft. Several tallboys deep we began to wonder if some of the enthusiasm wasn't simply knee-jerk adulation for the four biggest, most ironic sets of cojoñes in Central Texas.

Speculation aside, the chords crunched tastily and the jackhammer percussion dislocated our gall bladders. It was a tight set, no doubt, but our attention began to wander as the evening dragged to a conclusion and key signatures were repeated. In the end, the crowd got exactly what most of them came for and said internal organs were nudged back into place.

With shout-outs from Spin and Dungeon Master David Fricke of Rolling Stone, the boys have received substantial industry traction of late. Will The Sword be another band that helps keep Austin on the musical map? Thursday evening demonstrated their capacity to put on a good show, but the true arbiters of next-gen metal will need to push harder at the boundaries of the genre if they're gonna keep our attention. It is yet to be seen whether or not The Sword has it in them to venture into those dungeons.

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