The Sword is an American heavy metal band formed in Austin, Texas in 2003. The band released its debut album Age of Winters in 2006; the songs on the album were largely written by frontman J. D. Cronise before the band's formation, although the musical compositions were credited to the band as a whole. [1] In 2007 the band contributed the track "Sea of Spears" to a split extended play (EP) with Swedish band Witchcraft, which was credited to Cronise and guitarist Kyle Shutt, as well as a cover version of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song". [2] In 2008 the band released its second album Gods of the Earth , which was again credited to Cronise (lyrics) and the band as a whole (music), [3] as well as the single "Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians" which featured the previously unreleased track "Codex Corvidae" as the B-side. [4]
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After contributing a cover version of Thin Lizzy's "Cold Sweat" to a split single with Year Long Disaster in March, [5] The Sword released its third studio album Warp Riders in August 2010, the music for which was credited to Cronise and Shutt. [6] Second single "(The Night the Sky Cried) Tears of Fire" featured another previously unreleased track as a B-side, "Farstar". [7] The band signed with Razor & Tie in 2012, and released the non-album single "Hammer of Heaven" in May that year, a song written by Cronise during the sessions for Age of Winters. [8] The band's fourth album Apocryphon , the first to feature drummer Santiago "Jimmy" Vela III, followed in October and returned to crediting the music to the whole band. [9]
In 2024 the band contributed a cover of the track "Locomotive Breath" originally written by Jethro Tull to the album Aqualung Redux released through Magnetic Eye Records. It also featured guest musicians including intro piano played by Steve Moore from the band Zombi and flute played by Jason Frey. [10] In review of the song Blabbermouth.net favorably said, "Like everything else on Aqualung Redux, it works brilliantly and shines fresh light" on the original song and album. [11] Choosing to do an accurate reproduction of the original version Cronise, in an interview with Revolver said, "Those old records [are] so layered [with] all these parts. To dissect that and then reconstruct it was the challenge, rather than to reinterpret it." [12] "Locomotive Breath" was a track that was constructed by being "patched together in the studio" by Jethro Tull. Anderson initially played a bass drum and hi-hat cymbal drum track, drummer Clive Bunker then layered tom-toms and cymbals to fill out the drum tracks. Keyboard player John Evan brought the piano section, that was used as the intro prologue, consisting of classical and jazz progressions to the pre-arranged song in which guitarist Martin Barre added blues guitar lines to. [13]
