I posted this on another thread, but I think i might get a better response here. I'm still reeling from the show! Here we go...

So, a couple years ago, my friends bought Guitar Hero. It was fun. The songs were pretty okay. Then, one of my friends said "hey have you listened to 'The Sword'?" "Why, no," I replied. He then said "Well, haven't you played Guitar Hero with us?" I said, "You know I have. Why?" "Then you've at least heard one of their songs, 'Freya'." "You mean that one bonus track about like, 'fighting on some battlefield' and something about a 'broken throne' and some chick named 'Freya'?" He said, "That's the one!"

Thus started my love affair with the band. Bought their first cd and enjoyed the hell out of it. A couple months later, they came to town and played one of the best rock shows I had ever seen.

This year, they released a new cd, which imho, is even better than their debut. Then, just Monday (the 21st) they came to my home town yet again to promote the newest album, Gods of the Earth.

Now, let me make one thing clear. This band is awesome. It might not be to everyones liking, but for anyone that likes this type of metal, they are one of the best bands making music at this time.

This is my real topic: the show sucked!

Okay, no, it didn't, but let me explain why it did...

First of all, they had two opening acts. Yes, yes, I know opening bands are notoriously bad, but for a band as awesome as The Sword, I felt these two pieces of garbage were inexcusable. First was a thrash metal band called "Children". They played they're opening song, which in it's second half, was fairly kick ass. They then played for about 20 more minutes. One of their songs, as the singer drunkenly blurted out before starting to play was titled, "Nuclear Boner". *sigh* I really am not into super heavy thrash metal. It was difficult to listen to this d-bag squawk into the microphone over extremely repetitive chunking riffs.

The second opener was Slough Feg. Another horrible band in their own right. At times the songs sounded like they were metal versions of old Genesis theme songs. Which could've been cool! Sometimes it made me think of a leprechaun who sported a mohawk galloping down a gold-paved road on his way to protect his precious pot of treasure from an invading hoard of evil unicorns. But it just didn't work. It was awful. The singer was old and balding and he wore some snakeskin-type vest thing, revealing his aging midriff and it make me feel nauseas. The worst part is that they played for OVER AN HOUR! Their final song I swear to god, ended at least 10 times! You could hear the chords moving to a familiar conclusion. Then, a second later "BLAM" a chord change and the song freaking continued. Let me say this part again, they're an opener and THEY PLAYED FOR OVER A GEEDEE HOUR!!

On to The Sword. I'll try to keep this short, because thinking about the negative aspects of the show the other night makes my blood boil.

1. They played for slightly over 1 hour. Last year they played for at least 90 minutes and it was the most epic 90 minutes I've experienced at a small venue show.
2. One of my new favorite songs "Lords" was tacked onto the end of their opening track of the new cd. Which apparently meant that they had to bastardize my new favorite song and leave out one of the only parts I knew the lyrics to and cutting the run time of the song in half.
3. They did NOT play Lament for the Auroch!! WTF?? Probably their best song from their first cd. I wanted to scream "SKIES BLACKENED WITH CROWSSSS!!" SOO bad, but NO. No screaming radtastic lyrics for me!
4. Their new album has acoustic guitar breaks. Not just cutting out the overdrive, they have acoustic breaks. In the performance, NO clean breaks, NO acoustic! GodDAMN it! One of the things I'm starting to like about this band is that they are not always constantly thrashing away at their instruments, but really harmonizing and producing quality music!
5. They had NO ENCORE!! They did their 60+ minute set, and bounced. They barely stayed on stage for the crowd to give them their due props and just left.

As simple a notion as it is, some random guy I overheard in the bar on the way out was right; "They were better last year..." Not only was the show I saw one year ago longer and more energy filled, but they played their entire debut album and then some songs I had never heard before. It was just plain awesome. While this time they WERE awesome (don't forget that point), the degree to which the awesome was handed out was not as .... what's a good word? ... awesome! Okay, 'plentiful' is probably a better word there, but whatever.

I don't know if I have more gripes about the show or not. I really just wanted to talk about my experience and see if anyone else felt the same way. I'd especially like to hear if someone had a completely different time seeing this show. Did I 'just not get it'? I don't know, but it felt unbearable at times.

I have some pictures of them playing Freya. I'll post those later I guess. I only had my cell phone camera, so I'll find out if they are worth posting or not.

word

oh right, this will help a few people as well The Sword
and MySpace.com - THE SWORD - Austin, Texas - Metal / Rock - www.myspace.com/thesword

Dude, The Sword is AWESOME!!!

Saw them live in Hollywood just 2 months ago. "Gods Of The Earth" tour. The other bands blew. Then The Sword blew my MIND!