THE SWORD @ THE BLUEBIRD THEATER 12/04/12 DENVER-CO

“A sword of fire and an axe of cold, Vision of the Sybil has foretold, Armies gather on the battleplain, All will fall and earth will die in flame”

NEW MUSIC

GRINDERMAN – “Grinderman 2” – Seedy, psychedelic-blues punk from Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Martyn Casey and Jim Sclavunos. This their second album is more like a blanket of noise, more psychedelic/drone feel to it, it still has Mr. Cave’s dark vocals, but with a much noisier background. Best songs are “Evil,” “Kitchenette,” “Worm Tamer” and “Heathen Child.”     

SWANS – “My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky.” Experimental noise rock from legendary avant-garde artist Michael Gira. On his first album in 13 years, the music is a hallucinatory vision on a wall of sound pummeling on a seasick rhythm, an it closes on a note of starkly beutiful music. “Folk Noise.”

UNEARTHLY TRANCE – “V” – Sludge/doom metal from Brooklyn NY. It’s like “an electric, urban funeral drone that summons great evil,” it has a black metal vibe mixed with a sludgy doom sound and great ambient/drone passages. Like the soundtrack of your soul’s descent into the pits of hell, pure evil. 

NEUROSIS – “Live At Roadburn 2007” – Experimental/doom metal from Oakland, this album was recorded live at The Roadburn Festival in Tilburg-Netherlands. The album is a pitch black piece of music, which drives the listener into the ground and crushes it’s surroundings. A bleak and agonizing display of ferocity with explosive riffs and roaring voices, ambient soundscapes, the perfect soundtrack to the apocalyptic end of the world.

SUICIDAL TENDENCIES – “No Mercy Fool!/The Suicidal Family” – Venice Beach skate punks re-recorded tracks from their old lp “Join The Army” and Mike Muir’s (vocalist) other band, No Mercy.

GNAW THEIR TONGUES – “L’Arrivee De La Terne Mort Triomphante” – Schizophrenic experimental/noise from the Netherlands.

DEATH ANGEL – “Relentless Retribution” – Legendary thrash metal from the Bay Area.

MINISTRY – “Mixxxes Of The Mole” – Track by track remix of 2004 lp “House Of The Mole,” “Trance-metal.”

BXI – 4 song Ep collaboration between Boris – Japanese psychedelic/doom rock band and Ian Astbury – Lead singer of The Cult. 

RIOTGOD – “Riotgod” – Metal from 2 members of Monster Magnet.

KNIGHTS OF THE ABYSS – “The Culling Of Wolves” – Death metal from the rascist state (Arizona).

THE ETERNAL SUFFERING – “Miasma” – Blackened death metal from Greece.

DEMIURG – “Slakthus Gamleby” Progressive old school death metal from Sweden.

THE SWORD – “Warp Riders” – Sludge/stoner metal from Texas.

ISOBEL CAMPBELL & MARK LANEGAN – “Hawk” – Alt-rock from Scottish singer Isobel and multi-band vocalist and solo artist Mr. Lanegan.

DALE WATSON – “Carryin’ On” – Alt-country singer from Texas.

MOGWAI – “Special Moves” – Live concert from Scottish post-rock/shoegaze band.

CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE – “The Well” Legendary blues harp player since 1967, the “White Bluesman.”

KATAKLYSM – “Heavens Venom” – Canadian death metal.

MALEVOLENT CREATION – “Invidioud Dominion” One of the original death metal bands from the Florida scene.

CITY OF FIRE – “City Of Fire” – Fear Factory “lite” featuring Burton C. bell and Byron Stroud.

ION DISSONANCE – “Cursed” Mathcore metal from Canada.

THE SWORD @ THE OGDEN THEATER 10/06/10 DENVER-CO

The Sword are a stoner/doom metal band from Austin, Texas. They combine old school thrash guitar work and the harmonic pinches and squeals of the modern metal styles; with thunderous drumming. Loud and heavy, like “the sound of a bunch of bison being pushed over a cliff.”

Also playing: Karma To Burn – Desert rock/stoner metal, mostly instrumental from West Virginia and Mount Carmel – Stoner blues rock from Ohio.