It’s no secret I love me some 70s metal. There’s something mesmerizing in the dark, raw guitar-heavy albums of Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, Deep Purple, Nazareth, and, naturally, Led Zeppelin. They wrote epic narratives and supported them with driving, relentlessly hard music. I’m not a fan of the genre name, stoner rock. It’s a cavern where people like to chunk music with a throw-back sound to the previously mentioned bands, but there is an element of truth in every stereotype.

The Sword, an Austin-based band, released their third album, Warp Riders this week. You cannot listen to The Sword and not think about early Black Sabbath. The Sword are their own band to be sure, but their sound is a most definite descendant of 1970s metal. Warp Riders is also a concept album (yet another product of the 70s) with a science fiction narrative. If The Sword are not careful, genre fiends might start calling them progressive rock and updating Wikipedia. In the meantime, I urge the rest of you to listen to one of the finest releases of the year.

The band’s two previous releases, Age of Winters and Gods of the Earth, boldly incorporated epic narratives and crunching guitar riffs. Warp Riders is more evolved and tight. The opening instrumental, “Acheron/Unearthing the Orb”, is like the title music for the album’s story. I half expect Riddick to pop out of my speakers.

The second track, “Tres Brujas” is where we get into an area where I cannot defend the band against the stoner rock label as the song is about the narrator smoking herbs to get going on his journey. My second hand high from this one track completely killed my ambition for the rest of the day, but it’s a great song. I’m hungry and I don’t know why.

Other stand-out tracks include the “The Chronomancer I: Hubris”, which could easily serve on a soundtrack to a Heavy Metal movie. “Arrows in the Dark” and “Lawless Lands” have some of the best guitar work on the album and really give off Black Sabbath vibes with well-timed changes. I also particularly like “Night City”; this track is begging to be played loud and while you’re doing 85 MPH, minimum. Overall, there’s not a bad track on this album.

Guitarists J. D. Cronise and Kyle Shutt are consistently bad ass. And while I appreciate Bryan Richie’s impeccable bass and Trivett Wingo’s spot-on drumming, The Sword is a guitar band through and through.

Now I admit Ozzy is over-saturated. I wince and pretty much avoid anything he’s put out since No More Tears. But The Sword reminds me of the fantastic Sabbath early years and their hypnotic listenability. The Sword’s Warp Riders is a fresh take on classic 70s metal. It must be played in its entirety even if it makes you hungry for Taco Bell at 2 a.m.

4.5/5