The Sword are Throwing a Stoner Rock Party Inside Your “Empty Temples”

When The Sword released a new song called “High Country” a couple of weeks back Axl expressed joy that the band was finally moving away from their Black Sabbath-y roots. Predictably this set off a firestorm in the comments, with accusations ranging from “Clearly you haven’t listened to The Sword since ____” (possibly true) to “I don’t hear Sabbath in The Sword at all” (total BS) to “What the fuck are smoking, Axl?” (weed, and lots of it).

But this, at least, I think we can all agree on: The Sword make some pretty stoner-rific music. They are very likely influenced by Black Sabbath. And they rock. The degree to which they rock can be open for debate, but their overall rockitude on SOME LEVEL cannot be denied.

So: stream another new track called “Empty Temples” below. I totally hear what Axl was talking about — less blatant Sabbath worship, and more influence from across the classic rock spectrum — and hey, lookee here, The Sword guitarist Kyle Shutt confirms exactly that in the accompanying Rolling Stone write-up:

“Empty Temples” could be considered our mission statement for the record. We’ve shed our old trappings and embraced a livelier, more upbeat approach to songwriting while still maintaining the vision we shared when we started this band over a decade ago. High Country has more flavors than any of our previous records, everything from folk to pop to boogie to straight-up rock, and proves that we are the other “Little Ol’ Band From Texas.”

The album comes out August 21 via Razor and Tie. You can pre-order it here. Stream “Empty Temples” below.