The Sword
Warp Riders
Kemado

First ever concept album from Texan metal monsters The Sword, which, as you might guess from the cover, draws its cosmic inspiration from old bargain bin sci-fi novels and creased issues of Heavy Metal magazine. Warp Riders, then, is a conscious thematic shift for the band, which has set its lyrical sights this time on the great beyond, tackling planetary forces of good and evil instead of the more earthly doom and gloom of battle axes and black magic. The narrative, in brief, is about Ereth, an archer who has been banished from his tribe on the planet Acheron, which is stuck in a tidal lock, meaning that half of it is shrouded in darkness while the other half is burnt by the heat of three different suns. Got it? Good. Warp Riders is also a bit of a musical departure for The Sword as well, who have surround their space-world narrative with some freak-fried, 70s-infused boogie doom, and the whole thing kind of sounds like Witchcraft and Year Long Disaster gigging biker bars on Mars. Dig the thick, red rock n’ roll on “Tres Brujas,” “Lawless Lands,” “Night City,” and “(The Night the Sky Cried) Tears of Fire” for the best examples. But listen, the faithful needn’t worry because The Sword haven’t completely abandoned their head-banging aesthetics; they’ve just fused some asteroid-splitting riffs with their old pro stoner thrashing for a massively dope ride through the outermost limits. And it really is some awesome stuff.

Listen to “Night City” from Warp Riders!

Avantasia
The Wicked Symphony
Nuclear Blast

Avantasia
Angel of Babylon
Nuclear Blast

No disrespect to Cathedral’s recent double album, The Guessing Game, but Avantasia’s monumental box set featuring two new albums, The Wicked Symphony and Angel of Babylon, is easily the most impressive release so far this year. When I say impressive, I am of course referring to the scope and magnitude of Avantasia’s symphonic power metal, which is at once audacious, indulgent, theatrical, and fantastical. We’re usually only presented with Avantasia’s larger-than-life heavy metal fairy tales one album at a time, but Tobias Sammet must be feeling awfully courageous these days, finishing off the last two parts of The Scarecrow Saga/The Wicked Trilogy (the first part being the 2008 album, The Scarecrow) in one fell swoop. But I suppose if anyone can pull it off, it’s Sammet and his cast of usual suspects, who have gathered once again to fill their roles in this epic and evil installment of Avantasia’s latest production(s).

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