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Rating: Let's inaugurate my new account with the review of a 2006 album.
"Age Of Winters" is the first, powerful album by "The Sword", a Texan quartet that plays a mix between Stoner and Doom Metal and visited our country on the occasion of the Metallica concert on July 22, 2008, in Bologna, giving us a performance overall not bad.
The album consists of nine tracks, all seasoned with distorted guitars, double bass, almost plaintive vocals, and very heavy riffing in the style of Black Sabbath.
From the intro "Celestial Crown", we are catapulted into an ocean of heaviness and Norse mythology that continues with "Barael's Blade" and the splendid "Freya", the backbone of the album. We continue our magical journey through the powerful drumming of "Winter's Wolves" and "The Horned Goddess", to then arrive at the slow intro of "Iron Swan", another key track of the album.
The following two tracks follow the standard set by the previous ones, while the concluding "Ebethron" once again showcases the drummer's skills in a brief yet intense solo.
So what to expect from these "The Sword"? A lot of heaviness (something I will never tire of repeating) and a lot of passion.
Is all this enough to make a good Heavy album? In my opinion, yes.
So let's unleash ourselves with some good old Headbanging listening to "Age Of Winters".
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
03 Freya (04:34)
A Sword of fire and an axe of cold
Vision of the sibyl has fortold
Armies gather on the battle-plain
All will fall and earth will die in flame
Here on the Battle-Plain
We will die in Flame
In Falcon's feathers soaring overhead
Choosing warriors among the dead
Twilight written in the runes of crones
Freya weeps upon her golden throne
Upon her golden throne
We wait for her alone
Call us unto your hall
Take us into your thrall
The battle rages, bit they fight in vain
When all is done it must begin again.
04 Winter's Wolves (04:36)
Can't you see what you have brought here?
Bloody battles will be fought here
May the mountains rise against you
May the forests block your path
May your axes chip and shatter
and know it is my wrath
I would mount your heads on bloody spears
outside your palace gates
And watch as crows peck out your eyes
And your cities are laid to waste
Can't you see what you have wrought here?
A curse on you and all your kin
Bloody battles will be fought here
Await your doom at empire's end
May the rivers rush to drown you
May the earth swallow your hosts
May the winter's wolves surround you
And rip the life from your throats
06 Iron Swan (05:46)
Iron Swan
The Sword
Iron ships on seas of blood
Black winds fill their silver sails
Iron swan rises high above
in crimson twilight through the earthly veil
Legions of vermin surround me
malefic taint in their eyes
Madness gives sway to delusion
in defense of a fortress of lies
The iron swan floats amidst the reeds
It’s shadow long upon the water
It gives a cry for what can never be
which draws the eyes of Odin’s daughters
Scion of storms, aegis of rime
I call on the powers of old
Unleash your vengeance to punish the crimes
of those who I name as my foes
07 Lament for the Aurochs (07:59)
Laboring in the liquid light of Leviathan
Spectres swarm around the sunken cities of the Saurians
Rising up from the void through the blackness of eternal night
Colossus of the deep comes crashing down with cosmic might
And none may see again the shimmering of Avalon
Or know the fates of all the races man has cursed
Long gone are the ages of the Alchemists
Now there are none who know the secrets of the Earth
Harken to the howl of the huntsman’s hounds
Or the clarion of kingdoms doomed and drowned
Lost to these lands is lore of the high ones
Sunless skies await the return of hte Archons
Lament the passing of the Auroch
And the slaying of the ancient wyrm
Would you dare to meet the gaze of the Basilisk
Or face the flames as the Phoenix burns?
And none may see again the shimmering up of Avalon
Or know the fates of all the races man has cursed
Long gone are the ages of the alchemists
Blessed are those who keep the secrets of the earth
Lament the passing of the Auroch
And the slaying of the ancient wyrm
Would you dare to meet the gaze of the Basilisk
Or face the flames as the Phoenix burns?
09 Ebethron (05:35)
Black blades in their hands
Obey his every command
They search for that which was lost
Through realms of rime and of frost
Where no mortal may pass
Atop a dais of glass
Sits a scepter of light
A symbol of Titan's might
He comes from cities of darkness
To supper harlots and fools
Loneliness is his raiment
Solitude is his jewel
He's seen the valleys of solace
Beheld the spires of sleep
He's fed the fyres of the fallen
And heard their widows weep
We come from cities in darkness
To conquer cowards and fools
Loneliness is our payment
Solitude is our due
Walk through valleys of solace
Ascend the spires of sleep
Ignore the warnings of prophets
And for your children I'll weep
Skies blackened with crows
Shadows on winter's snows
Within a temple of ice
Priestesses perform the rites
Witness the setting of suns
The darkest days have begun
Let the seers come forth
At morning's light we ride north
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