The Sword are back and with them they bring a homage to all the 70s and 80s. For fans of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath era Black Sabbath, Thin Lizzy, E.L.O. and any blues infused rock from those decades, The Sword do what any real fans of the era would want to do, they take their influences and create something unique.

From the opening of Empty Temple you feel like you've been sent back to when music was made for the love of it and not to become some soon to be discarded YouTube 'sensation'. The riffs throughout the album are admirable and often beautiful,  but they'd be next to nothing if they weren't for the bass, drums and vocals all creating a beautiful harmony. 

That's right, beautiful. There aren't many other ways of describing some of what goes on in here. High Country is one of the best examples of this, with the second half of the track especially standing out. Mist And Shadow sees some Cream influences brought to the fore as black t shirts are replaced with psychedelic tie dye. Agartha follows this on, bringing more proggy elements into the mix, before Seriously Mysterious lives up to it's name, feeling like something a 'hard rock' Jamiroquai might put out.

The short Suffer No Fools sees them keep the psychedelic influences, but mix them up with some Sabbath and Motörhead inspired riffs. The rest of the album plays out in this fashion, with each song giving the listener something worth sticking around for.

After chalking up 9 years , The Sword have put out one of the albums of their career. Now is the time to get into these guys.