I got the full album copy of The Sword’s sophomore album Gods of the Earth just a couple days ago. It’s sweet. If you’re the law abiding type, you’ll have to wait until April 1st to get your hands on it yourself (I’m not going to share mine with you, so don’t ask), but you can at least listen to it on the band’s MySpace page. It’s not as sweet as actually having the album, but it’s still pretty sweet.

Upon the release of Gods of the Earth, The Sword is going to be all up in your business. The band will embark on two headlining tours: a West Coast leg from April 14th through the 29th; an East Cost leg from May 9th through the 29th; and a spot on Bonnaroo with a whole bunch of awesome bands. If you happen to be planning on catching The Sword on their West Coast tour (as I will be), be sure to get there early and check out San Francisco’s Slough Feg, because they’re pretty fucking rawk. All sorts of concert dates after the jump. (more…)

Dust off the chain mail and get ready. The Sword have announced their triumphant return. Their sophomore album Gods of the Earth is complete and will be released on April 1st (which better not be some kind of joke) on Kemado. I haven’t heard anything from it yet, but I see from the track listing that it contains two songs with medieval weaponry in their titles (”How Heavy This Axe” and (my favorite) “Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians”). There are also some pretty awesome pagan goddess references (fucking metal!) with “Mother, Maiden and Crone.” I’m pretty sure it’s going to rule. Full track listing below. And for gods’ sake, catch these guys live.

1.) The Sundering
2.) How Heavy This Axe
3.) Lords
4.) Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians
5.) To Take the Black
6.) Maiden, Mother & Crone
7.) Under the Boughs
8.) The Black River
9.) The White Sea