Things have gone quiet on THE SWORD front lately. After highly acclaimed first two records and the great Sci-Fi opera Warp Riders, a “the fizz has gone” phrase ran through the media in response to the follow-up Apocryphon. I would say, this record just needed a few runs more to get stuck.
However, with their fifth effort, High Country, THE SWORD continues its journey with a slightly changed direction in their musical style. The music is still kind of ZZ Top-like groovy rocking, Thin Lizzy guitar driven and extremely seventies dominated Stoner Metal, dipping into related musical fields along the way. A bit more Southern Rock crept in, added by spacy synths, sometimes funky drum computers and Beatles-like vocal lines. The songs are in fact catchy and compact but don't get stuck immediately. And THE SWORD have put 15 tracks on their record (including instrumentals and intros), which make High Country a bit lengthy, but still with a golden thread throughout the album.
All in all, the atmosphere is lighter (maybe even cheerful), definitely less dark as on the predecessors.  High Country is a good and solid record and needs probably even more runs than Apocryphon. To be honest, this album could not convince me entirely. There are no hits to name at a first listen, but I would like to recommend the title track, Empty Temples, The Dreamthieves and the funky Seriously Mysterious to check this record out.