Oops, my beaver is aflame. Please call the fire brigade.
I’ve squirted a fair dollop of love on the upturned faces of stoner doomsters The Sword over the life of this blog.
Warp Riders was in my Top 10 of 2010 with sharp-edged thrash riffage lacing their stoner/doom and a sweet space opera theme.
I’ll always be fond of their debut Age of Winters (2006) for helping lead me back to the path of metal even if they couldn’t get more on Ozzy and Tony’s dicks if they set up their amps in the Sabs’ pants .
We’ll gloss over the shit in the sandwich that is their dreary middle record Gods of the Earth.
BUT I think I might be getting a bit bored of their shtick. New song Veil of Isis – streaming over at that steaming turd of a mag Rolling Stone (!) – is just a bit by-the-numbers.
It’s by no means bad but the riffs feel recycled from The Sword rather than just from Sabbath while the vocal melody also seems mighty familiar.
It’s reasonably catchy and shit, I prefer it to fucking Lamb of God or some other drivel, but it feels a bit safe, yaknowworrimean?
Monkey Defies Gravity 
I agree; I really liked Age of Winters, loved Gods of the Earth, thought the last one was just okay, and am kinda bored by this.
There’s only so many times you can plough the same furrow.
Ho hum, it’s ok but I can’t see myself buying the new album. Warp Riders rode high (sorry!) in my 2010 list too but I’ve barely listened to it since. This is just more of the same and it’s boring me.
Warp Riders faded quickly for me too. I still occasionally rock of Age of Winters, it’s a quality album.
Freya, How Heavy the Axe, Three Witches, Tears of Fire – all rippingly fantastic songs. And there are others I like too, but this has nothing that really stands out and grabs me. My thoughts on 3rd listening was that some of these riffs should have been sped up. I’m more of a Heavy Rock lover than a metal lover, but this album of Heavy Rock would have been a lot more interesting and fun at a faster and thrashier speed. And that made the 3rd listening the last listening. Back to Baroness I went…
Fair comments but Apocryphon gets better with repeat listens. It’s not a classic by any means but it is a strong album.