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Friday, December 17, 2010

The Sword -- Kansas City, MO -- December 15th, 2010

So apparently when it is in the 30's and there's a lite drizzel of rain, the states of Kansas and Missouri are paralyzed with fear and multi-car pileups and highway closing accidents are common. Because of that, I left super early to get to Kansas City to see The Sword, and I was the only one driving above 40 MPH.

When the door's opened, I was quick to realize this show would be packed. I've only been to the Record Bar for three shows, but this one had the most people by far. It was never stuffed and I never thought I was blocking someone's view: it was absolutely right.

Mount Carmel canceled their performance, but Karma To Burn more than made up for it. The crowd gave them a great reaction, and the band really fed off it. Most of their songs were doomed-out and slow, but there were a few ragers thrown in. Only about two songs actually had lyrics, but for once, I wish it was completely instrumental. It was that good! I would love to see a full set from these guys some time. Torche wishes they sounded this good.

After a quick sound check, The Sword arrived and blasted through a truncated set. While our date had fewer songs, The Sword's performance more than made up for it. Their cuts off of their latest, Warp Riders, sounded fantastic, especially Tres Brujas and Lawless Lands. The crowd absolutely kicked into frenzy for some of their older jams, and it really got going during How Heavy This Axe and Maiden, Mother & Crone. The Sword never really let up in their unrelenting rock show, which pounded at my senses and it would've been unbearable if they played for any longer than they did. Perfect set length from them. There was constant pitting and loads of headbanging and we made sure to let the band know they'll be welcome back around these parts for a long time coming.

Oh, and the drummer for Karma To Burn smells terrible.

Acheron/Unearthing the Orb
Tres Brujas
Barael's Blade
Arrows in the Dark
How Heavy This Axe
Maiden, Mother & Crone
Lawless Lands
Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians
The Horned Goddess
Iron Swan
The Black River
Freya > I Need More Time (The Meters cover) > Freya
(The Night the Sky Cried) Tears of Fire
Winter's Wolves

The Sword: 9/10
Karma To Burn: 8/10

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Great review mankvill, I follow your metal comments from backtorockville, and I agree on all counts about this show. Great venue, great sound, great energy from both the band and the crowd.