Check it out!

In conjunction with their forthcoming tour supporting Clutch (see dates below), The Sword today release their new video, “Cloak Of Feathers.” The video, directed by Rich Ragsdale, is the second clip from The Sword’s fourth album, Apocryphon (Razor & Tie). Check the clip out below and let us know what you think in the comments.

The Sword Tour Dates with Clutch
5/1/13                 Richmond, VA                                  The National
5/2/13                 New York, NY                                   Terminal 5
5/3/13                 Clifton Park, NY                               Upstate Concert Hall
5/4/13                 Portland, ME                                     State Theatre
5/5/13                 Boston, MA                                        House of Blues Boston
5/7/13                 Charlotte, NC                                     Amos’ Southend
5/9/13                 St Petersburg                                     State Theatre
5/10/13              Fort Lauderdale, FL                           Revolution Live
5/11/13              Orlando, FL                                        House of Blues Orlando
5/12/13              Pensacola, FL                                    Vinyl Music Hall
5/14/13              New Orleans, LA                               House of Blues New Orleans
5/15/13              Atlanta, GA                                         Center Stage Theatre
5/17/13              Philadelphia, PA                                 The Electric Factory
5/18/13              Columbus, OH                                   Rock on the Range Festival*
5/19/13              Indianapolis, IN                                 The Vogue
5/21/13              Milwaukee, WI                                   Turner Hall Ballroom
5/22/13              Fargo, ND                                           The Venue
5/23/13              Lincoln, NE                                        Bourbon Theater
5/24/13              Pryor, OK                                           Rocklahoma Festival*
5/25/13              Houston, TX                                      House of Blues Houston
5/26/13              San Antonio, TX                               River City Rock Festival*
*Festivals

The daily performance lineup for Rocklahoma has been revealed and single-day tickets will be available for purchase beginning Wednesday, April 17, at 10:00 AM CT at www.rocklahoma.com.

Rocklahoma–proud to be presented by Bud Light–will celebrate its seventh year May 24, 25, and 26 with a stellar rock lineup including Guns N’ Roses, Alice In Chains, Korn and many more. The three-day camping festival features the top current active rock artists and classic bands at “Catch the Fever” Festival Grounds in Pryor, Oklahoma.

The current daily performance lineup for Rocklahoma is as follows:

Thursday, May 23 (AXiS Campground Stage):
Triple 7, Bruce Flea, Searching for Sanity, Sleepwalking Home, Motortrain, Baron, Von Swagger, Rocker Lips, Drek, Kingshifter

Friday, May 24:
Guns N’ Roses, Bush, Papa Roach, Device, Ratt, All That Remains, Clutch, Escape the Fate, The Sword, Otherwise, Zero Crossing, Down & Dirty, The Last Vegas, Hessler, Bai Bang, Ruff Justice, London’s Dungeon, Fist of Rage, The Summit, Wanton Looks, Kicktree, Shotgun Rebels, The Kul, Mine Enemies Fall

Saturday, May 25:
Alice in Chains, Bullet for My Valentine, Skillet, Halestorm, Asking Alexandria, Big Wreck, Young Guns, We as Humans, O’Brother, Mindset Evolution, Gypsy Pistoleros, Rhyme, Sunset Riot, Wildstreet, London, Black Tora, Big Trouble, Sister’s Doll, Emerald City, Strikes at One, Well Hung Heart, Vilifi, For the Broken, EchoFuzz, The Chimpz, Memory of a Melody

Sunday, May 26:
Korn, Cheap Trick, Hollywood Undead, Steel Panther, Dokken, Motionless In White, Thousand Foot Krutch, Red Line Chemistry, Heaven’s Basement, American Fangs, Scorpion Child, The Glitter Boys, Nasty Habit, Mystery, Lynam, Switchblade Scarlet, Firstryke, Station, Ragdoll, Wicked, New Dawn Day, Unwritten Rulz, Framing the Red, Meganaut, The Bourgeois

Rocklahoma continues to offer fan-friendly ticket prices for the three-day-weekend rock event which features over 70 artists on four stages.

SINGLE DAY general admission tickets (Friday, Saturday, or Sunday) will go on sale Wednesday, April 17 at 10:00 AM CT for $69 (plus fees).

THREE-DAY general admission tickets are currently available for only $125 plus fees and will increase to $150 plus fees on Wednesday, April 17 at 10:00AM CT.

WEEKEND VIP reserved tickets are currently available for as low as $350 plus fees and will increase to $380 plus fees. Quantities are limited, so get them while you can.

A select few WEEKEND FOUR-PACKs and GROUPIE PACKAGES remain, and ACTIVE MILITARY may purchase discounted general admission tickets at any time. The ROADIE PACKAGES AND ROCKSTAR PACKAGES are now sold out. For more information on the available packages, please visit the festival website.

For a detailed list of 2013 Rocklahoma ticket options, VIP packages and amenities, please visit www.rocklahoma.com. Camping tickets may be purchased by calling the Rocklahoma Camping Office at (866) 310-2288 or emailing info@feverfest.com. Campgrounds open on Sunday, May 19 and will remain open through Tuesday, May 28.

Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, Smashing Pumpkins, Korn, Bush, Three Days Grace, Stone Sour, Papa Roach, Volbeat, Cheap Trick, Bullet For My Valentine, Lamb Of God, Skillet, A Day To Remember, Buckcherry, Halestorm, Hollywood Undead, Device (with David Draiman), Steel Panther, All That Remains, Asking Alexandria, Sevendust, Sick Puppies, Pop Evil, In Flames, In This Moment, Black Veil Brides, Clutch, The Sword, Ghost, Red, Biffy Clyro, Deuce, Middle Class Rut, Big Wreck, Otherwise, Red Line Chemistry, Oleander, Young Guns, Thousand Foot Krutch, Mindset Evolution, Tracer, Beware Of Darkness, Heaven’s Basement, American Fangs, Love And Death, Gemini Syndrome

“We’re really looking forward to returning to Rock on the Range with a batch of brand new killer Alice tunes to play for everyone!” says Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains.

“Head is back!!,” Korn singer Jonathan Davis comments. “Rock On The Range is going to start it all off!! Get ready, we are going to hit it hard!!”

“Bush are thrilled to be playing Rock On The Range with such great bands,” Bush frontman Gavin Rosdale says. “We look forward to seeing you all out there.”

“This massive lineup has scratched our seven-year itch!” says Gary Spivack, co-executive producer of the event for Right Arm Entertainment. “Getting Soundgarden for their first Ohio play in two decades and having seminal acts Alice in Chains, Korn, Volbeat, and Papa Roach return along with bands new to Rock On The Range that include Smashing Pumpkins and Bush, and everything in between—the spectrum of rock n roll is covered…three days of constant energy. Rock On The Range is truly where rock lives.”

“Our goal with Rock On The Range is to constantly create new and interesting ways to expand the event and give even more value to our fans,” comments Joe Litvag, co-executive producer of the event for AEG Live. “In 2013, we’ve added a comedy tent within the site that will be curated by The Funny Bone comedy club. Having a slate of incredible, up-and-coming comedians to riff on the rock experience will be a great change of pace for the weekend. The site layout is also changing dramatically in 2013 to create better event flow, to add more interactive fan activity to the festival, and to allow even more people to experience the higher caliber of talent on the second stage this year.”

By Andrew Bansal

Austin, Texas-based heavy rock quartet The Sword released their fourth studio album, Apocryphon, on October 22, their first release on Razor & Tie. It’s a contrasting follow-up to the concept album, Warp Riders, in every sense.

They’re now preparing to hit the road for a US tour with support acts Gypsyhawk and American Sharks.

A couple of days ago, I spoke to vocalist/guitarist JD Cronise to discuss the making of the album, his gear setup, the band’s new drummer and several other topics. Enjoy the conversation below, and check out the band’s official website for more info on the album and tour dates.

REVOLVER: Your previous album, Warp Riders, was a big creative undertaking for you, conceptually, musically and in all aspects. Did that help you get back to simpler things for this new album?

Yeah, Warp Riders was a kind of experiment, and it was fun, but it was definitely a challenge. So going into the writing for this one, we kind of wanted to keep it simpler, just write some songs and let them come to us, to see what happens.

I think the album has elements of what you’ve done before, but it has more of a classic heavy metal vibe rather than the sludgy sound of your earlier records. It is kind of Sabbath-y. Is that a fair assessment of Apocryphon?

Yeah, I would say so. Even though it’s funny that I seem to be reading the word “sludge” a lot these days when people are referring to this record, but it definitely doesn’t sound sludgy to me!

But in terms of your vocals, you’ve done a lot on this one, probably more than ever before. Is this vocally your best effort so far?

I think so. I’d like to think that every album is the best one we’ve done so far, in terms of everyone’s playing and performance. Personally, I think I stepped it up a little bit on Warp Riders. I actually took some vocal lessons before we recorded that, but yeah, I think I expanded it even more on this new one. Honestly, I get a lot of criticism for my vocals. It’s probably the most criticized aspect of our music, but for me, when I listen to all of our records, I hear what I meant to do. So may be when people criticize it, a lot of the times I think they don’t really understand what we’re going for. But I’m very happy with it.

Well, they can definitely stop criticizing your vocals from now on. Another interesting thing is, you actually stepped outside of Austin and moved to Baltimore to record this one. Was there any particular reason for that, or was it just because the producer is based there?

Yeah, J. Robbins’ studio is there, he lives there, he’s a family man and he’s got a wife and kid. I’m sure he wasn’t really into the idea of coming and living in Austin for a month and being away from his family and away from his home studio where he knows best. It’s always kind of best to let the engineer or producer work in the place that they’re most comfortable. That way they can get the sound that they want, you know.

Did he play an important role in capturing this sound? Do you feel that he brought out the best in you, which you might not have achieved otherwise?

Yeah, definitely. The reason we picked him was, we thought he really had a very good ear for the kind of music that we play, and he could deliver the kind of album we wanted. We knew him mostly from his work with Clutch, although our bass player Bryan is a big fan of the earlier bands he was in, like Burning Airlines. We really felt like he knew how a band like us was supposed to sound. We just wanted a big, thick, classic rock-sounding album. He was really easy to work with, and it was a breeze.

I’m glad you mentioned Clutch, because they also have a songwriting approach that’s similar to what you applied on this album. They have a massive, simple sound. That’s the case with your album as well.

Yeah, I’ve been into Clutch for many, many years and kind of listened to them evolved over the years. What I love about them is, they started with one kind of sound and they’ve totally morphed it into a whole different thing now. But they’ve done it very gradually, and in a logical kind of organic way. We all really admire that. They’re a real band, you know. There are not many bands around these days that are willing to let their sound change and evolve like that. So many people are concerned about, ‘Well, if we make this sound too different from our last album, people won’t like it and it won’t sell well.’ That kind of mindset is very limiting to creativity a lot of times. We strive to definitely be a band like Clutch, and like the classic rock bands of the 70s and 80s that weren’t afraid to let their sound grow.

That brings me right to my next question. This album has a “big” sound, and the riffs are solid and catchy. Do you think your music has changed for the positive enough for you to open yourselves up to new audiences this time?

I think so. We just try to write good songs, and try to write heavy, impactful riffs. People like that, and that’s the kind of thing people search for when they listen to hard rock music. We’re all fans of lots of different genres, but certainly of rock and metal. This album is definitely one of our most accessible albums so far.

I was reading your comment about the album cover in the latest bio, and you said that anybody who buys the CD, LP or cassette would have a great piece of art to go along with the music. The word “cassette” caught my eye. Are you actually releasing the album on cassette?

Oh yes! There’s a program in place now where you can order the album directly from our label and at participating independent record stores, and when you buy the album on LP or CD, you get a free cassette with it.

That’s awesome. Guitar-wise, did you change much from what you used on Warp Riders?

No, we’ve not changed much as far as our equipment and set up goes even since we started. We still pretty much play the same amps. We’ve gotten some new guitars here and there, but not a lot has changed throughout all the records really, as far as that goes. It’s just been different studios, different people recording them, and things like that. Once we find something we like, we tend to stick with it, myself in particular.

You mentioned that you worked with different people to record the albums. Do they offer any input in terms of what you should use as opposed to just the input on the music itself?

Well, there’s a funny story to that. On Warp Riders, the producer, Matt Bayles, said when we began the recording process that he was going to have us try out all these different amps and this and that, but when I brought in my amps and set them up and played through it, that was the last I heard of trying out anything else. If nothing else, there’s one thing that I kind of pride myself for; I know guitar tones. I know what sounds good and I know what I’m going for. I’m an expert knob twiddler. I can get whatever sound I need out of whatever it is. When it comes to my equipment, I’m very in touch with what it sounds like and what it can do, and like I said, once I find myself I like I stick with it. I know what I’m looking for in guitar sound and I know how to get it.

What did it take for you to come to the conclusion that this is the set up you’re going to stick with? Did you just practice a lot with it and try out different settings?

Yeah, I’ve played Orange amps since 1998, and to me they have everything about the tone that suits me very well. Not all Orange amps obviously, but a lot of their models. I have added a 2X12 cabinet to my rig recently. It used to just be a 4X12 cabinet or a 2X12, but now I do a three-quarters stack, which is a stack of a 4X12 and a 2X12. The 2X12 definitely adds a different dimension, and I’m really enjoying that.

Talking of the band’s lineup, this is your new drummer Jimmy Vela’s first studio album. Just for the sake of any fans wondering, I just wanted to ask whether he wrote all of his drum parts.

He did a lot of it. Jimmy is great to work with. If me or Kyle comes in with an idea for a drum part to go along with a guitar part we wrote, Jimmy would play it just like we imagine it and envision it, and if we don’t have anything in mind, he’ll come up with something awesome. He’s very versatile and very easy to work with. I think J Robbins was kind of blown away by his performance in the studio.

Your previous drummer did a great job on the older albums. Was there any expectation from Jimmy to live up to that, or did you just let him ease into it?

He’s very familiar with our previous material and everything like that. I think he probably already had those records long before he joined the band, so he kind of knew what was expected from him as far as that goes, in terms of playing older material. He definitely has some different qualities as a drummer than Trivett, but they both come from the same John Bonham school, if you will, and they have a lot of common ground in their playing as well.

Very soon, you have a tour coming up with Gypsyhawk. I’m digging their new album as well. Are you fans of their music, or did the lineup happen through management, labels or stuff like that?

No, we chose them. I actually suggested them. I don’t own any of their albums yet, but I’m hoping to may be snag them on tour. But I’ve heard their music, I’ve seen videos and stuff online, and they seem like they’ll be a really good fit. We get a lot of offers for the opening slot on our headline tours from a lot more of the extreme metal bands, but we want somebody with a little more of a kind of party vibe, just some good old-fashioned guitar rock that’s going to put smiles on people’s faces instead of inducing mosh-pits.

Andrew Bansal is a Los Angeles-based writer who has been running his own website, Metal Assault, since early 2010, and has been prolific in covering the hard rock and heavy metal scene by posting interviews, reviews and pictures on his website — with the help of a small group of people. Besides being hugely passionate about heavy metal, he is an avid follower of jazz music and recently started a blog called Jazz Explorer to pursue that interest.

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• …And You Will Know Us By The The Trail Of Dead – Lost Songs
• A Life Once Lost – Ecstatic Trance
• Abiotic – Symbiosis
• AntropomorphiA – Evangelivm Nekromantia
• Behold The Arctopus – Horrorscension
• Bison b.c. – Lovelessness
• Dark Tranquillity – Zero Distance
• Evocation – Illusions Of Grandeur
• God Seed – I Begin
• Ill Niño – Epidemia
• Killbot – Sound Surgery
• Motörhead – The Wörld Is Ours Vol. 2: Anyplace Crazy As Anywhere Else
• Pig Destroyer – Book Burner
• Sister Sin – Now And Forever
• Stone Sour – House Of Gold And Bones: Part 1
• The Sword – Apocryphon
• The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza – Danza IIII: The Alpha – The Omega
• tweaker – call the time eternity
• Upon This Dawning – To Keep Us Safe
• Zodiac – A Bit Of Devil

The Sword’s new album, Apocryphon (Razor & Tie), is out today–you can pick it up at your favorite record store or on iTunes. In conjunction with the record release, the band is premiering the lyric video for the track “Eyes of the Stormwitch” right here right now.  The video was directed by P.R. Brown, who also directed the lyric video for the title track, “Apocryphon.”

The Sword commence their first U.S tour in support of Apocryphon next Monday, October 29 in Corpus Christi, Texas.  All tour dates are listed below the video.

The Sword Tour Dates
Mon/Oct-29  – Corpus Christi TX – House Of Rock
Tue/Oct 30- Denton, Texas- Rubber Gloves
Wed/Oct-31  – Oklahoma City OK – Acm
Thu/Nov-01  – Little Rock AR – Downtown Music Hall
Fri/Nov-02  – Shreveport LA – The Riverside Warehouse
Sat/Nov-03  – Austin TX – Fun Fun Fun Festival
Mon/Nov-05  – Lincoln NE – Bourbon Theater
Tue/Nov-06  – Minneapolis MN – First Ave
Wed/Nov-07  – Chicago IL – Double Door
Thu/Nov 8- Columbus, Ohio- A&R Bar
Fri/Nov-09  – Cleveland OH – Grog Shop
Sat/Nov-10  – Covington KY – The Madison Theater
Sun/Nov-11  – Detroit MI – St Andrews Hall
Tue/Nov-13  – Philadelphia Pa – Union Transfer
Wed/Nov-14  – New York NY– Webster Hall
Thu/Nov-15  – Pawtucket RI – The Met
Fri/Nov-16  – Cambridge MA – Middle East Downstairs
Sat/Nov-17  – Washington DC  – Rock & Roll Hotel
Mon/Nov-19  – Birmingham AL–Workplay
Tue/Nov-20  – Orlando FL – Beacham
Wed/Nov-21  – Atlanta GA – Masquerade
Thu/Nov-22  – Nashville TN – Exit / In
Fri/Nov-23  – Memphis TN – Hi Tone
Sat/Nov-24  – Baton Rouge LA – Spanish Moon
Sun/Dec-02  – Tulsa OK – Eclipse
Mon/Dec-03  – Kansas City MO – Record Bar
Tue/Dec-04  – Denver CO – Bluebird
Wed/Dec-05  – Salt Lake City UT – Urban Lounge
Thu/Dec-06  – Boise ID – Neurolux
Fri/Dec-07  – Portland OR – Hawthorne
Sat/Dec-08  – Seattle WA – Neumos
Mon/Dec-10  – Sacramento CA – Harlows
Tue/Dec-11  – San Francisco CA – Independent
Wed/Dec-12  – Los Angeles CA – El Rey
Thu/Dec-13  – San Diego CA – Brick By Brick
Fri/Dec-14  – Phoenix AZ – Club Red
Sat/Dec-15  – Tucson AZ – Congress
Mon Dec 17- Dallas, Texas- Trees
Tue/Dec-18  – Houston TX–Fitzgeralds

The Sword have just launched an official lyric video for the title track off their upcoming new album, Apocryphon. Check it out below, and be sure to let us know what you think in the comments!

Apocryphon is out October 22 via Razor & Tie.