The Sword

Age of Winters (Kemado)

Beware the apothecary facade of Age of Winters‘ Sword-bearing maiden, comely rendered on the cover of this first Book of Lor by …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead commander Conrad Keely. Inside, she births mankind’s curse, war, appearing as “The Horned Goddess,” who “sits astride mountains tall and wide, serpent of earth writhes between glacial thighs.” She’s Euro-pagan mythology translated by four Austin metal mercenaries, who trace the forging of “Barael’s Blade” to the flame-engulfed battle plains of “Preya” and the lupine cries of “Winter Wolves.” Forget the ancient runes: This epic account of warriors and wizards, valor and doom, Leviathan and “Ebethron” can be read in the buckets of blood eating into Winters‘ musical snow drifts. Blizzards of guitar engulf this Iron Age throwback, JD Cronise’s prophetic intonation embedded in the molten hearth running through this impenetrable fortress. Rarely does the jackhammer gallop of a Sabbath-like “Iron Swan” escape, but then the unceasing torrent of guitars and heroic verse from “Lament for the Aurochs” and closer “Ebethron” batten down the Sword’s bloody history like an armory. Instrumental fusillade “March of the Lor” falls just short of a massacre. In this one 43-minute Age of Winters lie countless centuries of metallurgy. Ask not for whom the bells tolls. It tolls for She.

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This article appears in February 3 • 2006.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.