{"id":10927,"date":"2016-03-31T20:25:26","date_gmt":"2016-04-01T03:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/?p=10927"},"modified":"2016-03-31T20:25:26","modified_gmt":"2016-04-01T03:25:26","slug":"the-sword-royal-thunder-mesmerize-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/2016\/03\/31\/the-sword-royal-thunder-mesmerize-los-angeles\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sword & Royal Thunder Mesmerize Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Review & photos by Andrew Bansal<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"cgcz04p\"<\/a><\/p>\n

March 23rd 2016, The El Rey Theatre, Los Angeles CA:\u00a0<\/strong>Austin, Texas stoner rock quartet The Sword released their adventurous fifth full-length studio album ‘High Country’ in 2015, an effort that sees them push their creative and stylistic boundaries like never before. While it isn’t the kind of record that captured fans’ imagination straightaway, the band’s incredible live performance of this material has played a major part in eventually winning fans over. This was evident at the Southern California stop on the first North American headline tour in support of ‘High Country’ tour last fall, at the Glass House in Pomona. Now, the band is touring North America again for an extensive run to further promote their latest endeavor, with support on the first part of the tour provided by Royal Thunder, and by Purson on the second part. The Sword and Royal Thunder arrived in Los Angeles for a gig at the El Rey Theatre on Wednesday March 23rd, and it promised to be a memorable event for the city’s stoner rock faithful that had turned up in good numbers.<\/p>\n

\"Royal<\/a>
Royal Thunder<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Doors opened at 8 PM, and Atlanta, Georgia stoner\/psychedelic rock quartet Royal Thunder<\/strong><\/a> took the stage at 9 for a 45-minute set that absolutely floored the audience. My last and only time seeing Royal Thunder live was in 2013 at the House Of Blues Sunset Strip, where oddly enough, they were main support to Monster Magnet, and what’s more, frontwoman Mlny Parsons was clearly ill on that occasion, which affected her performance. Finally, four years after getting hooked onto this band in 2012 upon listening to their debut full-length ‘CVI’ and staying hooked through the follow-up 2015 LP ‘Crooked Doors’, I got my first real live Royal Thunder experience, and it was everything I had built up in my head as the best representation of this band in a live setting. This time, Parsons was most certainly at the peak of her powers both on vocals and bass, as was guitarist and founder Josh Weaver, his fellow axeman Will Fiore, and drummer Evan Diprima. Putting forth a mind-bending set of tunes from both LPs, and even going back to the 2011 self-titled debut EP with a delightful rendition of ‘Mouth Of Fire’. As a singer, Parsons was pouring her heart and soul into this set, hitting all the right notes and wowing fans and first-timers alike. Royal Thunder is a gem of a band that deserves much greater attention than what it gets. Judging by this performance, the band is sounding exemplarily amazing, serving to be the ideal support act for The Sword, and need to be seen live by every single reader.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Sword<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At 10:15, The Sword<\/strong><\/a> hit the stage and threw a curveball at the audience straightaway, as the ‘Unicorn Farm’ intro off of ‘High Country’ was played on the PA before they appeared on stage, but then they opened with ‘Cloak Of Feathers’ off of ‘Apocryphon’ instead of track #2 on High Country, which came much later in the show. The set this time was dominated by the latest album even more than the previous tour, with as many as 11 High Country tracks, mixed in appropriately with songs off of ‘Apocryphon’ and ‘Warp Riders’, as the music on these albums fits better with the new material than the band’s first two full-length releases. That being said, they did include three early-years tunes ‘Maiden, Mother & Crone’, ‘The Horned Goddess’ and ‘Freya’.<\/p>\n

Guitarist\/vocalist J.D. Cronise, lead guitarist Kyle Shutt, bassist Bryan Richie and drummer Jimmy Vela were raring to go right from the outset, and hit their individual as well as collective groove from the moment they stepped on stage. The Sword have now been in existence as a successful band for more than 12 years, and all those years of experience are beginning to take effect, as the band is blossoming into greatness, not only defying trends but battling their own past work to keep themselves motivated to create new things on each album. But more than anything, The Sword makes fans with their live show, and they proved as much with this gig, satiating a packed house at the El Rey to the fullest with their newfound brand of chilled-out stoner rock. With albums like ‘High Country’ which tightens its grip on the listener every single time, The Sword is here to stay, and while their next creative step is already eagerly awaited, Los Angeles would\u00a0have no complaints\u00a0if they kept coming back a few more times in support of ‘High Country’ for another year or two.<\/p>\n

(If you like what you’ve read, support Metal Assault and buy a shirt<\/a>!)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Set List:<\/strong>
\nIntro: Unicorn Farm
\n01. Cloak of Feathers
\n02. The Dreamthieves
\n03. Tres Brujas
\n04. High Country
\n05. Buzzards
\n06. Maiden, Mother & Crone
\n07. The Horned Goddess
\n08. Tears Like Diamonds
\n09. Mist & Shadow
\n10. Night City
\n11. Seven Sisters
\n12. Empty Temples
\n13. The Bees of Spring
\n14. Freya
\n15. The Hidden Masters
\nEncore:
\n16. Agartha
\n17. Suffer No Fools
\n18. Seriously Mysterious
\n19. Lawless Lands<\/p>\n

Remaining Tour Dates:<\/strong>
\nFirst Leg (w\/ Royal Thunder)
\n04\/01 \u2013 Saskatoon, SK \u2013 O\u2019Brians Event Center
\n04\/02 \u2013 Winnipeg, MB \u2013 Pyramid Cabaret
\n04\/03 \u2013 Fargo, ND \u2013 The Aquarium
\n04\/04 \u2013 Des Moines, IA \u2013 Wooly\u2019s
\n04\/05 \u2013 Chicago, IL \u2013 Thalia Hall
\n04\/07 \u2013 Milwaukee, WI \u2013 Eagles Hall
\n04\/08 \u2013 Indianapolis, IN \u2013 The Vogue
\n04\/10 \u2013 Rochester, NY \u2013 Montage Music Hall
\n04\/11 \u2013 Ottawa, ON \u2013 Ritual
\n04\/12 \u2013 London, ON \u2013 London Music Hall
\n04\/14 \u2013 Quebec City, QC \u2013 Le Cercle
\n04\/15 \u2013 Northampton, MA \u2013 Pearl Street Night Club
\n04\/16 \u2013 Washington, D.C. \u2013 DC BRAU<\/p>\n

Second Leg (w\/ Purson)
\n05\/07 \u2013 Charlotte, NC \u2013 Carolina Rebellion*
\n05\/08 \u2013 Tallahassee, FL \u2013 Sidebar Theater
\n05\/10 \u2013 Ft Lauderdale, FL \u2013 Culture Room
\n05\/11 \u2013 Orlando, FL \u2013 The Social
\n05\/12 \u2013 Pensacola, FL \u2013 Vinyl
\n05\/13 \u2013 Atlanta, GA \u2013 Shaky Knees*
\n05\/16 \u2013 Baltimore, MD \u2013 Ottobar
\n05\/17 \u2013 Brooklyn, NY \u2013 Brooklyn Bowl
\n05\/18 \u2013 Syracuse, NY \u2013 Lost Horizon
\n05\/20 \u2013 Philadelphia, PA \u2013 Union Transfer
\n05\/22 \u2013 Columbus, OH \u2013 Rock On The Range*
\n05\/24 \u2013 Columbia, MO \u2013 Blue Note
\n05\/25 \u2013 Lincoln, NE \u2013 Bourbon Theater
\n05\/26 \u2013 Lawrence, KS – Granada
\n05\/27 \u2013 Pryor, OK \u2013 Rocklahoma*
\n05\/28 \u2013 Dallas, TX \u2013 Gas Monkey Live
\n*festival dates<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Review & photos by Andrew Bansal March 23rd 2016, The El Rey Theatre, Los Angeles CA:\u00a0Austin, Texas stoner rock quartet The Sword released their adventurous fifth full-length studio album ‘High Country’ in 2015, an effort that sees them push their creative and stylistic boundaries like never before. While it isn’t the kind of record that … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Sword & Royal Thunder Mesmerize Los Angeles”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10927"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10927"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10927\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10941,"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10927\/revisions\/10941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/metalassault.com\/gig_reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}