Much like American resurrectees Leatherwolf, Canadian metallers Sword are another 80’s band to receive a new lease of life in the new century.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Sword
ALBUM: Sword III
LABEL: Massacre Records
SERIAL: MAS CD1257
YEAR: 2022
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: 
LINEUP: Rick Hughes – vocals * Mike Plant – guitars * Mike Larock – bass * Dan Hughes – drums
TRACK LISTING: 01 Bad Blood * 02 (I Am) In Kommand * 03 Dirty Pig * 04 Surfacing * 05 Unleashing Hell *:06 Spread The Pain * 07 Took My Chances * 08 Not Me No Way
RATING: 
Background
Much like American resurrectees Leatherwolf, Canadian metallers Sword are another 80’s band to receive a new lease of life in the new century. Their two previous albums ‘Metalized’ (1986) and ‘Sweet Dreams’ (1988) released by Aquarius Records are well over 30 years old and are well and truly considered ‘old school metal’. Singer Rick Hughes was also a member of the rather stunning Canadian 90’s melodic rock band called Saints And Sinners who released an incredible one-off album back in 1992. It would rank in my top 10 albums of the 90’s decade.
So back to Sword. What’s happening with these guys? Well the lineup is pretty much intact from the 80’s, there’s been no real movement in recorded product other than a 2017 CD release of a Live Hammersmith show recorded in 1987. In recent times our Montreal based friends have signed a deal with German label Massacre, which sees their latest ‘Sword III’ out there in the European market which is where most of the metal market is based nowadays.
L-R: Mike Larock, Rick Hughes, Dan Hughes, Mike Plant
The Songs
There’s only the eight tracks onboard, overall runtime clocks in at a touch under 35 minutes. Not a lot really, but we’ll take it. ‘Bad Blood’ kicks it off, and the blades are swinging high and mighty. It definitely has an epic feel about it that just smacks of 80’s metal. Big vocals, grinding guitars and jarring bass lines are the stand outs here. ‘(I Am) In Kommand’ is a fast paced affair similar to Hittman but without the Queensryche reference points.
Sword get down and dirty (excuse the pun) with ‘Dirty Pig’, churning out the riffs like a iron foundry. ‘Surfacing’ is a brief 1 min 30 sec interlude which segues directly to the bombastic ‘Unleashing Hell’. Check out those thick six string riffs from Mike Plant. The lyrics sound very biographical to the point of being nostalgic. 1986 must’ve been a good year for the band then? I read somewhere that ‘Spread The Pain’ has a Metallica like sound. Umm really? Not from where I’m sitting. ‘Took My Chances’ grinds hard, like a working man’s Black Sabbath, while ‘Not Me No Way’ fires bullets on its way out the exit door. A fiery departure.
In Summary
A welcome return for Sword, and it was good catching up with them once again. Now we need to backfill those earlier albums into our online GDM database to complete the Sword story.
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I Am (In Kommand)
Dirty Pig
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