THE SWORD Announces U.S. Headlining Tour

Austin, Texas metal luminaries THE SWORD will release their fourth album, "Apocryphon", on October 22 in the U.S. via Razor & Tie and November 2 in Europe through Napalm Records. The CD was produced and engineered by J. Robbins (CLUTCH, JAWBOX) at Magpie Cage Studios and will feature cover art by famed comic book artist J.H. Williams III (Batwoman, Promethea).

THE SWORD has announced a 37-date U.S. tour, commencing October 29 in Corpus Christi, Texas and running through December 18. GYPSYHAWK will be support on the entire tour while EAGLE CLAW will appear through November 24 and AMERICAN SHARKS will appear December 2 through December 18.

The dates are as follows:

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

Asked about the band's decision to work with J. Robbins on "Apocryphon" after self-producing two records and then working with Matt Bayles, THE SWORD guitarist Kyle Shutt told AltPress.com, "We're all huge CLUTCH fans, and we know those guys real well. [James] did two of their last three records, and those sound great, so we figured it was a no-brainer. We called him up and he was into it. He saw our live show at a club in Baltimore on the tour before we came here so he could get a feel of the kind of show we put on because we wanted to make an album that sounds like we do live in a club. And it was great. It was a real speedy process."

On the topic of the musical direction of the new album, Shutt said, "It is a reflection of everything that we [have gone] through and the lessons we learned. We then deal with these situations metaphorically in our lyrics. This record is just 10 banging hard rockers. There's no real 'stick-out' thrash song, or, like, this one is the ballad. I don't think there's going to be any instrumental songs on this record, either, so that'll be a first for us. It's just 10 kick-ass rock songs."

Regarding the subject matter covered in the new songs' lyrics, Shutt said, "There are lyrical themes that weave in and out of the songs, but there's no story or anything like that. With 'Warp Riders', J.D. [guitarist/vocalist John Cronise] had already written [the story] and now he [doesn't] have the time to sit down and write another book. We had the idea to make a comic book for 'Warp Riders', but we had some really poor management at the time, so nothing really came together with that and it was going to cost so much money that it never saw the light of day. It was just a nice thing we did. Now we're moving on to other things."