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It can suck being a headliner at SXSW. Thanks to the delayed sets and long gear changes, Austin's premier metallurgists got to play only twenty minutes' worth of music from their debut CD, Age of Winters, before hitting the ironclad 2 a.m. curfew. But that was enough, like an old-fashioned album side, to seal the Sword's pole position in the Next Black Sabbath sweepstakes. Guitarist JD Cronise sang and soloed like the Sabs' Ozzy Osbourne and Tony Iommi combined against a thunder curtain of fuzz and cymbal splash. "Behold!" Cronise bellowed, "the bastard's blade!" You have been warned.
Watch "Winter's Wolves" video (Quicktime)