Warp Riders
| Warp Riders | ||||
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| Studio album by The Sword | ||||
| Released | August 19, 2010 (release history) | |||
| Recorded | February–April 2010 at Wire Recording, Austin, Texas | |||
| Genre | Stoner metal, hard rock, heavy metal | |||
| Length | 48:16 | |||
| Label | Kemado | |||
| Producer | Matt Bayles | |||
| The Sword chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Warp Riders | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| The A.V. Club | A |
| allmusic |    |
| BBC | Favourable |
| Buzzgrinder | (8.8/10) |
| musicOMH | |
| Rock Sound |   |
| SPIN | |
| Metal Hammer (de) | (6/7) |
Warp Riders is the third studio album by American heavy metal band The Sword. Recorded at Wire Recording in Austin, Texas with producer Matt Bayles, it was released by Kemado Records in August 2010. Warp Riders was written and recorded as a concept album centred on an original science fiction narrative written by vocalist and guitarist J. D. Cronise, and marks a conscious change in style from doom metal to a more hard rock-influenced sound.
The Sword's third album is the first by the band to be produced by someone other than frontman Cronise, who handled production duties on Age of Winters and Gods of the Earth. It was also the last album to feature original drummer Trivett Wingo, who left the band in October 2010 early into the promotional tour for the record, citing physical and mental exhaustion. The album was also the group's last to be released under their deal with Kemado Records, before signing with Razor & Tie in 2012.
The lead single from Warp Riders was "Tres Brujas", which was released as a digital download in July 2010. The song is also featured as the first in a trilogy of music videos to promote the album, which also includes "Lawless Lands" and "Night City". The second single from the album is "(The Night the Sky Cried) Tears of Fire", released in November 2010. Warp Riders was a relative commercial success, peaking at number 42 on the US Billboard 200 chart, and the album was promoted on the Warp Riders Tour starting in November 2010.
It first came to light that The Sword was working on a follow-up to Gods of the Earth in August 2009, when the band revealed that "The writing process is nearing completion, and demoing will soon commence. Recording will follow in the fall with a release as soon as the suits can get it together. The record will be a concept album centered around an original science fiction narrative". The first performance of new material came at Fun Fun Fun Fest in November, with drummer Trivett Wingo comparing this practice to the first performance of tracks from Gods of the Earth at the 2007 edition of the festival. An update regarding the album was issued in December, explaining that the band had nearly completed the writing process for the record, would begin recording in early 2010, and were to embark on a short regional tour in January.
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