NWS has updated this, & it looks a little worse. But I'd have to link to Xitter to show it, & I assume @\nwsraleigh_bot will get caught up eventually.
https://triangletoot.party/@nwsraleigh_bot/115898997001290108
#wx #NCwx #DurhamNC #TheSWord #FrenchToastEmergencyNotification
You don’t age when you live out of time.
A thousand years in the blink of an eye.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-warp-riders/1775746985?i=1775747533
DESERTFEST 2026 (Weekend Tickets) @ Various Venues, Camden - 15 May feat. Green Lung, The Sword, Earthless + more
Suncraft – Welcome to the Coven Review
By Spicie Forrest
I first became acquainted with stoner rock while attending college and skiing in Salt Lake City. Whether carving the corduroy or taking face shots of bottomless pow, the raucous groove of the style made for a great soundtrack. I’ve largely moved on to heavier and less accessible pastures, but once in a while, something brings me back. This time, it was Suncraft, a five-piece formed in Oslo, Norway in 2017; I couldn’t let a genre tag like “stoner/black/pop” pass by unyoinked. We missed their 2021 debut, Flat Earth Rider, but I’m here to give their sophomore effort, Welcome to the Coven, the proper AMG treatment.
Suncraft has historically relied on mid-paced stoner rock, but their second LP sees the band move in a different direction. Welcome to the Coven is what happens when Queens of the Stone Age wields The Sword and walks The DOGS. It’s riotous, retro, and downright groovy. With a triple-pronged attack, guitarists Vebørn Rindal Krogstad, Sigurd Grøtan, and Jens Henrik Kverndal let loose a wildly infectious salvo of stoner and garage rock. “Welcome to the Coven” and “Forgotten Goddess” rip across the desert in an old convertible Mustang powered solely by diesel and sativa. “Love’s Underrated” gives garage revival and a little Japandroids, while “Wizards of the Anger Magic” opens on The Beach Boys and pays heavy tribute to The Ramones. Mixed into this strong foundation you’ll also find riffage stained black (“Ragebait”), pop punk angst (“Greed Battalion”), posty and proggy diversions (“High on Silence”), and even a millennial whoop or two. These are disparate elements to bring under one umbrella, but like fellow countrymen Kvelertak, Suncraft pull it off well.
In a brew stereotypically known for wanton abandon, Welcome to the Coven succeeds through restraint. Post-black and pop punk normally make bridge- or hook-centered appearances, being used as means to build drama and release tension rather than ends in themselves. Drummer Tobias Paulsen utilizes a predominantly upbeat rock style, but he’s got a full toolbox. He deploys d-beats, hooks and fills, blast beats, and tempo changes with precision for maximum emotional impact (“Love’s Underrated,” “Welcome to the Coven”). The same can be said of bassist/singer Rasmus Skage Jensen, whose strings feel elementally nostalgic, both in tone and in their intentionally dynamic grounding of hooks, leads, and rhythmic support. And by keeping a normally tight grip on his vocals, the moments when Jensen lets loose and pushes his pipes to their limit shine all the brighter (“Greed Battalion,” “Forgotten Goddess”). Rather than employing an unchecked, maximalist style, Suncraft’s tempered and deceptively meticulous songcraft elevates Welcome to the Coven far above the sum of its parts.
Suncraft doesn’t treat the incorporation of these various flourishes as puzzles to be solved. Instead, every element on Welcome to the Coven seems chosen and placed to best support a deliriously and irresistibly fun grand design. This approach and Suncraft’s success with it grant them an inimitable air of sprezzatura.1 Krogstad, Grøtan, and Kverndal spin around each other so naturally, offering inspired counterpoints (“Wizards of the Anger Magic”), tossing in pristine fills (“High on Silence”), and passing leads and solos like a hacky sack (“Love’s Underrated,” “Forgotten Goddess”). I don’t for one second believe that Jensen’s interjectory “fuck it” on “Greed Battalion” or Paulsen’s double bass in “Welcome to the Coven” are off the cuff; this album is far too good for that. But when I hear the killer solo in “Love’s Underrated,” the exceptional back half of “Charlatan Killer,” or the barely controlled chaos that is “Forgotten Goddess,” I can’t help but be awed by the explosive synergy on display here—and the casual effortlessness of it.
I had high hopes when I picked up Welcome to the Coven, and from the first seconds of “Ragebait” to the final cymbals of “Forgotten Goddess,”2 Suncraft blew me away. The chorus of “Charlatan Killer” was the only exception, being merely good in a sea of great. Each track on Suncraft’s sophomore effort fits together naturally and neatly in a singular, unified vision. Primally familiar like the mythical dog days of summer, Welcome to the Coven is an astoundingly fun ride. By the end of its 40-minute runtime, I’m invariably left craving more. And if that isn’t the mark of a great album, I don’t know what is.
Rating: 4.0/5.0
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: All Good Clean Records
Websites: Facebook | Instagram
Releases Worldwide: November 21st, 2025
#2025 #40 #allGoodCleanRecords #blackMetal #garageRock #japandroids #kvelertak #norwegianMetal #nov25 #popPunk #queensOfTheStoneAge #review #reviews #stonerRock #suncraft #theBeachBoys #theDogs #theRamones #theSword #welcomeToTheCoven
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#BraveWords
THE SWORD Live At Freak Valley Festival 2025; Pro-Shot Video Streaming
https://bravewords.com/news/the-sword-live-at-freak-valley-festival-2025-pro-shot-video-streaming/
#THESWORD #LiveAtFreakValleyFestival #Pro #doommetal #festival #EP #video #streaming #BraveWords #metal #music
Playing ‘Warp Riders’ by The Sword.
This band had a bit of hype behind them, which seemingly died off. But I still love this kid of classic guitar album.
Great album cover too.
Fringe Fiction Goes to the Movies #fringefiction #frifi #movies #moviereviews #weapons #enemyofthestate #mrrobot #thesword #suicide #suicideprevention #socialmedia
Over this sunny and relatively sunny weekend, Fringe Fiction watched a couple of movies: Weapons, Enemy of the State, and The S Word. All three are worth a watch. Weapons start out slowly and methodically but halfway the movie twists and turns into a movie about something somewhat unexpected. There is a bit…
Over this sunny and relatively sunny weekend, Fringe Fiction watched a couple of movies: Weapons, Enemy of the State, and The S Word. All three are worth a watch. Weapons start out slowly and metho…
So, it turned out that my little setup of playing with just a distortion pedal and no amp, into a bluetooth speaker, just was not loud enough to deal with even a busy pub tent of people.
But then, it turned out the camp next to us had a proper stage and amp setup. So I put in my name for playing my set, with their proper setup, at 7pm.
And then another camp starts up Roomba wars (you cover them in spikes and put a balloon on each and put them in a little arena, and see who pops first. Great fun). So I'm like okay, I'll wait until they're done. Then half way though, the actual proper bands start up on the main stage.
The guy from the camp I was going to play at suggested waiting until the band finished and then jumping in the gap before the next one.
And then the band stops, and I'm like well it's now or fucking never!
I get on stage, and!...
...my distortion pedal's battery is dead.
So I bolt to my tent, grab a spare, slap it in. My friends gather in the audience. And I play my heart out.
Celestial Crown, Barael's Blade, Freya, Winter's Wolves and finishing with The Horned Godess. It went off. I had a ball, and my friends loved it.
And it felt fucking great to scream "SPILLER OF THE SILVER BLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD" into the mic as I finished Barael's Blade, that's for sure.
Next time I'm going to bring a tuner, though, I was a little out of tune, and it made some of the chrords a bit rough. I was string bending to try to get more into tune. But still! An amazing experience, and a great first go.
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Photos: The Sword, Rickshaw Billie’s Burger Patrol, and Moon Destroys at Union Transfer in Philadephia on October 19, 2025
#Photos #TheSword #doommetal #stonermetal #EP #MetalSucks #metal #music
Concert Calendar (10/08-10/19) All Roads Lead to Buying Tickets!: The Sword, Cannibal Corpse, & more:
Joe Vilas
Darius Whiteplume
SESH.sx
Angry Metal Guy
🤘 The Metal Dog 🤘
Tom Roberts
Fringe Fiction
Len
Metal Insider