User ratings in Music are temporarily disabled. More info
  • Record Label:
  • Release Date:
Gods Of The Earth Image
Metascore
71

Generally favorable reviews - based on 16 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.2

Universal acclaim- based on 12 Ratings

  • Summary: This is the sophomore album for the metal band from Austin, Texas.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 16
  2. Negative: 1 out of 16
  1. Although vocalist J.D. Cronise can't quite hit the castrato peaks of Priest frontman Rob Halford, Sword's hell-bent-for-leather propulsion ('Under the Boughs') and twisty song structures ('Lords') are more than enough to induce your ears to bleed with pleasure.
  2. From the opening preface, "The Sundering," it's apparent that Gods transcends the Sabbath worship of its contemporaries, a clearer sense of control and pacing underscoring the biblical tales of wrath and retribution.
  3. Uncut
    80
    This blend of Sabbath-inspired riffing, windswept chug and songs called things like 'Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians' has a neat shtick, no particularly awkward edges, and a vague sense of nostalgia for an adolescence maybe you never lived the first time out. [May 2008, p.107]
  4. 70
    How scary/ridiculous the lyrics are is a matter of personal taste (or lack thereof), but it'd help if the production were more Scandinavian and less like, well, the Rocket from the Crypt rip-off band that singer/guitarist J.D. Cronise was in before he devoted his life to "Paranoid."
  5. Q Magazine
    60
    There's not an original thought in the quartet's heads, giving them free reign to gleefully exhume the corpses of Black Sabbath and Kyuss with hulking riffs and bear-like voices. [Apr 2008, p.107]
  6. Mojo
    60
    The quartet's grandeur evokes Maiden and Priest with a hint of Thin Lizzy, yet they avoid European power metal's widdly overkill. [May 2008, p.109]
  7. For all intents and purposes, The Sword's Gods Of The Earth is the exact same album as its predecessor, "Age Of Winters." That isn't a good thing.

See all 16 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. m2ew
    Apr 9, 2008
    10
    Old school metal is back to teach your ass a lesson.
  2. RadicalTitintus
    Apr 9, 2008
    9
    Nice album, my ears still bleeding!
  3. JackC.
    Apr 10, 2008
    9
    This is harder and sharper than their first album. Very cool all the way round.