The Sword
American musical group
The Sword is an American heavy metal band from Austin, Texas. Formed in 2003, the band is composed of vocalist and guitarist John D. Cronise, guitarist Kyle Shutt, bassist Bryan Richie and drummer Santiago "Jimmy" Vela III for most of its tenure. Originally signed to Kemado Records, the group released their debut album Age of Winters in 2006, the material for which had been largely written by Cronise (who also produced the album) prior to the band's formation. Gods of the Earth (which was also produced by the band's frontman) was released two years later, giving the group its first entry on the US Billboard 200 chart when it reached number 102.
In 2010, the band released Warp Riders, a concept album centered on an original science fiction narrative written primarily by Cronise, which marked the first time the group had enlisted an external producer in Matt Bayles. Original drummer Trivett Wingo left the group later in the year and was replaced briefly by Kevin Fender, before Vela joined in late 2011. After signing with Razor & Tie in early 2012, the group released its fourth album Apocryphon later in the year, which was promoted worldwide on the Apocryphon Tour. The band's fifth studio album High Country was released in August 2015, followed by their sixth Used Future in March 2018. The Sword disbanded in October 2022 but have since regrouped and begun touring again.
During its early career, the Sword was categorized primarily as a doom metal band, with the group's members citing bands including Black Sabbath and Sleep as influences.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1304600. VIAF identifies the subject as 131491177. The Library of Congress control number is no2006028167. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2003, 2006, 2010 and 2011.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Sword” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.