The Sword have confirmed that their return is a permanent situation after playing several shows last year. As such, the group have announced two new shows. Here's the dates:
04/10 Dallas, TX – Granada Theater
04/11 San Antonio, TX – Paper Tiger
Singer/guitarist John D. Cronise also discussed the reunion with Revolver:
“Well, right now we have a couple Texas shows. We’ve just played Baton Rouge and Houston and Austin, and we’re going to do Dallas and San Antonio [in April]. And then we got lots of more stuff coming up in the summertime.”
He then went on to explain the band’s past break:
“It wasn’t really a breakup. That’s kind of how people frame it, but I don’t think we ever used those words. … It was a dissolution, I guess, a cessation. … I just quit. That’s really the simple explanation of it. I quit.
But without me, there’s no band. That’s sort of the way our band is structured. We can luckily avoid those situations… like them getting a new singer, or something like that, and continuing on. That wasn’t ever really a thing that could happen. So if I quit, it’s kind of like, that’s it. So that was it.
I had to step away for a little bit for various reasons. It was freeing at first, for sure — but it was a weird period.”
He continued when asked if he still feels like “everything [he] ever wanted to say and do with the Sword creatively has been said and done”:
“Yes and no. That statement was very true when I made it, and even now. Like, going forward I’m not sure what new Sword material is going to sound like. But it’s not going to sound like old Sword material — sorry to disappoint all the diehards. [Laughs] And it’s not necessarily going to sound like the last couple records, either.
I always have to try something different and new. When I said that at the time, it was kind of like: With the sort of genre we were perceived as — you know, stoner rock, doom metal, whatever — as far as that milieu is concerned, I was done. That was sort of me saying, ‘I can’t write any more of these stoner rock songs like I’ve written. I squeezed the last one out and I got no more.’
But, you know, that’s not to say I can’t. We’re still gonna write heavy material. But as far as traditional stoner rock like our first few albums…when I listen to them, they sound kind of weird to me. As an artist, I always have to move forward and try different things. So, that’s what I’m looking forward to — to seeing what we come up with. Because I’m not capable of writing ‘Age of Winters’ II or ‘Warp Riders’ II. I couldn’t do it if I wanted to.”
He also added the following about new music:
“We have a couple demos laying around, but we have yet to really get together and concentrate on it. I’ve been in such a transitional state with moving. I was sort of semi-displaced by Hurricane Helene. I lived in Black Mountain, [North Carolina], and I couldn’t really go back to my house after that. I was actually not in town when the hurricane happened [in September 2024], luckily. But I had to move out right after that. So I’ve been in a holding pattern here for the last couple months, and I’m finally moving to Austin in the next couple days. Then we’ll be able to get into the nitty gritty of working on new material.”
Aside from that, the band are also planning to celebrate the 15th anniversary of “Warp Riders”:
“Yes, indeed. We will probably be embarking on some touring later this year around the anniversary of that record. And we might have a Record Store Day release of that record that might be special in some way.”