If you asked me what I made of The Sword half a decade ago, I would've given them glowing praise. They were the kings of riff based Heavy Metal, magnificent bastards of Doom Rock and generally pretty fucking awesome at their craft. Since then, they begun their transition from Heavy Metal to Stoner Rock with the High Country album but there were still a couple of heavier tracks to enjoy. Used Future marks the complete metamorphosis into Stoner Rock by removing the aggressive Metal elements and replacing them with synth and Prog touches. Sure, the music's still good but it's a shame we had to lose a stellar Heavy Metal band to gain a great Hard Rock one.
Album opener "Prelude" is a pointless introduction to "Deadly Nightshade", the true album opener. Not only is it a good song but it's a great way of reminding fans about their new sound that's clearly here to stay; it's The Sword's blend of riff based Hard Rock with a cosmic touch. It's also a great choice for the lead single, as it's an easily accessible track from the album and the start of an unofficial trilogy of three songs that could very well be part of one Prog Rock movement, similar to the seven sections of "2112" - Rush. Whilst this album contains fuzzy bass, epic riffs and dynamic percussion throughout, "Deadly Nightshade", "Twilight Sunrise" and "The Wild Sky" run along so perfectly that they could quite easily be repackaged as a 10 minute epic. This is good news if you like the complete album experience but not so much if you want powerful precision strikes of great music.
This whole album feels like it was supposed to be enjoyed in one sitting; again, not unlike Prog Rock albums of the past. When I revisited a couple of songs just to brush up on the material, they often started abruptly due to continuing on from the previous song, which can be a little annoying if you just want to listen to a couple of favourites off the album. There are some highlights here and there if you enjoyed the Classic Rock style tracks from High Country such as "Brown Mountain", instrumental album closer that likely borrowed the riff from "Wheel In The Sky" - Journey without realising, and "Used Future", title track that could easily be a repurposed cover of a 70s B-side from [AOR BAND NAME HERE], but the majority of tracks are written to blend into the next one in order to carry you through your drug-fuelled musical odyssey. I know I've referred to this album as Stoner Rock but I don't think I've come across such a blatant example of the genre as this in a while.
As a result of this, certain aspects feel a little bit irritating if you just want to enjoy the album without hitting the dank load. For example, in this 13 song album, there are THREE non-songs. "Prelude", "Intermezzo" and "Reprise", all of which are terrible. "Intermezzo" is a moody synth-based interlude that adds nothing but padding and "Reprise" borrows the outro from "Come And Gone" to round off the album that could've quite happily concluded with "Brown Mountain". It comes across as arty-farty when you look at the song titles and general feel of each track but I guess you won't mind if you're high off your tits when listening to the album.
However, this desire to "experiment" has produced some gems. "Sea Of Green" and "Come And Gone" are tracks I never would've expected to hear on a record by The Sword and yet they work incredible well, offering slower Blues and Psychedelic Rock tunes to the categorically Hard Rock ones. There are also subtle features that amplify the quality of the music like the slow-burn build up of the bass and percussion in "Nocturne" or the more delicate mix during verses in "Book Of Thoth" to differentiate the song from previous Stoner Rock material. It's small changes like this that make a big difference, especially when compared to albums that get stale due to their lack of creativity around the halfway point.
Maybe producer Tucker Martine is the one to thank for that but either way, the band knew what they were doing. There may have been a couple of pretentious missteps here and there but as long as the music you're putting out is good and well crafted, this is how you get away with a bit of musical pomposity without coming across as a bunch of wankers (Queens Of The Stone Age, take note!); small steps towards a desired destination, not applying all the changes at once or assuming fans want to hear you sonically jacking off. In this case, The Sword applied synth aspects to Apocryphon, started focusing more on Hard Rock with High Country before putting out Hard Prog with Used Future, all the while improving their weaker aspects like vocals and the overall mix of material.
Used Future isn't my favourite album by The Sword (as I'll always take Heavy Metal over Stoner Rock) but this could be their most creative and ambitious to date. It's a shame that they've chosen this direction to follow as I still think they're at their strongest when blasting out thunderous riffs or creating battle anthems for frost giants but at least the album wasn't a complete disaster like whatever Muse put out before Drones. It's a tough one to rate as I doubt I'm personally going to revisit tracks as often as I have done for High Country (a 7/10, according to my review) but I do think they should be praised for their efforts and successes in recording a well oiled machine of Stoner Rock.
I'm gonna give it a 7/10 again as I feel the criticisms about pretentious aspects from the band that gave us "Fire Lances Of The Ancient Hyperzephyrians" go beyond my opinion and into critique. Plus, I'm going to apply the general rule I have for concerts, sports and entertainment based events to this album; if you have to get wasted to enjoy it, it's probably not that great. In this case, you're better off getting high as fuck, just like High Country, but unlike High Country there aren't songs that stand out when you're not baked in the same way "The Dreamthieves", "High Country" or "Empty Temples" did. Out of interest, if any of my readers do partake in the occasional marijuana puff, feel free to listen to this album and let me know if it blew your mind or if I'm just talking out my arse with all this Stoner Rock stuff.
Also, get a damn job, hippie!
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