The crushing opener of The Sword's 2006 debut Age of Winters -- the record that helped relaunch riff-first retro doom for a new generation. J.D. Cronise tracked it DIY in Austin, self-produced, tuned two whole steps down to C standard. The voice is a thick, mid-rich British high-gain crunch: live, Cronise runs a 1979 Gibson Explorer into a cranked Orange OR100 and a 4x12 of Vintage 30s, but the debut itself was cut on a borrowed Laney AOR pushed by a Maxon DS-830 Distortion Master.