by Charlie Bailey (@hectic_skeptic)
One listen to Sword II’s Electric Hour and you would never believe this is an album created in the basement of a leaky-ceilinged house, half falling apart, containing such faulty electrical work that the band resorted to using acoustic instruments when the pain of getting shocked was too much to power through. Their first label album for section1 (blonde redhead, king princess), an independent arm of Partisan Records, the Atlanta band appears more DIY than ever with their longest project to date being completely self-recorded and self-produced. Focused amidst the chaos of possible eviction and the proximity to state surveillance of friends and neighbors surrounding the Stop Cop City movement, the band have sublimated into the tightly intertwined three-piece. Sword II is Mari González (Bass), Certain Zuko (Guitar), and Travis Arnold (Guitar), a new synergistic approach which has each member active in every part of the creative process from songwriting to the sharing of lead vocal duties.
With Electric Hour, Sword II ironically have produced probably their least ‘electric’ project to date. Sloshy reverb, whirring guitar tones, and the recognizable shoegaze heaviness are used surprisingly sparingly compared to earlier releases. The band have polymerized and cracked through their mold, revealing a slightly stripped back distillate rock album that branches into a mode where their message is distinctly heard rather than cloaked.
As a trio, a menagerie of stylistic influences are on display which has Sword II operating like a mythical Chimera—three completely different animals merging into one. This makes for an intensely varied album in terms of genre melding and tone.
Zuko’s sardonic tone leads “Passionate Nun,” a campy and theatrical queer high school lovesong taunting “He hears you cheer from the bleacher seats / He never hears when you scream for me.” The ethereally floating vocals of González on “Violence of the Star” melt directly into a droning sample ready to kick off the highly moshable “Who's Giving You Love.” And for fans of the sludgy, slightly darker aspects of the band’s catalogue Arnold’s achingly moody voice holds it down.
Even with how much the band was able to dip their toes into different sounds, thematically they don't hold back. From a group of friends active in their local scene long before the first Sword II project in 2020, they fill the stat sheet with apposite metaphors, social and political commentaries, and an indelible rebellious spirit. Regardless, the new material is also incredibly accessible and incessantly catchy, one of the biggest surprises for me being the brilliantly biting power pop song “Sugarcane” which is one of the many tracks where the layering and harmonies of different members’ vocals shines through.
Electric Hour is definitively Sword II’s most cohesive project to date, something that has solidified their identity as an underground force to be reckoned with. The sequencing and pacing is especially striking; an ebbing and flowing tide of pop, grunge, and edgy shoegaze. It’s an alternation that the band explores seemingly at will and is something that I could listen to forever without getting tired of. Through stripping back their sound, Sword II have full control over their resilient, variegated version of rock. They emerge into the present with a singular, science-fiction-esque, “easy to listen to uneasiness” that so subtly and succinctly captures the paranoid scrutiny of society today, while offering pathways towards collective resilience.