Patreon exclusive! A never-before-heard interview with J.D. Cronise of The Sword, taken from Downey's interview archives. In this chat, we take a deep dive into the band's 2015 album, High Country, and talk about stoner rock, genre-restrictions, and yes, a bit of Metallica! Here's how Lars Ulrich responded in 2008, when Rolling Stone asked him which album was his favorite that year: "We're fortunate to have this heavy-metal band from Austin out playing with us, and we've got them playing shows on our days off so that we can go see them. I'm a product of British metal — Iron Maiden, Saxon, Angel Witch — and THE SWORD sound like the definitive New Wave of British Heavy Metal, which is interesting coming from four guys from Texas. The arrangements, the intros and outros, the middle eights and that type of stuff, it reminds me of Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, or Judas Priest. They're not really a young METALLICA, but that's because they're cooler than we were." Get it here.