Live By The Sword – Cernunnos

Rebellion Records/Cosmic Key Creations

 

Live By The Sword is back! And this time its clash of glorious street rock and epic heavy metal not only delivers the best of both worlds, it needs the best of both universes as well. So for the first time in history founding member and guitarist Wouter will not release Live By The Sword’s brand new album “Cernunnos” on just one of his labels, but on both Rebellion Records and Cosmic Key Creations! This is 2023, this is where worlds collide, this is the year of the sword!

 

Because where Live By The Sword carefully explored the boundaries of the Oi! and street rock scene the band – and most of its members – rooted from on their previous releases, “Cernunnos” marches right over those borders and obscures them with full force! Never before in the band’s existence the hybrid of triumphal street rock ‘n’ roll and hard scorching riffs, heroic melodies, epic guitar solos and earth shattering double bass drums collided as powerful as on “Cernunnos”, undoubtedly making it Live By The Sword’s most powerful, most glorious and the band’s best release to date!

 

Now I received the album several months ago already and must have heard it over a 100 times (give or take) since then, but it still surprises me every single time I listen to it! Especially when that double bass drum kicks in on tracks like “Mountain Of Doom” and “Sacrifice”, but particularly on scorchers like “Cernunnos” and “Primordial Forces” I can get overwhelmed on how powerful Live By The Sword’s sound truly is! In combination with the beautiful, atmospheric sound(scape)s of intro “Awaken”, the album-version of “The Glorious Dead”, the instrumental “Sundawn” and valiant battle hymns such as “The Hollow Men”, “In Pursuit Of Great Illusions” and “Voyage To Constantinople”, the Dutch-American alliance delivered a fascinating epos that truly is brilliant from start to finish!

 

As said, “Cernunnos” will be released through both Rebellion Records and Cosmic Key Creations. Most variations will be available under the Rebellion banner like the CD, a cassette version (that comes in a nice box along with a cassette of “The Glorious Dead” EP, stickers and a patch) and of course black or ice blue vinyl housed in a gatefold sleeve. These variations are limited to 250 copies each, while Cosmic Key Creations’ version on blue smoke vinyl has a total run of 500 copies, but comes in a regular sleeve with a double sided insert. In the end all look and sound evenly great, so perhaps needless to say… but I want them all!