![]() It's a purer kind of cool, uninterested in style or status, concerned only with how fast it can go, how hard it can rock. There are comic books featuring the band for sale on the merch table. Shreddy solo blends into shreddy solo, played on a guitar with so many sharp points that it probably counts as a weapon. The show starts with a long, fantasy-style voiceover about the fight between good and evil, as a 16-bit version of the band’s logo pulses on a screen in the background, the words “Press Start" below it. Watching Magic Sword play, you get the sense that this is an act built around a geeky ten-year-old’s idea of cool. The defining aspect of geek culture (the well from which Magic Sword draws its visual language) is the fandom, and by that measure, the three-year-old band is thriving. In a pretty ingenious move, the band sold miniature versions of the light-up sword for $5 each, and all throughout the show, a small sea of them bobbed to the beat like lighters. The crowd, heavy for a weeknight concert at a small venue, played along like the fourth member of the group. Up on stage, The Keeper (the members of the group all use pseudonyms) struck pose after pose, spreading his arms and punching his fist into the air, occasionally hoisting a light-up sword as though he had just pulled it out of a stone. From the moment the band took the stage at the hi-dive on Thursday night, the set was all climaxes, starting with a rendition of “The Beginning” that sent waves of synth tone and electronic buzz cascading out over the crowd. The word “epic” gets overused, but that’s just what Magic Sword is. This is the music that plays in the background while you fight the Dragon King on top of Mount Death. It could be the album Girl Talk would make if all he had to sample were Iron Maiden guitar solos and the complete works of Goblin. Magic Sword could be the power-metal version of a John Carpenter soundtrack, or Skrillex going through a Conan the Barbarian phase. It’s hard to wrap their sound into a genre. That’s unfair, because the band (whose next EP, Legend, is due out on Friday) plays crashing electronic rock that’s about as mold-breaking as the French duo’s first few albums were mold-setting. ![]() ![]() But Magic Sword, a Boise trio that performs wearing dark cowls and what look like fencing masks accented with LEDs, is an even easier target. It’s a lazy comparison, yes, but one that no one is immune to. Shay Plummer has done an astounding job with the illustration of the comics.Any band that wears masks on stage today is, sooner or later, going to be compared to Daft Punk. Of course Tolkien but also, The Wheel Of Time Series, a lot of Brandon Sanderson, and our favourite, Joe Abercrombie. Who inspired you in terms of the Magic Sword lore and narrative? Are you fantasy/sci-fi fans? ![]() We drew some inspiration for the Masks from the TV show Knight Rider. Movies like Fire and ice, Pretty much any Ralph Bakshi films. Visual inspiration actually comes from film and television. Who are your major visual influences? Daft Punk and Squarepusher’s Shobaleader project come to mind in terms of how you guys look on stage. The sword has 3 charges and regains 1d3 expended charges daily at dawn. When you hit with an attack roll using this sword, the target takes an extra 1d8 radiant damage. Crystal Blade Magic Items This magic sword’s blade is fashioned from a horn or spine from a crystal dragon. Its started with a lot of Vangelis, Tangerine Dream, John Carpenter….But we draw inspiration from everything we listen to. Currently listening to a lot of Hallas. When the sword has no charges remaining, it loses this property. In the years to come you will see a shift in that. Only because our vision has yet to be fully realised. I’d say currently the music is more prominent than the visual. With your big emphasis on the visual aspects of your work what would you say are the percentage in your music? David Lynch once said that cinema is 50% visual and 50% audio.
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