We saw you in Birmingham the other night - it was a great show, and it sounds as though you don't record anything that you can't replicate with the four of you live - Is that the case?

Pretty much yeah. I mean we just do what comes naturally.

How do you approach the recording process?

Well we write all our songs first, then we have to go on tour, play them in font of an audience, and see their reaction, that gives us a little more perspective on them, then we can decide what songs are weaker, what we need and what we don't need.

You produced your first two albums yourselves - why did you choose to bring in Matt Bayles to produce "Warp Riders"?

After we did our first record he contacted us about doing our second, but at the time we felt we wanted to keep it in the family I guess, but he was still interested, so when it came to making "Warp Riders" we had a talk to him and it made a lot sense. He had a good track record, and I think we got a good record out of it. To be honest out of the three records "Warp Riders" is the one I listen to the most, probably because I felt less involved with the making of it.

You've reportedly taken some offence to the term "Hipster Metal" in the past - How would you describe yourselves to anyone over here who hasn't heard you yet?

I think it's just good old fashioned heavy metal. We've got songs that people just wanna come out and have a good time to. It's just that, everyone's having fun, and we have a good time too maybe just a little bit better than them. We've toured with a lot of angry bands but I think that kind of rubbed off on us in the opposite way, so we just want people to come to the rock show and have a good time.

It is fair to say though, that you're attracting a broader audience than a lot other metal bands in recent years - why do you think that is?

We've got a singer that writes songs with catchy melodies, we just have good riffs. A lot of bands are striving for some sort of technical perfection, but we're just happy with what we got. We got a kind of rock swagger, a kind of funky swagger that people can move their hips to.

Your last album, "Warp Riders" was described as a space opera concept album, is that a fair description?

Yeah - we like to think of it as the soundtrack to a movie that doesn't exist. Not yet - maybe someone will make a movie out of it.

...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead and even Klaxons have also put out space faring concept albums (released after yours I might add) recently - do you think you started a trend?

Noooo! People have been doing about fci-fi fantasy concept albums for a long time, we're just the latest in a long line to have a stab at it.

Maybe you sparked a revival though?

[Laughs] I dunno - I think the cover art evokes a lot of interest, Dan McPharlin did our cover art and when people see that they want to be involved in that world and know more about it - it just works for some reason.

Have you heard either of those albums - if so what did you think?

I haven't heard either of them. I have a hard time keeping track of what's going on in music, because of being on tour, but maybe I'll check them out when I get home.

It was a big year for The Sword last year - as well as the third album didn't you also perform with Ozzy Osbourne and tour with Metallica?

Yeah we did - we've done a lot of touring with Metallica, for about a year through 2008 and 2009. It's been good, bigger than our wildest dreams, but it's been a wild ride.

Sadly, Trivett Wingo left the band last year, was that due to touring pressures?

What happened was, on the Metallica tour in 2009 he started to develop a fear of flying. He felt that one out of every 20,000 planes crash, and that we were heading toward 20,000 flights. It started to threaten everything we'd been working towards for the past seven years. It finally got to the point where he just couldn't tour anymore.

How long do you have left on your current touring schedule?

It's the last UK show tonight then we'll head home for a couple of weeks, then we'll head onto our North American tour, we're playing Mexico City, then we're touring up in Canada, we're doing a couple of metal festivals up there, people will be able to see us on the same stage as Sleep, so that'll be cool.

What's next for The Sword, after all that?

We're gonna go back to Europe in November and December, then after that we'll be taking some time out to work on new material.

Lastly - at the gig the other night JD urged everyone to buy "Johnny The Fox" by Thin Lizzy. What other music do you urge us to listen to at the moment?

Oh there's so many good albums. We're about to do a covers EP, we're doing a ZZ Top song, a Thin Lizzy song, some Faith No More, I mean just go and listen to some good old records - just go listen to some Queensryche.

Thanks very much for talking to us, and good luck with the show tonight.

Thanks for taking the time to talk to us.

For more on The Sword go to www.swordofdoom.com