[3] The tour will move to North America in October, where the band is set to complete two legs of shows ending on December 19; support acts include Kadavar, All Them Witches and Royal Thunder.

[11] High Country was released on CD, vinyl and digital download, and was available in a number of pre-order bundles including items such as clothing, lithographs and other merchandise.

magazine as a "weed-themed deluxe edition", featuring a "wooden 'stash box,' wood grain dugout, grinder card and rolling papers", all of which are known to be commonly used when smoking cannabis.

[16] Upon debuting the track "The Dreamthieves" in August 2015, Vice site Noisey proposed that "above all else [The Sword] is a rock band", offering further comparisons to Thin Lizzy and Led Zeppelin.

Noting that it was a conscious decision on the part of the group, he recognised that some fans may not approve of the change but proposed that if they had produced an album like their old material it "really wouldn't have been very genuine for us as musicians".

[4] Speaking to Classic Rock magazine, Cronise revealed that he first saw Green's artwork by chance in a store, at which point he recalls thinking "that would look great on an album cover".

[22] Other reviewers also made similar observations, including Michael Toland of The Austin Chronicle, who applauded The Sword for "trying on new ... sounds" rather than continuing to emulate the style of Black Sabbath, as he claimed they did on their previous four albums.

[28][29] Brandon East of the Ultimate Guitar Archive praised the performances of all band members on High Country, which he described as "immaculate", highlighting in particular drummer Santiago "Jimmy" Vela III.

[27] Monger made similar observations, labelling the album "clearly a transitional LP" and noting that "variety pulls its sense of melody to the forefront, though die-hards may find the subsequent loss of energy an uneven trade".