supported Metallica again on a series of September tour dates in Australia, New Zealand and Japan as warm-up for their own Warp Riders Tour, which began the following month. Five shows into the opening North American leg of the Warp Riders Tour, the Sword was forced to postpone all dates due to the departure of drummer Trivett Wingo. Explaining his decision to leave, Wingo commented that he felt "physically and emotionally unable to continue on as part of [the band]", and later revealed that he had predicted he would eventually leave the band for "probably a couple of years", justifying his decision by explaining that "my level of anxiety pertaining to being on tour got to the point where medication was not the answer." Upon Wingo's departure from the Sword, the remaining members of the band released the following statement: For the later rescheduled tour dates, Austin-based drummer Kevin Fender, formerly of Employer, Employee, was enlisted as a temporary touring member. The second single from Warp Riders, "(The Night the Sky Cried) Tears of Fire", was released as a limited edition picture disc at the beginning of November backed with previously unreleased B-side "Farstar", and later in the month the video for "Lawless Lands" – part two of the Warp Riders trilogy – was released online. A number of European dates were rescheduled for May 2011, and the third and final Warp Riders music video "Night City" was released in March. The band toured with Kyuss Lives! and MonstrO in the summer of 2011. In October 2011, Fender was replaced with Santiago "Jimmy" Vela III, and the band saw out the rest of 2011 touring in the US. Guitarist Kyle Shutt later spoke about the drummer changes in an interview in 2012, claiming that Wingo "took a shit all over [the band]" when he left and that Fender was chosen as he already knew how to play the group's songs. 2012–17: Apocryphon, High Country and more In March 2012, it was announced that the Sword had signed a worldwide deal with record label Razor & Tie, with plans for a fourth album starting with recording in June and a projected late-2012 release. In May the band released the single "Hammer of Heaven", a song originally recorded in 2003 for the Age of Winters demo and later submitted for inclusion on the soundtrack to the film The Avengers. In the run-up