Twisted Tower Dire - Crest Of The Martyrs
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At Night* |
| Genre | True Heavy/Power Metal |
Tony Taylor
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Vocals
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| Tracks | 11 |
Scott Waldrop
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Guitar
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| Runningtime | 48 Min. |
Dave Boyd
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Guitar
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| Label | Remedy Records |
Jim Hunter
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Bass
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| Release | 07 July 2003 |
Marc Stauffer
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Drums
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| Country | USA |
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Keyboards
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| Similar artists | Judas Priest, Iron Savior, Iron Maiden | ||
Third time around for Virginia based Twisted Tower Dire. A band that was formed in 1995 an since then has gone through quite many changes in line-up. The debut full length album, The Curse of Twisted Tower, saw the light of day in 1999 but it was their second achievement, The Isle of Hydra, that brought some serious attention to the band and that album also got great reviews. But what about Crest of the Martyrs? First of all, a great cover by none other than Derek Riggs (yeah, the Maiden cover fella') and a production by metal-guru Piet "Mr Iron Savior" Sielck should speak for itself without even mentioning something about the music.
The intentions with starting the band obviously was to play true heavy/power metal and in that Twisted Tower Dire haven't failed even an ounce. Their straight forward metal immediately brings thoughts to classic bands like Iron Maiden, Saxon, Judas Priest and Running Wild but also to newer bands like Steel Attack (that also often is compared to Running Wild), Dream Evil, Hammerfall and Iron Savior (no surprise since Mr Sielck is the producer right…). The vocalist is absolutely no "somebody grabbed me by the nuts character" but instead delivers very strong and powerful mid-range area vocals. On for instance the track Axes and Honour you're more or less deaf if you don't hear the resemblance with a certain pirate-metaller named Rolf Kasparek and I also find strong hints of Biff Byford of Saxon in many of the vocal sections. I've got to say that Tony Taylor manages extremely well behind the microphone and it's been a while since I heard a vocalist of today sound that true "80's metallish".
That said about vocals, the other elements are absolutely no different. Shitloads of 80's feeling there too with the charging twin guitars, the galloping rhythms and the catchy as hell epic choruses. The album begins with the track At Night and on this one I think especially the verse section is very reminding of Steel Attack and perhaps that could be said of the overall guitar sound too. There are of course possible to trace many other influences by the other mentioned classic bands and also newer ones as well in for instance some very Maiden sounding guitar passages, Iron Savior arranged choirs and choruses and Hammerfall/Dream Evil touches in the guitars in the speedier tracks like To Be a Champion, but Twisted Tower Dire still manage to create their very own thing of it all and do it extremely great. Crest of the Martyrs is therefore a fresh injection to the metal scene and it's great to see that newer bands continue on a kick ass metal path begun over two decades ago.
You don't need any crystal ball or be a psychic to foresee
that Twisted Tower Dire has huge amounts of greatness waiting for them
in the future if they should continue to deliver metal of this caliber.
This is as essential as true classic heavy/power metal should sound
and of course an equally essential get or regret for fans not only of
the mentioned bands in the similar artists list but for all you metalheads
out there wanting something new and fresh but still in an old package.
Crest of the Martyrs is a formidable achievement by Twisted Tower Dire
and should end up on my personal top ten list of great releases for
2003.
Your very own copy of this isn't even an option - it's compulsory!
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Production
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Vocals
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Compositions
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9 |
8,5 |
9 |
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Summary
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9 chalices of 10 - Mat |
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