Register Forgot login?

© 2002-2024
Encyclopaedia Metallum

Privacy Policy

Twisted Tower Dire > The Isle of Hydra > Reviews
Twisted Tower Dire - The Isle of Hydra

Sign of the storm, the siege begins, victory is now! - 96%

HighwayCorsair, December 16th, 2019

The ’90s were a dark time for heavy metal, especially in the United States. To remedy that, Virginia legends Twisted Tower Dire formed in 1995 to try and breath new light into true heavy metal, starting off as a long-winded epic heavy metal band and gradually getting catchier and catchier as time went on. These days, the band play something between classic US power metal and European power metal, delivering more big choruses than the hammering true metal that they formed to make- not a bad thing, because their newer stuff is fantastic, but it’s a different animal.

When Twisted Tower Dire wrote The Isle of Hydra, they were, for me, at their peak. Their core sound was rooted still in epic heavy metal, but the power metal elements that they picked up between the Triumphing True Metal demo and The Curse of Twisted Tower are again upped, creating a perfect balance between constant gorgeous melodies, emotive vocals, and catchiness. Guitarist Scott Waldrop described the earlier material as Candlemass meets Iron Maiden in an interview, and that’s not too far away still from where we’re at here.

There aren’t a ton of crushing riffs to be found here, and even when one of the guitarists settles a bit lower on the fretboard the other one is usually harmonizing over him or playing a lead. This suits perfectly the soaring voice of the sadly deceased Tony Taylor, who had a uniquely reflective sounding voice that lent a lot to the music. Much like Solstice’s Morris Ingram, who performed on New Dark Age, Tony was not particularly metal in attitude, and his relative lack of aggressiveness helps give an otherworldy edge that suits the sound. Tony also performed wonderfully on the most sensitive parts of the album, singing about love, loss, and death through parts ranging from emotional to outright ballad with more than enough charisma to sway even the most skeptical listener.

Most of the songs are mid paced, with faster sections being more dressing than meat. While a deluge of mid-paced songs would be the death of a weaker band, the songwriters here were wise enough to include a bare minimum of dynamics that keep the similarities, lengthy songs, and simplistic structures from feeling anything like how I just described them. The simplicity feels strong and lean rather than being due to a lack of vision, leaving room to let the band’s sound wash over listeners while Tony croons.

No part of the performance on The Isle of Hydra is that of a virtuoso, and I honestly can’t say I’ve ever really noticed the bass through my listens of the album over the years. Nor has any section of the drumming ever stood out as exceptional. This is not a bad thing, and the bass and drums are always doing exactly what they need to be doing to make the material itself stand out; a Thrasher Foxe here would ruin the mood, and the mood is as central to the album as any individual part. When listening to The Isle of Hydra, you are transported to the world of fantasy shown on the Martin Hanford’s album cover, and I wouldn’t trade that for any number of crazy drum fills, basslines, or Yngwie solos.

After this album, the band reached what became the height of their popularity by upping the power metal in their formula, becoming more pristine production-wise, and by building on the legacy that The Isle of Hydra and The Curse of Twisted Tower started. As great as that later material is, none of it stands up the majesty of The Isle of Hydra, and it probably never will; this one just hits me too hard, and falls too personally at every crossroads of my taste. If you want more compact songs, more choruses, and more polish, don’t stop- the every album after this one rules. But if you want one of the finest American power metal records to ever be released, settle in and embrace The Isle.

Originally written for Ride Into Glory. https://rideintoglory.com/lost-in-time-twisted-tower-dire-the-isle-of-hydra-review/

Twisted Tower Dire - The Isle of Hydra - 95%

dklenci, October 31st, 2019

The Virginian metal scene; while one of the smaller regional scenes in the USA, it no doubt has a lot of quality, and for lack of a better word, one of the better styles in the area. Many great traditionally influenced bands have come out of the area, such as Deceased, Arghoslent, and your very own Twisted Tower Dire.

When I first began getting into traditional metal as a whole, the main scene that caught my eye was United States power metal. As I started with more extreme genres like death and thrash, I was looking for aggression in my metal. USPM as a whole is like traditional metal taken to its extremes; an aggressive riffing style that still retains the catchy choruses and basic structure of bands from the NWOBHM. Twisted Tower Dire were able to take this formula and make it slightly more epic in scope; creating a densely crafted and harmonious sound.

The Isle of Hydra highlights what Twisted Tower Dire do best; make you feel as if you’re inside of the tales their songs construct. Tracks like “When the Daylight Fades” and “The Dagger’s Blade” encompass what USPM is really all about; melodic yet aggressive guitar riffs and catchy, Maiden-esque choruses. In “The Dagger’s Blade” specifically, the song starts with a bouncy riff that has undertones of malice and foreboding. The climax, which is more often than not the chorus in this style of metal, has the narrator telling of how he was betrayed by his brother in a race for heir of the throne. He ends the chorus with a hint of possible revenge, “You’ll rue the day when you see my face, and feel my dagger’s blade”.

The track “Ride the Night” begins with an acoustic introduction that, while beautiful, has the aforementioned undertones of foreboding. This song’s lyrics feel introspective, and I interpret it as someone who is running from his past, unable to escape. I can not understate how expertly the vocalist pulls off these tracks; you can hear both regret and hope in his voice.

One aspect I have not touched upon in this review as of yet is the drumming. It’s not too flashy or technical while it carries the tracks perfectly, and that’s not really something that can be faulted, however I do wish that fills could have been more cleverly utilized.

All in all, this album is a masterclass in American power metal. It hits all of the marks one needs for an excellent traditional metal album; powerful, moving vocals, gritting guitars that help guide the story of the songs, excellent soloing and leads, and drumming that allows the rest of the instruments to have creative space. One of the things that can put me off of an album is if the drumming feels like a muzzle on the rest of the band, holding them back from their true potential. None of that is to be found here.

overall rather boring - 50%

caspian, April 25th, 2010

Twisted Tower Dire have a cool and unusual name, but unfortunately that's where the coolness and unusualness ends. Overall this has some decent moments, nice melodies, song structures are a bit varied etc., but for the most part it suffers from Slough Feg syndrome, i.e the band never sound like it's trying that hard enough.

I think it's mostly the vocalist's fault, although nothing sets you on fire here. The band plug away and it's decent enough, some nice dual leads, riffs won't get you completely losing your shit but they're sort of grand and epic, the whole thing sounds like a bunch of less annoying Iced Earth tunes. There's a few nice little uptempo jaunty bits in the bridges, like in the first proper song. Yeah woohoo, awesome times

So yeah, hardly the most mind blowing power/heavy metal ever, but with the right vocalist it could be pretty good, or at least salvageable. Unfortunately you could say that perhaps the vocalist is pretty suited to the band; he fits in well with the whole "I can't really be all that arsed" vibe that the rest of them have. He has a good range, decent tone, technique is alright, but he just doesn't turn the damn volume up. It sounds like he's afraid of his bandmates/the producer/etc seeing him singing. I don't need multi octave ranges or anything, but if you're going to sing, use a bit of projection! It's not that hard, damn.

Currently I'm listening to some Theocracy while I write this, and it's easy to see why that band is so much better, and exactly why Twisted Tower Dire are so resolutely unspectacular. There's a few moments where things get really quite speedy and even thrashy, the vocalist isn't afraid to use some dynamics and scream his lungs out when required, the instrumental sections are a bit less abrupt. I dunno, I'm not a huge power/heavy metal expert, but I like to think I know a decent band in this genre when I hear one. When it comes down to it,
"The Isle of Hydras" succeeds as background music for your car, but little else, which isn't really a very good thing. 50 percent, not because there's really anything bad (..or good) about it, but because hearing it has no effect on my existence.