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Just as the Dark Age was receding a little bit, we got a true sign of metal life with the release of this fine debut from Virginia's Twisted Tower Dire. Despite being released by a teeny label on a teenier budget, "The Curse Of The Twisted Tower" is still a true heavy metal gem that is not to be missed.

TTD have been making some waves with the release of their latest "Crest Of The Martyrs", and rightly so. Well this is where it all began, and after years of releasing demos and split EPs this band finally got a chance to release a real album through the good offices of The Miskatonic Foundation. Those who know TTD know they are all about old-fashioned Metal without a gimmick in sight – they just rule. The production here is much rougher than on later releases, and so is the songwriting, but the talent and dedication of the band shines through even so. I cannot say the writing is as focused as on later albums, because it really isn't, and on this CD Twisted Tower Dire show an almost proggy tendency to go on and on. They stack riff after riff onto a song, and while they are all cool, they don't always seem to have anything to do with each other. The most egregious example of this is the ten-minute monolith of an instrumental "Valkyrie Death Squadrons". These songs are all dense, rumbling epics of classically Omen/Fates Warning/Iron Maiden metal. The material is largely not as catchy as the stuff TTD would later produce, and it takes repeated listens to get into it, but even when the writing gets a little messy this is still quality material. Songs like the excellent opener, the pounding "Hail Darkrider", the epic title track, and of course the fist-pounding "The Witch's Eyes" are classic slices of true American steel.

Given how underground this sounds, and how hard this CD can be to find, I would have to say this is really an album for fans and completists. But if you are a fan of the band, or just a connoisseur of real Metal in general, then this is one worth having in your collection provided you can track it down. An excellent debut for a band that has turned out to be every bit as good as we could have hoped.