Warthur Twisted Tower Dire's first album after the departure (and subsequent tragic death) of Tony Taylor finds the band cranking out exciting Dungeons & Dragons power metal in a distinctly hard-edged mode. Keyboards and other flourishes are spurned in favour of influences from traditional heavy metal, right down to the Judas Priest/Iron Maiden-inspired dual lead guitar, and the band play at a fast, energetic pace they are equally capable of adapting to brief, pithy songs and more expansive epics. Newcomer vocalist Johnny Aune, whilst not mind-blowing, is at least able to bring plenty of energy and enthusiasm to the material and seems to have settled into the band's sound nicely. Entertaining stuff for when you want something heavy but light-hearted.

adg211288 Make it Dark if the fifth full-length album from heavy metal band Twisted Tower Dire. The album was released in 2011 and is the band’s first album to feature the vocals of lead singer Johnny Aune, who replaces the late Tony Taylor, who tragically died in a motorcycle accident in early 2010. Taylor had parted ways with Twisted Tower Dire prior to his untimely death however, so there always would have been a change of vocalist for the band for album number five.

Make it Dark is an album that I’d describe as classic heavy metal as it was supposed to be made. The songs are written and performed with a passion, which results in an album that is overall a very fun listen with lyrics that will have you repeating many times after you hear them. Right from the word go the album starts hitting you with its sheer quality with the short but very sweet Mystera which is carried through to the even better Snow Leopard. Johnny Aune delivers powerful vocals throughout and is very clearly a worthy replacement for Tony Taylor and with no disrespect to Taylor’s memory, seems to actually go one better with his performance on Make it Dark.

The instrumentation is straight up traditional heavy metal with no frills attached and that’s just the way should be for a band such as this. It may not be exactly ground-breaking in terms of originality but in the current market for metal it has been crossing my mind for some time that there is a serious lack of traditional heavy metal bands that seem capable of crafting a real quality, classic sound without trying to dress it up with ideas from other genres but with make it Dark Twisted Tower Dire produce a great album that never takes a dip in the quality and really hits the sound I was looking for spot on. My only real complaint about the album (more of a minor quibble really) is that it isn’t actually that long, not even hitting the forty minute mark. But it makes up for everything because of the level of quality and the band gives us eight excellent tracks from which I find it really difficult to single out any particular favourites because they’re all as good as each other whether you’re listening to short tracks such as Mystera and Torture Torture, or the more drawn out ones such as Snow Leopard and Beyond the Gate.

Make it Dark is an enjoyable and fun album and I see no reason why it should not be well-received by the band’s existing fans and for those unfamiliar with the group I also believe it would be a good starting point to get yourself acquainted with this devilishly underrated group.

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)