New Releases

New Release Highlight: Throne of Iron – Adventure One Review

The world of underground heavy metal was firmly shaken in the summer of 2018 when one of its most prominent figures, Mark “The Shark” Shelton, leader of Manilla Road and epic metal forefather, passed away suddenly. Tucker Thomasson (already a veteran of the Indiana metal scene with sludge/doom quartet Thorr-Axe and various other projects) was one of those people, basically deciding overnight to record a 3-song demo by himself and form a band in his memory (also covered M.R.’s “Crystal Logic” from their eponymous masterpiece) – and thus Throne of Iron was born.

New Releases

New Release Highlight: Twisted Tower Dire – Wars in the Unknown Review

There are few US power metal bands that I personally consider as important as Twisted Tower Dire. They formed in 1995 and released their debut album The Curse of Twisted Tower in 1999 while remaining very active through the 2000s – this is far and away the lowest point for the genre. Outside of a handful of exceptions, US power metal was on its last breath, hiding away in the darkness. Twisted Tower Dire were the light in that darkness and the torchbearers for the American style of power metal, helping keep it alive. They have a long and storied history as a band, filled with its fair share of successes and tragedies alike, but it’s been close to eight years since we’ve had any proper activity from them – until now that is. The wait is over and their highly anticipated sixth studio album, Wars in the Unknown, is finally upon us.