Twisted Into Form - Then Comes Affliction To Awaken The Dreamer
Sensory

file under prog / sympho metal

Evil Dr. Smith: Forbidden. That was the first thing that crossed my mind when I saw this band name. But for all you Bay Area thrashers: sorry lads, this Norwegian band has got nothing to do with the thrash metal band Forbidden. But they do have a great liking for thrash-orientated metal from the ‘85-‘95 era. Therefore it’s exit Bay Area thrash, and enter technical metal. Twisted Into Form plays unashamedly the intricate signature times of Watchtower, Osiris, Sieges Even(‘s first album), Anacrusis and, on a less obvious level, Psychotic Waltz, Mekong Delta and Obliveon.

But what do you expect from a band that consists of band members from Spiral Architect (the Norwegian Psychotic Waltz-equivalent), Lunaris (post-black jazzmetal… or something like that) and Extol (which sounds different on each album)? Twisted Into Form is their outfit for playing their favourite metal style when they were kids themselves: extremely complex rhythm’n’riffing. This genre is not really the predecessor of progmetal, it’s more like an University-variation of thrash metal. Oh well, call it whatever you like: name it Dream Theater for thrashheads forgodsake. Fact is that it’s really intriguing and enslaving metal. And don’t think that this is typical music for musicians: that’s a fairytale we finally must get rid off. Yours truly really likes this kinda style, but is not even capable to hold the triangle properly, let alone a cowbell… It’s also not a matter of intimidating by musical bruisers, because I’m really too old and down-to-earth for that shit now. The falsetto of Leif J. Knashaug (former session vocalist for Spiral Architect) is high-higher-glass breaking highest, the riff drills varies from harsh Meshuggah staff-notation via jazz-like intermezzo’s to Arabic scales, but in the end it’s all really and undoubtedly and utterly METAL that hits the metronome. Neil Kernon (Yes, Nevermore, Queensryche, Nile) made the final mix and made the record sound exactly how it must sound: hard, technical, but with a subdued warmth and dynamic glow. It’s only a pity that the band (Knashaug himself?) thought they had to grunt in the song ‘Manumit’. That forced growling wasn’t necessary. When you do it, do it good! Like the rest of the album, for instance.

Evil Dr. Smith diagnoses: 80/100 (details)

http://www.twistedintoform.no