Listening to Twisted Into Form’s album 'Then Comes The Affliction To Awaken The Dreamer', I was surprised to discover that this is the band’s first release because it sounds more mature than one would expect for a debut. But the musicians have previous experience, formed this particular band in 2000, and recorded the album over two years. Not your fly-by-night put anything down and release it band then. Tell you what, though, it’s worth the wait if you get this end result.

Right from the first few seconds, it is obvious that the album is technical metal. As the album plays on though, a charming progressive metal style is added to the mix. This is a master stroke - not only is it innovative, it also renders the album a lot more listenable to those that find technical metal a bit hard to take.

Like most, if not all, technical metal bands and many progressive metal bands, Twisted Into Form are all about the guitars. At times it’s a little too full-on for my taste, being a constant assault of guitar work in that typical sporadic jazz style typical of both the technical and progressive metal genres. The clean vocals are pleasant and powerful, again typical of prog metal.

I was pleased to have a bit of a breather in the more prog-emphasized 'The Thin Layers Of Lust And Love', which is a wonderful piece of work, showing the band’s softer side, and there are a few other diverse pieces on the album, such as 'Tear'. As a whole, it might not be entirely my 'thing', but 'Then Comes The Affliction To Awaken The Dreamer' is a great album which I would strongly recommend both prog and technical metal fans give a hearing.

****½

Review by Amanda Hyne

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