Review: Twins Crew – Chapter IV
Scarlet Records (February 21st, 2025)
Reviewer: Jason Hopper
As a fan of metal for over 35 years, it always surprises me when I discover a band that I never knew existed and then find out that they have been around for 18 years! Either their music gets drowned out by the gluttony of metal bands that are on the scene or the band Twins Crew has had some bad luck marketing themselves to American audiences. There’s a lot of bands that I don’t listen to but at least I know of their existence.
Nonetheless, it’s never too late to discover a band, so after several EPs and three full length albums, Twins Crew return to the scene after a nine-year hiatus with ‘Chapter IV‘. Taking a page out of the playbook of bands like Hammerfall, Dream Evil, and Iron Savior, the band certainly has the chops to create some powerful riffs and melodies.
Some standouts include tracks like ‘Never Stop Believing’. Yes, you have certainly heard power metal tracks like this one before, picture speed strumming on the E chord, fast and furious drums, and frenetic keyboards. This is the traditional power metal sound…and when it’s done this well it never gets old. The more I listened to it, the more I enjoyed it.
‘Order 69’ has a catchy groove that reminds me very much of something you would hear on a Dream Evil album. Without knowing who contributed to the creation of each song, it would not surprise me to find out that Producer Fredrik Nordström, himself a member of that band, had a hand in the writing process. It even has that mystical godlike vocal interlude coming out of the guitar solo, something found on my favorite Dream Evil album ‘The Book of Heavy Metal‘.
As good as that song is, favorite album track goes to ‘Fire’. The main riff consists of what I would call the sound of metal: Consistent strumming of a muted E string. I’m a sucker for that sound and it never, EVER gets old. The sonics here are thick and powerful (more on the production later) and it gets the blood pumping. It’s more of a traditional old school metal sound that harkens back to bands like Accept and Judas Priest. Picture what you love about those bands, and you get that sound here. Metal perfection.
With so many great tunes, it pains me to say that two of the tracks on this collection are ruined by poor vocal decisions. Mistakes are made on the opening track ‘Choose Your God’ and power ballad ‘Without You’.
With the former, the track has a great mid-tempo melody that sounds dynamic, especially when you add the banging of actual metal pipes into the intro. All goes well until the bridge, when a choral sing the line, “Listen to your own voice”. The choice is made to go with a weirdly sounding low register baritone, and it sticks out like a sore thumb. It takes a strong track and almost makes it sound like a parody of metal. Those vocals are way up front in the mix and made me grimace upon hearing it.
The power ballad issue falls squarely on the shoulders of singer Andreas Larsson. He is a good singer and does an admirable job on all the tracks, but decides to go outside his vocal range here, striving for a near falsetto in the chorus. He tries to reach highs that Rob Halford can easily accomplish, but he simply does not have the ability. It comes off as screechy and unpleasant. I tend to listen to all tracks on an album I review multiple times, but I had to stop listening after the third time as I could no longer tolerate it. The producer should have reined him in for this one.
Regarding the production, this album has top notch sonics. As stated earlier, the album is mixed and mastered by Fredrik Nordström, the guitarist from Dream Evil, who has produced for that band as well as others like Firewind, Hammerfall, and Powerwolf. His golden touch is all over this album and we are graced with a rich, well-balanced sound that allows all the instruments their due respect.
So what we have here is a diverse set of songs, which I truly appreciate. Frenetic speed metal can be draining when many tracks on an album go for that frantic style, but these guys change it up with every track which creates a nice sonic flow and makes many of the tracks stand out. Some are derivative but written and performed in a way that goes toe to toe with other more well-known bands of the genre. It’s too bad that two of tracks are diminished by bad vocal decisions. That still leaves six great tracks that traditional and power metal fans will want to seek out.
Tracklist:
- Choose Your God
- Never Stop Believing
- Living In a Dream
- Warrior of North
- Fire
- Without You
- Order 69
- Fighting for the World
Line-up:
Andreas Larsson – vocals
Dennis Janglöv – guitar
David Janglöv – guitar
Fredik Hammar – bass
Fredrik Nörgaard Graff – drums
(‘Chapter IV’ drums recorded by Uno Eriksson)
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