TWISTED TOWER DIRE will release their new album, Netherworlds, through Remedy Records on February 23rd. Guitarist Scott Waldrop has issued the following track-by-track overview:

'Starshine':

"Music written by myself. I actually was inspired by Saint Vitus in the beginning on this one and the song turned out nothing like that, (laughs). Lyrics by Tony, 'Starshine' deals with that point between sleeping and waking where you’re nearly dead. It deals with pressures and demands and basically wanting to escape forever. That’s my interpretation at least. I think Tony felt the song title sounded Dio-like but there was some controversy about it within the band about it not sounding “tough”.

'Dire Wolf':

"Music and lyrics by myself. The Dire Wolf was a very large wolf that existed during the ice age. The song deals with running away from your own extinction and eluding forces that try and keep you down. I guess in a way it’s a refection of my stubborn nature. It’s about doing things the hard way because it’s the way you love."

'Fortess':

"Tony came to us humming a basic music idea for these lyrics he wrote and we spiced it up a little bit as a band. The influences are obvious, good ‘old Judas Priest chunk-chunk stuff. The lyrics are about the walls Tony puts up around himself and all the fucked up things going on in his head while he’s in his own world. A prime example of all the lyrical content on this album. I’m sure a lot of fans may have heard about his bout with depression and drugs. I can say as someone close to him, these lyrics are unfortunately accurate. This might sound like some Nu Metal bullshit approach to lyrics but in our case it’s true. This band has had a dark cloud over it: hospitals, broken bones, burned down houses, and lots of bad stuff."

'Killing Kind':

"One of Jim Hunter’s songs and Tony’s lyrics. It’s a song about the underground and continuing to play even though you’re growing old and grizzled, ha ha. Seriously, it’s about not giving up and fighting for what you believe in, you know all that typical heavy metal inspirational mumbo jumbo."

'Netherworlds':

"Music by me and lyrics by Tony. Again, a song entirely about Tony’s problems. A song about depression and how ugly it turns you inside. It deals with a good man turning evil. While writing this I was whole-heartedly hoping to rip off Mercyful Fate as much as I possibly could."

'Casualty Of Cruel Times':

"Music and lyrics by myself. Tony came up with the concept behind the lyrics and the song title but it hard getting stuff out of him while writing this album so I took over and finished it off. This kind of loosely inspired by my favorite 70’s/80’s stuff like UFO and Rainbow. The lyrics deal with a kid growing up in a fucked up world and …you guessed it, he turns evil because of it. I grew up in the Washington DC area, I saw a lot of kids grow up to be stupid, violent and self destructive adults. I think when we were writing this song we were drinking Tequila commenting on how cool we felt that our song sounds like something off Trouble's The Skull meets Blizzard of Oz. Then we sobered up…"

'No One Left To Blame':

"My music, Tony’s lyrics. Deals with betrayal and people letting each other down. I’m still not sure if this song is meant to be a reflection of Tony himself or people around him but I know it’s personal to him. Funny choice of lyrical content because when I was writing these riffs I couldn’t help but think they sounded like Van Halen! Ha ha ha. Oh well. There’s a Celtic Frost riff in there too so I guess that kind of buffers out the party atmosphere of the song."

'Firebird':

"Music by me and Jim and lyrics by Tony. These lyrics were meant to be part 2 of 'Sign Of The Storm' from the Isle Of Hydra album. They deal with corruption and the bad karma associated with it. The basic idea is that if you live a bad life, then you will pay for it in one form or another. I believe in this case we’re dealing with a gigantic flaming bird swooping down and taking mankind out. That would suck wouldn’t it?"