The Tower is less a metal album than a symphonic manual of destruction—roaring, experimental, loosely constructed and yet strung together by razor-thin filigrees of hard-driving precision.

Old Grey Horror’s The Tower delivers the heavy metal war epic our bloodthirsty souls have been craving since we ditched purple sack suits and strapped on bandoliers. The album is the brainchild of Jason Adams, co-author of gold record Eurotrip anthem "Scotty Doesn’t Know." This new project finds the guitarist bombing into more harrowing sonic terrain, guiding the listener through one infernal circle after the next like a latter-day Virgil. The album is as DIY as they come: Adams wrote all the music and lyrics, drew the album’s cover art, smashed dumpsters and cast iron pans in pursuit of the perfect effect. His commitment to retro recording techniques charges each track with a dense, lush ambience that will rocket you back to the golden age of vinyl.

Adams researched hundreds of WWI texts in making this album, and his erudition reveals itself in every lyric and every note. A blood-soaked chronicle of humanity’s eternal lust for destruction, the album rides forty-five minutes of thundering doom, frenzied thrash, and seventies power rock out of the gates of hell and straight into the fucking sun.

Hole up in your den, pour yourself something strong, and drop the needle. A decade in the making, The Tower arrives with the recrudescence of a Europe teetering on ruin. It is the score for a horror film that is still being written. A hard-rocking, relentless, gorgeous, and timely masterpiece.