Twisted Method formed in 1998 in Cape Coral, Florida, when four students at Mariner High School came together to make music, initially just as something to do after school. The band was formed by Mariner High School students Derrick "Tripp" Tribbett, Ben Goins, Andrew Howard and Derek DeSantis. In 1998, the band self-released a five-track debut EP, self-financed and limited to 1,000 copies, featuring raw production and songs including "Let Me Down," "Postal," "Get Up," "Bombs," and "Pain." It was not long before they were doing high school pep rallies and local gigs in the area, building a grassroots following for their aggressive, youthful sound that fit squarely into the nu metal wave sweeping Florida and the rest of the country at the time.
The band's big break came through an unusually swift ascent to a major label deal. The band began to slowly build a local following for its heavily derivative sound, but struck gold when an opening slot for another act led to interest from a local promoter who secured label showcases, and MCA signed the band on the strength of its live show, with no demo tape needed. The band signed a five-year, $5.5 million contract with MCA Records in 2002, with the label issuing the band's debut album "Escape from Cape Coma" in July of the following year, the title a sarcastic reference to their home town. Escape from Cape Coma, the only studio album by the band, was released on July 15, 2003 through MCA Records, and was the label's final release before its absorption into Geffen Records a month prior. The lineup that recorded and toured behind the album consisted of Tribbett on vocals, Howard on guitar, DeSantis on bass, and Goins on drums.
Riding the momentum of their major label debut, Twisted Method landed a coveted touring slot that exposed them to a national audience. Geffen Records, who had recently acquired MCA Records, bought the band a spot on the second stage of the 2003 Ozzfest tour. They secured a prominent second-stage slot at Ozzfest 2003, sharing the bill with headliners like Ozzy Osbourne, Korn, Marilyn Manson, and Disturbed, which exposed them to large audiences across North America from July to August. They played with many other names from the metal scene, including Static-X, Machine Head, Dope, and Motograter. Despite being in contract limbo for quite a while, things were looking up when Geffen indicated they would finance a second album, even putting them on tour with Dope twice in 2004 and recording demos. However, the band's fortunes turned in 2005: in July 2005, Twisted Method went on an "indefinite hiatus" after guitarist Andrew Howard and drummer Ben Goins had quit the band, with Howard leaving to be with his family after becoming a father and Goins leaving the band for religious reasons. Tragedy followed soon after when on September 16, 2005, Howard was found dead, a case that over four years after his passing, still remained unsolved. Following the band's collapse, its surviving members carried the project's energy forward into new work while Twisted Method itself became largely dormant. Remaining Twisted Method members Derrick Tribbett and Derek DeSantis formed a new metal group named Makeshift Romeo. The band was not entirely finished, though: it returned in 2012 and 2014 for two reunion shows. Today, Twisted Method is remembered as a product of a specific and fertile moment in early 2000s nu metal, a band of Florida teenagers who went from high school pep rallies to a major label deal and an Ozzfest stage almost overnight, only to be cut short by internal fractures and the loss of a founding member. Their sole album, Escape from Cape Coma, remains a time capsule of that era's suburban angst and aggressive sound, and the band is still cited in retrospectives of early-2000s Ozzfest era nu metal acts.
Wayne Dennon crossed paths with Twisted Method just once, capturing their performance at a single 2004 show during the height of their touring years with Dope, a brief but meaningful encounter preserved in twelve photographs held in this archive. Those images, modest in number but rich in documentary value, have been viewed by visitors 9,414 times, a quiet testament to the enduring curiosity fans still hold for a band whose story ended too soon but whose sound and stage presence Wayne was there to witness and preserve.
