Still Ravenous
Still Ravenous
Print
Email
ShareAround the same time, New York band Twisted Sister had been plugging along for more than a decade, but had little to show for it. Despite earning a loyal local following, no record labels were interested in a bunch of fug-ugly dudes who dressed in drag and cartoonish make-up and boasted one of the most profane frontmen to ever grace a stage in Dee Snider. By the time 1980 rolled around, however, the NWOBHM was in full swing, and when such UK magazines as Sounds and Kerrang! started to catch on to Twisted Sister’s Brit-friendly, traditional heavy metal approach, the band did the opposite of what Def Leppard was doing, and set their sights east across the Atlantic.
Their fortunes improved somewhat, as Secret Records released the raucous debut full-length Under the Blade in 1982 to wide acclaim among the UK metal community, which in turn led to the band signing with Atlantic Records. You Can’t Stop Rock ‘n’ Roll (1983) effectively played up their blue-collar sound, the robust production by Stuart Epps accentuating the increasingly refined songwriting and the band’s knack for rock anthems, exemplified by “The Kids Are Back”, “You Can’t Stop Rock ‘n’ Roll”, and the top 20 UK single “I Am (I’m Me)”.
With Twisted Sister’s popularity in the UK and Europe on the upswing, the band’s American label remained baffled by these self-professed dirtbags, but their club shows in the US were starting to draw very well, and even though label brass were indifferent to the music, the responses to those shows were so positive Atlantic decided to take a bit of a gamble on the band’s third album. Producer Tom Werman was a hot commodity, coming off Motley Crue’s classic Shout at the Devil, but his approach with Twisted Sister would be decidedly different than that on Crue’s record.
With the label bent on making the new album a commercial success, Werman would tone down the band’s bruising sound significantly. Although that rubbed the musicians the wrong way, without that glam rock sheen Stay Hungry probably wouldn’t have been the crossover hit it would be upon its release in May 1984.
Besides, despite the somewhat soupy guitar sound by the overrated Werman, Stay Hungry remains a phenomenal metal album. Aided tremendously by its slapstick video, breakthrough single “We’re Not Gonna Take It” was the teen anthem of that summer, carried by Snider’s charismatic, sneering performance and sing-along chorus, with AJ Pero’s ingenious, funky little cowbell-enhanced drum intro serving as the song’s central hook.
While “I Wanna Rock” was a logical follow-up, contagious enough to keep sales high later in the year, unlike Pyromania, Stay Hungry is far more rewarding if you delve a little deeper into the album. The UK influence is undeniable on the throttling title track, Pero’s thrashy beats reminiscent of Discharge’s adrenaline-fueled “d-beats” and Motorhead’s unadulterated speed. Snider’s near-eight minute “Horror-Teria” suite is a tremendous slice of Alice Cooper-inspired shock rock, his versatile voice perfectly suited to the personae he portrays on “Captain Howdy” and the concluding “Street Justice”.
The murky, menacing “The Beast” and the thunderous “S.M.F.” give the record a dose of much-needed muscle, while conversely, “The Price” would go on to be one of the most sincere-sounding, least contrived power ballads of the ‘80s. Best of the lot, though, is the theatrical, five minute mini-epic Burn in Hell, its combination of doom tones, blistering speed, and deliciously bombastic vocals predating the equally over-the-top approach of Dimmu Borgir, who in turn recorded a superb cover version of the track in 1999.
The new 25th Anniversary Edition offers listeners a wealth of bonus material, the majority of the second disc’s tracks a collection of previously unreleased demos recorded in December 1983, including no fewer than ten tracks that never saw the light of day. Far rawer and much more aggressive than anything we hear on Stay Hungry, some might say these demos are a better indication of what Twisted Sister was all about, and for good reason.
Despite the bare-bones mix and Snider’s often flat singing, it’s the sound of a band in its element, better suited to the gutter than the penthouse. Of course, hearing some of the unreleased tracks, it’s easy to see why they didn’t make the cut, but others, like “We’re Coming On”, “Call My Name”, and the Manowar-like “You Got to Fight” hold their own against the stronger tracks on 1985’s otherwise disappointing Come Out and Play.
Of the early versions of the album tracks, the loosey-goosey rendition “We’re Not Gonna Take It” shows just how much it needed Werman’s touch, while on the other hand, “Burn in Hell” and “Stay Hungry” already sound fully-formed, the band tight, Snider ferocious. Capping it all off is the surprisingly good new track “30”, a boisterous, punk-fueled tune not far removed from the style of bassist Mark Mendoza’s former band the Dictators.
***
By the time 1987 rolled around, the career trajectories of Def Leppard and Twisted Sister were going in opposite directions. Incredibly, Def Leppard’s much-delayed, much-hyped Pyromania follow-up Hysteria was an even bigger hit, eventually topping 12 million units sold in the US. Twisted Sister, meanwhile, made a series of poor decisions in the wake of their well-earned success, the nadir being the pop metal fluff of ‘87’s mediocre Love is For Suckers.
Two decades later, though, the ‘80s metal retro circuit is a thriving business in North America, and while both bands haven’t exactly lit up the charts as of late (well, save for Twisted’s undeniably merry A Twisted Christmas), they continue to draw well. The rock anthem, whether it’s about rocking till you drop or just simply proclaiming that you just wanna rock, is a bit of a dying art these days, and these bands, and especially these two albums, are terrific reminders of how fun it all used to be.
