The Album By Album Challenge: Twisted Sister

Welcome to another “Album by Album Challenge.” For those that are new here, the “Album by Album Challenge” is where I take a band’s entire discography and listen to every album in order of release from front to back. With my unforgiving and well-aged ear, I call it how I hear it.  In some cases, I find that what I once thought was good is actually pretty crappy and sometimes crap manages to age into something pretty kick ass. And in some cases, face melting is still just good ol’ face melting.
This time around we are visiting the discography of the almighty Twisted Sister. Most people only know Twisted Sister for their comedic and cartoonish videos for the songs “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and “I Wanna Rock,” but there was so much more to them. Twisted Sister was a living, breathing heavy metal monster. In addition to their generation defining anthems, Twisted Sister had a darker and even sinister side to them. Give this one a read with an open mind. Maybe you’ll find your new favorite classic metal band.

Under The Blade
Release Date: September 18, 1982 (Pete Way)
The Good: What You Don’t Know (Sure Can Hurt You), Sin After Sin, Shoot ‘Em Down, Destroyer, Under The Blade,
The Bad:
The Indifferent: Bad Boys of Rock N’ Roll, Run For Your Life, Day of the Rocker

Under The Blade is one hell of a way to introduce Twisted Sister to the world.  Anyone who only knows this band for their kitschy hits like “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and “I Wanna Rock” is in for a rude awakening.  This album shows the band’s early punk roots and it’s not hard to hear how they were inspired by bands like The Ramones, Motorhead, and the New York Dolls.  That raw, street heavy sound is there and you can hear the development of what would become their signature style. The opening song “What You Don’t Know (Sure Can Hurt You)” is a powerhouse of a number and in fact, opened all of the band’s shows until after their “Stay Hungry” tour. Even though the album has a few duds, the stronger, heavier material such as “Destroyer” and “Under the Blade” more than make this an album worth owning. Plus it is a great way to hear where this band started out.

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You Can’t Stop Rock N’ Roll
Release Date: 1983
The Good: The Kids Are Back, Like A Knife In The Back, Ride To Live (Live To Ride), I Am (I’m Me), The Power and The Glory, We’re Gonna Make It, I’ve Had Enough, I’ll Take You Alive, You Can’t Stop Rock N’ Roll
The Bad:
The Indifferent: You’re Not Alone (Suzette’s Song)

It’s amazing the difference one year makes.  Twisted Sister returned with their 2nd album and seemed to show the band shedding their punk skin and donning a more heavy metal sound.  While the punk sound wasn’t so prevalent, the punk attitude was still there.  The songs still have that raw, kick ass, in your face attitude and it’s obvious that the band is getting tighter.  Dee Snider was proving to be one of the best metal singers out there with his sick vocal range and powerful delivery. Songs like “I Am (I’m Me)”, “We’re Gonna Make It”, and “The Kids Are Back” are the first signs of Twisted Sister molding the anthem metal songs that they would become known for.

In my opinion, this is the album where Twisted Sister and their fans became one.   Just one listen to this album will make you understand just why people (myself included) latched onto this band.  You Can’t Stop Rock N’ Roll sounds every bit as amazing as it did the first time I laid ears on it over 25 years ago and it still brings a big, shit eating grin to my face every time.

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Stay Hungry
Release Date: May 10, 1984
The Good: Stay Hungry, We’re Not Gonna Take It, Burn In Hell, Horror-Teria (Captain Howdy/Street Justice), I Wanna Rock, The Price, Don’t Let Me Down, The Beast, S.M.F
The Bad:
The Indifferent:

Listening to this album front to back after all these years is an amazing experience.  Stay Hungry holds up both musically and lyrically in these modern times.  It’s too bad that all they were known for from this album were “I Wanna Rock” and “We’re Not Gonna Take It” because the rest of the album has so many great, substantial songs. The album opens with the powerhouse anthem “Stay Hungry” which slams you in the face the minute it kicks in.  The album also has a sort of suite called “Horror Terria” with songs so heavy and dark it’s no wonder that “Captain Howdy” was covered by death metal band Broken Hope and “Burn In Hell was covered by black metal band Dimmu Borgir.  Maybe that little bit of trivia will wow all your death metal friends and get you a beer or two on trivia night.

There isn’t a single bad song on this album.  Even the ballad “The Price” is more of an anthem than a love ballad.  The album closes with a bang with the song “S.M.F.” The band referred to their fans as the Sick Motherfucking Friends Of Twisted Sister so to write a song called S.M.F. seemed a fitting way to close out their album and acknowledging their fans. Stay Hungry is a great metal album that had Twisted Sister on their way to become a metal juggernaut.  Unfortunately the pressure to produce a successful follow up would weigh heavy on the band.  Would it break them though?  Only time would tell.

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Come Out and Play
Release Date: November 9, 1985
The Good: Come Out and Play, I Believe In Rock N’ Roll, The Fire Still Burns, I Believe In You, Out In The Streets, Lookin’ Out For #1, Kill or Be Killed, King of the Fools
The Bad:
The Indifferent: The Leader of the Pack, You Want What We Got, Be Chrool To Your Scuel,

When listening to their previous album Come Out and Play, I could hear that Twisted Sister still had some fight in them.  They managed to pull out some of the best songs of their career on this album.  The album opens with a bang as does every Twisted Sister album.  The title track is absolutely face melting, but then the album loses a bit of steam with “The Leader of the Pack.”  Many people don’t know this, but their cover of this song dates to the band’s early beginnings as a NYC bar band in the 70’s.  It did end up being a hit for them, but once again, the cartoonish image that the video portrayed was a poor reflection on what was actually a really solid, metal album.

There really isn’t a song that sucks on this album.  The only three songs that I was indifferent about were three of the anthem songs, two of which ended up being the singles.  It’s just kind of obvious that they were written solely for the attempt of having hits.  Those songs aside, Come Out and Play boasts some pretty amazing songs. Songs like “I Believe in Rock N’ Roll” and “The Fire Still Burns” are the kind of anthems that I love so much.  They are real and honest as opposed to over thought, pretty, and radio-friendly.  The album closer “King of the Fools” is reminiscent of a classic Judas Priest tune and in my opinion is one of the best songs they have ever done.  Don’t be so quick to write this album off because of “The Leader of the Pack.”  Dig a little deeper and you’ll find some sadly ignored greatness that lies within.

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Love Is For Suckers
Release Date: August 13, 1987
The Good: Wake Up The Sleeping Giant, Love Is For Suckers, Tonight, You’re All That I Need, Yeah Right,
The Bad: I’m So Hot For You, Feel Appeal, Statutory Date,
The Indifferent: Hot Love, Me and the Boys, One Bad Habit, I Want This Night To Last Forever, If That’s What You Want, I Will Win
Love Is For Suckers is the album where Twisted Sister completely lost all focus and lost their way.  If there was ever a last ditch effort to try to save their sinking ship, this was it. Even the good songs on this album are just “good” and nothing more.  I would have loved to have seen Twisted Sister stick to their guns and deliver a solid, confident metal album. Instead it seems like Twisted Sister completely buckled from the pressure to churn out an album full of poppy, cartoonish singles.

The opening song “Wake Up The Sleeping Giant” is the one really great song on this album and from here on it just sounds like a band falling apart at the seams.   It’s totally obvious that the band had given up at this point.  It’s a shame that this was the last album of original material that they would ever make.  Luckily, Twisted Sister left behind an awesome legacy of great music that more than makes up for Love Is For Suckers.  If you don’t already have this album, spare yourself the pain of having to hear a band break up in your ears.

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