Twisted Sister has often been viewed as the bastard child of
\nheavy metal, especially in the last few years. They were the clown
\nprinces to some people: grown men dressed up like they went through
\nMadonna’s closets and processed them through a meat grinder,
\nsinging songs which gave the finger to parental authority and the
\nstatus quo.<\/p>\n
But people have conveniently forgotten something about Twisted
\nSister over the years: these guys were actually pretty damn good.
\nTheir third album (and quite possibly their best-known),
\nStay Hungry<\/i>, is a prime example of that. Once you drop all
\nthe hype surrounding the band and the controversy over them
\n(especially Dee Snider’s testimony in Congress against the PMRC),
\nyou’re left with a very enjoyable album, even after 16 years on the
\nmarket.<\/p>\n
Let’s get the best-known songs out of the way first. “We’re Not
\nGonna Take It” – ah, the ’80s update of what The Who sang about in
\nTommy<\/i>. Think about it for a minute: both songs rally against
\nan all-controlling, oppresive authority figure. Both call for the
\noppressed group to strike out and think for themselves. It’s just
\nthat Twisted Sister doesn’t give the parents a chance to respond
\n(and at least no one returns to a world of deafness and blindness
\nas The Who’s version does). As a song, it’s admittedly a bit
\nfluffish – especially in the guitar solo. As an anthem, it still
\nrings out, even as I approach the big three-oh.<\/p>\n
The follow-up single, “I Wanna Rock,” is simply a lot of fun,
\neven today. It’s another rebellion against parents who just don’t
\nunderstand, albeit not as revolutionary. It’s more explanatory –
\nknowing full well the message will go over the authority figures’
\nheads. (Word of advice: if you remember the video, don’t try to
\nrepeat the scene where kids are slamming their heads into lockers.
\nMy buddy who now lives in Florida and I tried that once, and he
\nnearly brained himself doing so. I still have the audio-tape of
\nthat moment in time, Ryan.)<\/p>\n
Yet
\nStay Hungry<\/i> is much more than these two hit singles. The
\ntwo-song suite that makes up “Horror-Teria (The Beginning)”,
\n“Captain Howdy” and “Street Justice,” is a powerful selection that
\nexplains how Snider was able to transform one character into his
\nmovie
\nStrangeland<\/i>. “Captain Howdy” is a captivating (while not
\ngruesome) picture of someone who manipulates his victims into his
\nown world of torture and murder. Frankly, it doesn’t need to be on
\nthe graphic side; the listener’s mind fills in details much better
\nthan if Snider had spelled them out. The second part, “Street
\nJustice,” is a call to arms in defense of victims of society and
\nagainst those who know how to manipulate the system. No, in reality
\nthe band isn’t calling for mob action. But they do challenge us to
\nnot accept the status quo and to work for change in our
\nsociety.<\/p>\n
For the most part,
\nStay Hungry<\/i> remains a powerful album from start to finish.
\nOnly on “The Beast” do things grow a bit weak – and, as mentioned
\nbefore, as enjoyable as “We’re Not Gonna Take It” is, it
\nis<\/i> a bit on the fluff side. Still, this disc has a lot more
\ngoing for it than people might be willing to admit – and it remains
\na disc that should be a must-own for anyone who enjoys ’80s
\nmetal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6312],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-36846","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-twisted-sister","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36846"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36846"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}