Author: Urban Bolta
Artist: Twisted Sister
Label: Secret Records
Released: 1982
Length: 40:01
Rating: 3.5/5
Plenty of bands could relate to the early days of Twisted Sister, and not just ones from the late seventies, but from today too. The Twisted Sister story really started taking shape in 1976, when vocalist Dee Snider joined the band, quickly took the reins, and with his charisma lifted the name Twisted Sister to local fame in New York and the surrounding area. Despite a few EPs and a creative drive that produced plenty of original songs, the Sisters, thanks to their flamboyant look and downright freakish style, couldn’t land a single label back home. So, riding on the back of glowing reviews from influential British magazines, they decided to simply move to the Isle, where they found common ground with Secret Records, a punk-leaning label.
Right off the bat, you should know that the Under the Blade you buy in a store, or get your hands on some other way, illegal included, is a reworked version of the original, released on Atlantic Records in 1985. The original label, Secret Records, where the album first came out, soon went under, and the fame that hit the Sisters in the mid-eighties called for a do-over of songs that had originally been recorded in a very raw form. For its version of Under the Blade, Atlantic Records added “I’ll Never Grow Up, Now!”, a song Snider wrote back in the late seventies that wasn’t on the original.
Sure, you can spot the influence of Slade, Alice Cooper or Kiss in the Twisted Sister getup, but their music was made under the heavy influence of the then-rising new wave of British heavy metal. The fast tempo and raw guitar energy lifted the Sisters out of the “just another glam metal band” box, the kind that were popping up like mushrooms after rain in the early eighties. The album opens with “What You Don’t Know”, where a jerky guitar riff and the ominous words “Good evening, ha ha ha, welcome to our show” put the listener on the tracks of a locomotive wheezing through the fog! The Sisters introduce themselves as nasty boys right from the start, and the incoming “Bad Boys (Of Rock ‘n’ Roll)” and “Run for Your Life” cement that image even deeper. The monstrous Sin After Sin (no, no, it’s not a Judas Priest cover!) and “Tear It Loose” are heavy metal marches with a whiff of speed metal, and how could they not be, with Eddie “Fast” Clark (Motörhead) playing on the latter. “Destroyer”, thanks to its extremely slow tempo, smells a bit like Sabbath, but next to the Sisters’ party-hard music it’s impossible to pin the word “doom” on it.
The songs on Under the Blade are exceptionally melodic, thanks to two guitar lines and group vocals on the choruses. The rhythm section leans far too heavily on the guitar riffs and is honestly a manifesto of mediocrity. The same backing runs the whole way through, hiding behind the inventive whole of their music, so the drums, for instance, never once rise to the level of the song itself. The chemistry between guitarists Ojeda and French wavers: in some arrangements the teamwork is great (like in “Under the Blade”), but other times it seems the destructive power of two guitar lines could be used much better. Dee Snider watches over everything, and it’s a little unusual for a vocalist that Snider is the one who wrote all of the band’s songs. His raspy vocals with that recognizable timbre fit the foundation perfectly, which is typical of early-eighties heavy metal, with hardly a more industrial sound than on Under the Blade. In the choruses the rest of the Sisters often join Snider’s vocals and back his crazy ideas about this or that bit of mischief, pouring oil on the fire with punchy choruses.
Their debut Under the Blade is the embodiment of the stereotypical Twisted Sister image: a rebellious band whose anthems celebrate the rock’n’roll lifestyle, free from everyday obligations. With it, Twisted Sister laid the groundwork for the band’s further growth and shaped the direction they followed throughout their career. More than the complexity of the songs themselves, it’s their message and self-parody that count. Under the Blade is the heaviest Twisted Sister album ever, since there was no room on it for the pop metal sound they began to embrace later, and which, in the end, brought them worldwide fame. The album got positive reviews on release, but given the band’s grotesque look, it naturally had its mockers too. There’s the famous story from the Reading festival, where the Sisters were met with a ferocious barrage of flying bottles from the crowd as they walked on stage. It didn’t soften them, and they launched into an energetic set. The reward came in the form of Pete Way (UFO) and Lemmy Kilmister himself (Motörhead), who joined the Sisters on stage and stood up for them. Those two gentlemen knew exactly what they were doing…
Lineup
Dee Snider – vocals
Eddie “Fingers” Ojeda – lead guitar
Jay Jay French – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
Mark “The Animal” Mendoza – bass, backing vocals
A. J. Pero – drums
Guest:
Eddie “Fast” Clark (guitar on Tear It Loose)
Production
Pete Way
Tracklist
1. What You Don’t Know (Sure Can Hurt You)
2. Bad Boys (Of Rock ‘n’ Roll)
3. Run for Your Life
4. Sin After Sin
5. Shoot ‘Em Down
6. Destroyer
7. Under the Blade
8. Tear It Loose
9. I’ll never Grow Up, Now!
10. Day of the Rocker
