TWISTED SISTER: Stay Hungry

Produced by Tom Werman

Released: 1984

Yesterday I reviewed Eddie Ojeda's album, and today it's time to look at the album that made him famous. This was one of the biggest metal albums in the world in 1984. After more than a decade as an outrageous New York club act, Twisted Sister suddenly became an outrageous arena band when the first single from this album smashed into the top end of music charts around the world. "We're Not Gonna Take It" was shout-it-out-loud, rebellious headbanging rock and roll, a three and a half minute introduction to one of the best American metal albums of the early 1980s.

For a band whose best musician was a lead singer who didn't play an instrument, Stay Hungry is a surprisingly strong album for much of its length, and only let down by a couple of real throwaway tracks towards the end. It's quite a testament to what a handful of great songs can do despite a band's musical ability.

Dee Snider was the genius behind Stay Hungry's songwriting power. Musically simple and inherently catchy, his lyrics were a step above much of what was coming out of the scene at the time. Twisted Sister songs weren't just about rebellion, they were also about empowerment. The ripping opening tune and title track gets the album off to a brilliant start, a roaring song about seeing one's dream through to the end. That's followed by the infamous "We're Not Gonna Take It", on the surface just a fist-in-the-air anthem that any band could write, but Snider's meaningful lyrics rise above the norm. Then comes the album's real highlights. The first is "Burn in Hell", a track that drips with a real malevolence that makes it rate to this day as one of the best metal songs of the decade. Twisted Sister never topped this although the ensemble piece that follows certainly came close.

Twisted Sister may have been lumped in with bands like Quiet Riot and Kiss, but try finding a track like "Horror-Teria (The Beginning)" on any album by those bands. Part one is simply nasty as Snider half-narrates the tale of a sicko child-killer over a slow, buzzing, single guitar riff while part two erupts into frustration and rage as justice goes awry. "I Wanna Rock" and "The Price" round out the six tracks that make this album legendary, the first a basic glam rock fist-pumper and the second a strong power ballad that again transcends the norm thanks to Snider's lyrics.

After this, Stay Hungry slides quite a lot with the next two songs not really up to the standard of the others, and Ojeda practically recycles his solo from "The Price" for "The Beast". "SMF" (for Sick Motherfucker) is ok, and only just, but the first six songs are so good that it doesn't really matter that the rest are pretty ordinary.

While it is a little dated these days, Stay Hungry is a triumph of songwriting over technical skill and proof that the ugliest motherfuckers in the world could have a big hit record if they put their mind to it.

1. Stay Hungry


2. We're Not Gonna Take It


3. Burn In Hell


4. Horror-Teria (The Beginning) i. Captain Howdy ii. Street Justice


5. I Wanna Rock


6. The Price


7. Don't Let Me Down


8. The Beast


9. SMF

Rating: 78%

EDDIE OJEDA: Axes 2 Axes

Produced by Eddie Ojeda

Released: 2005

When you think of guitarists doing solo albums, Eddie Ojeda from Twisted Sister is probably not a guy whose name would spring to mind. Ojeda's guitar playing was hardly the most outstanding aspect of Twisted Sister's music, and even in comparison to 80s contemporaries like (dare I say it) CC Deville or Quiet Riot's Carlos Cavazo, he probably doesn't rate that highly. The idea of him putting together an album of his own, then, is surprising to say the least, even if the collection of talent he's gathered around him for the exercise is less so: Ronnie James Dio, Joe Lynn Turner, Dee Snider, Rudy Sarzo and latter-day Sister drummer Joe Franco among them.

Draped in a terrible and terribly uninspired cover (a selection of guitars burning at the stake? Come the fuck on), Axes 2 Axes doesn't hold much promise, and therefore doesn't have much to live up to. Which is just as well, because this is pretty ordinary stuff. The Dioesque "Tonight", with Ronnie James himself on vocals, starts things off rather well. It's a fairly heavy, mid-paced metal tune that goes along all right even if it is completely unmemorable the moment it's over and "Please Remember" with Ojeda on vocals is also OK and in fact sounds remotely like Rainbow when Turner was singing, which originally made me think it was Turner but he doesn't make an appearance until track 11 and I was beyond caring by that stage.

By this point Axes 2 Axes is already an unremarkable album, but after this it really becomes a puzzle as to why it exists at all. The cover of "Eleanor Rigby" with Snider singing (and badly, at that) is just terrible. "Evil Duz (What Evil Knows)" with Ojeda again handling the vocals is heavy enough but lyrically infantile, the instrumental tracks only showcase how average a player Ojeda is and tracks like the awful "The Reason" prove why Dee Snider wrote all of Twisted Sister's material.

I don't really know what Eddie was thinking with this. A way to issue a statement of his own after so long living in the shadow of Dee Snider, perhaps, but Axes 2 Axes is so bad he really shouldn't have bothered.

1. Tonight


2. Axes 2 Axes


3. Please Remember


4. Eleanor Rigby


5. Evil Duz (What Evil Knows)


6. Crosstown


7. Senorita Knows


8. Love Power


9. Funky Monkey


10. The Reason


11. Living Free

Rating: 35%