TWISTED SISTER — Stay Hungry (review)

TWISTED SISTER — Stay Hungry album cover

Album · 1984 · Heavy Metal

4.5/5 · 2020-04-01
Unitron

Twisted Sister are one of those big 80's metal bands that are unfortunately mostly only remembered today for one or two songs, in their case, the hit punk metal anthem that was We're Not Gonna Take It. While a decent enough song if you like that kind of thing (I don't), it doesn't reflect the rest of this album or the majority of Twisted Sister's sound as a whole.

Stay Hungry is a great combination of energetic classic heavy metal and dark yet melodic doom metal. The title track, I Wanna Rock, and S.M.F. belong to the former, while Burn in Hell, Horror-Teria, and The Beast are the latter. I think it hits a perfect balance, makes for a great album of two sides.

My favorites though are the three darker songs, mainly for how great the hooks and melodies are. Burn in Hell has always sounded like it really influenced Anthrax, especially in Dee Snider's vocal performance in the catchy refrain of the 'Hear no evil, see no evil' section. Horror-Teria is one of the most intimidating and disturbing doom metal songs I've heard, but it's got such a great riff, chorus, and powerful ending, that it keeps you listening. Finally, The Beast simply just has such a killer riff, and might be my favorite on the album.

One of 80's heavy metal's great classics.

more than 2 years ago
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siLLy puPPy wrote:

more than 2 years ago

I forgot how friggin silly they look in We're Not Gonna Take It! I understand the hate if they only go by this video but they were much more for sure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9AbeALNVkk

Tupan wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Classic! Love the darker songs, too.

Unitron wrote:

more than 2 years ago

lol sorry, I'm on a roll today. Yeah, it's a shame that people just look at their image and think that they're going to sound like a generic hair band. I haven't read Dee Snider's bio, but I can already say that Stay Hungry's album cover isn't very hair band like. It's more gory than big hair and lipstick.

siLLy puPPy wrote:

more than 2 years ago

Dee Snider = Bettte Midler + Hulk Hogan. Yeah, great album

Vim Fuego wrote:

more than 2 years ago

(Man, you guys are making it hard to get any work done today with all these reviews I need to read!)

Totally agree with the dark/doom references here. This album often gets dismissed as glam metal fluff, but that's generally by people who haven't listened to the whole thing - they should go and listen to Love is For Suckers instead. There are some really dark themes here, and it's a lot deeper than a superficial first glance might reveal.

This was the first metal album I ever owned. While I have to say I prefer Under The Blade or Come Out and Play now, because I have over-listened to Stay Hungry, it still holds up.

And if you ever read Dee Snider's biography Shut Up and Give Me the Mic, the story behind that cover photo is a good one. Let's just say that big bone isn't as fresh as it looks! ;-)