Twisted Sister
Under The Blade

THE REVIEW

What to say about Twisted Sister? An excellent band that has managed to carve out a niche for itself, spending a lot of time in the shadows (Jay Jay French and company have been active since the early '70s). Upon the release of this debut album, "Under the Blade" (1982), the group finds itself at the dawn of hair/glam metal, and during the same period, various bands like Ratt, Cinderella, Poison, and Britny Fox will emerge. Personally, I have never considered Twisted Sister part of this trend (same for W.A.S.P. and Lizzy Borden) because they have nothing of glam (besides, Snider has always defined their sound as a pure and simple rock n' roll). In fact, the group showed features that their godfather Alice Cooper experimented with years before: a grotesque look, performances with a grand guignol character, and lyrics that mostly talk about sexual perversions and horror themes.

I would say 80% of the credit for their notoriety goes to the singer Dee Snider, endowed with a great voice (a kind of even wilder Mick Jagger) and a stage charisma that only a few rock frontmen possess. Twisted was, for better or worse, an indestructible reality of '80s hard & heavy, studded with successes but also accusations. Famous were the disputes between Snider and Tipper Gore, wife of Senator Al and founder of the P.M.R.C., a very active association in the '80s that pissed off (besides the Sister) W.A.S.P., Frank Zappa, Madonna, Van Halen, Scorpions, Warrant, and others for the censorship of their musical works.

But now let's move on to the analysis of this work. "Under the Blade" is for me the most aggressive album the band has ever produced so far, and there are only some flashes of melodies, unlike subsequent albums. "What You Don't Know (Sure Can Hurt You)" begins, one of the most known songs in their discography, in addition to being an irreplaceable pillar in all their concerts. "Sin After Sin", "Shoot Em Down" and "Destroyer" highlight influences from AC/DC, Black Sabbath, and Kiss while "Tear It Loose" shows lessons imparted by speed metal bands like Judas Priest and Motorhead. A special mention goes to the title track, one of the best in the "Schizo Sister's" discography. Going back to P.M.R.C., Tipper Gore accused it of being a song that promotes sadomasochism and do you want to know what Snider told her? "As the creator of 'Under the Blade,' I can say categorically that the sadomasochism, bondage, and violence of this song are only in Ms. Gore's mind".

Second (by a little) to the masterpiece "Stay Hungry". Lovers of classic '80s metal and even those of hair/glam cannot fail to know this milestone, a work by a band that has managed to withstand the wear and tear of time and has maintained a name even with the advent of grunge, alternative, and nu metal trends. A must-have.