Twisted Sister
"Club Daze: Volume II"
(Spitfire Records)

Their second installment of the "Club Daze" series, and considering the two decades it took 'em to dig up these bones, another might be much more unlikely. and then so too might be the fact that people again care about Twisted Sister. The five made-up New York-based malcontents of a long suffering Disco-era made their mark on the eighties' Metal scene like few others could have dreamed-it was only in fact during their decline that many others of the Glam-Rock variety became household accessories. Dee and the boys made quite the splash at the dawn of the '80s, doing their thing in and out of the clubs, making the scene by creating one; bore of a bizarre image and blistering tunes that would became synonymous with parental discontent. "Volume II" picks up where the first left off but in a more intimate "in-house" fashion with many of the tracks pulled from rare footage of radio show performances and dusty master tapes of poor but acceptable quality. Choice cuts include the catchy "Follow Me," "Under The Blade," an even cruder form of the original title track from the '82 release, "Come Back," and "Can't Stand Still." The band's knack for reviving their Rock & Roll heroes of the past bring the "evening" to a rousing conclusion with Little Richard's "Long Tall Sally" and Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode," but it's those rare, never before heard moments from the preceding originals-a few expected clunkers like "You Know I Cry" and "Plastic Money" notwithstanding-well let's face it, to get anything remotely palatable out of something this old and not surprisingly far off from the future TS sound, is gravy. An added gold star to the collection comes by way of two previously unrecorded originals at the forefront; two rip 'em up anthems called "Never Say Never," prophetic in that we're talking about band who will reunite indefinitely, and "Blastin' Fast And Loud," words first heard way back-took me a while to figure it out-on the "You Can't Stop Rock 'N Roll" cut from the same titled 1983 release. Both tracks get the sweat glands going right off, originally bore of "Stay Hungry" session drum tracks and recently blazed over by the current TS players, new, but vintage "Can't Stop." era TS. The band ended suddenly and all too quietly with '87s "Love Is For Suckers" failure and considering all they did and the impact they made, were to be afforded a misstep and probably could've gone forward but chose not to. The fact that they're back in one form or another signifies their intent to go out in a blaze of glory rather than the sputtering fumes of fourteen years before.

More from the Online Metal Journal