Still Hungry

Album Review

Stay Hungry is to Twisted Sister what Metal Health is to Quiet Riot, Operation: Mindcrime is to Queensrÿche, and Appetite for Destruction is to Guns N' Roses — it isn't their only worthwhile release, but it is widely regarded as their best and most essential. So when Twisted Sister decided to re-record one of their albums in 2004, the most logical choice was Stay Hungry — and Still Hungry finds a reunited Twisted Sister revisiting that 1984 classic 20 years later. Of course, it's impossible to improve upon perfection, and some fans of Sister's '80s output will wonder if favorites like "We're Not Gonna Take It," "I Wanna Rock," and "Burn in Hell" really needed to be re-recorded. But here's the thing: according to guitarist Jay Jay French, Stay Hungry wasn't perfection — at least not from a production standpoint. French had problems with the way Tom Werman produced Stay Hungry; Werman and Atlantic Records insisted on a glossier, lighter sort of production, while Dee Snider and his bandmates had envisioned a tougher, harder, heavier sound (and didn't get their way). Stylistically, Still Hungry isn't a big departure from Stay Hungry; Sister plays the same nine songs in pretty much the same fashion and offers them in the same order (adding seven bonus tracks, which range from 2000s previously released "Heroes Are Hard to Find" to some tunes that were written in the '80s but went unfinished). On Still Hungry, bassist Mark Mendoza's production does, in fact, give Stay Hungry's nine songs a dirtier, less glossy sound — and these 2004 performances are undeniably inspired. Twenty years obviously haven't robbed Snider, French, or Mendoza of their enthusiasm for this material. Nonetheless, the original, Werman-produced 1984 version of Stay Hungry remains Sister's most essential disc; casual listeners should start out with Stay Hungry, not Still Hungry. But for collectors and hardcore fans, Still Hungry paints an enjoyable, interesting picture of the sound that Snider and friends originally had in mind for their most famous album. [The 2007 edition includes bonus tracks.]