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Twisted Sister: Dee Snider (vocals); Jay Jay French, Eddie "Fingers" Ojeda (guitar, background vocals); Mark "The Animal" Mendoza (bass, background vocals); Tony Petri (drums, percussion); A.J. Pero (drums). Compilation producers: Jay Jay French, Mark Mendoza. Includes liner notes by Ben Liemer & Jay Jay French. Digitally remastered by Mark Mendoza & Denny McNerney (Pie Studios, Glen Cove, New Jersey). Twisted Sister's second album of live performances and demos from their pre-fame days shows a band torn between two sounds. On one hand, the band can play sloppy, Dictators-inspired hard rock that has aged, but still retains an undeniable quality about it. On the other hand, they can sound like a generic '70s metal band, which is a sound that is not only dated, but rather boring when not in the hands of a better-known act. Of course, both sounds would eventually combine into their glammy style of heavy metal, but they still had not figured that out quite yet. So songs like "You Know I Cry" are rather pedestrian, sounding more like a watered-down Iron Maiden then Twisted Sister. But then there are songs like "Lady's Boy," a swaggering rocker with a winding bassline and clever lyrics. Fans of the band will want this for the obvious reasons, but the casual listener will probably not find anything here worth the purchase of the album; there are better albums by the band. ~ Bradley Torreano
