Twisted Sister to reissue UNDER THE BLADE

[Fat Freddy]

 

I've never had this classic on CD (just vinyl) and I'd say that the "Ruff Cuts" material and bonus DVD are nice incentives to pick this up.

 

Eagle Rock Entertainment will release the landmark metal debut of 1982, "Under The Blade" by Twisted Sister, on May 31st. The CD — originally produced by Pete Way of UFO — will also contain four tracks from their 1982 "Ruff Cuts" EP (never before available on CD) as well as "Shoot 'Em Down," an '82 live track from England's prestigious Reading Festival. The lavish package features the original "Under The Blade" cover, which has not appeared on any domestic versions of the album until now, and reflects the original Secret Records track list and remastered audio mix.

 

The DVD contains the entire previously-unreleased Reading concert. Vocalist Dee Snider, guitarists Jay Jay French and Eddie Ojeda, bassist Mark Mendoza and drummer A.J. Pero gave the crowd something they had not exactly ever seen before. It was, for all intents and purposes, a coming-out affair for this great band. They play as if their life depends upon it. They play as if they have something to prove. And they did. They're young, hungry, determined and wind up headbanging with a desperate ferocity usually reserved for those kinds of life-altering performances that make a band. This is one of those performances. The set concludes with a show-stopping version of "It's Only Rock 'N' Roll" as the band jams out with Pete Way and Motörhead's Fast Eddie Clarke and Lemmy. The DVD also includes 40 minutes of newly shot interviews with the band about the recording of "Under The Blade" and the Reading Festival.

 

French joined the band Silver Star, a New Jersey-based "glitter band" in December 1972. The group, whose original purpose was to be the New Jersey version of the New York Dolls, changed their name to Twisted Sister on Valentine's Day 1973. The band, however, continually changed lineups and didn't take off until Snider joined in 1976. The lineup didn't fully coalesce until 1982 with the final addition of drummer A.J. Pero.

 

"Under The Blade" first came out on an independent U.K.-based label called Secret Records, but really gained momentum when Atlantic Records released a different mix of the album nationally in 1985 while taking advantage of the bands newly minted stardom. Their meteoric ascent came in tandem with the simultaneous rise of MTV. This version you now have in your hands is the most requested and sought after. The new digital remastered original mix of "Under the Blade."

 

 

"Under The Blade" CD track listing:

1. What You Don't Know (Sure Can Hurt You)

2. Bad Boys (Of Rock 'n' Roll)

3. Run For Your Life

4. Sin After Sin

5. Shoot 'Em Down

6. Destroyer

7. Under The Blade

8. Tear It Loose

9. Day Of The Rocker

10. What You Don't Know (Sure Can Hurt You) (Ruff Cutts Version)

11. Shoot 'Em Down (Ruff Cutts Version)

12. Under The Blade (Ruff Cutts Version)

13. Leader Of The Pack (Ruff Cutts Version)

14. Shoot 'Em Down (Live At Reading)

 

DVD track listing:

1. What You Don't Know (Sure Can Hurt You)

2. Sin After Sin

3. Bad Boys (Of Rock 'n' Roll)

4. Destroyer

5. Shoot ‘Em Down

6. Tear It Loose

7. Under The Blade

8. It's Only Rock 'n' Roll

[hardrock80srule]

This ones for me. The DVD alone does it for me

[JC_AOR]

I heard they were re-issuing some of their other albums too, anyone know if this is true?

[heaven&hell]

I heard they were re-issuing some of their other albums too, anyone know if this is true?

 

Yes Armory Records is reissuing Can't Stop Rock N Roll, Come Out and Play as well as Love is For Suckers. At least that's what I saw in Power Play magazine.

 

The only thing that pissed me off is I picked all of those up when they reissued them through Eagle/Spitfire back in the early 2000's. The only I passed on at the time is Love is For Suckers.

[Captain Howdy]

According to Amazon UK, the Armoury reissues for most of them happened at the begining of the year.

I believe they all have extra tracks, but have no idea if they are any different from the previous reissues as I have all the Twisted Sister original releases (including the rare as rocking horse shit Under the blade), and never bothered replacing them.

[Captain Howdy]

Oh, and Amazon also lists the reissue for Under the blade as being from Armoury, so is it possible that they are part of the same record label as Spitfire etc?

[Mullethead]

Awesome! I will be getting this for sure! Great band!

[Dark Star]

I have this on CD already, but yea I will be picking up this version too... With the ORIGINAL artwork too!!!

[Jez]

Nice touch adding the 'Ruff Cuts' EP. Been after that for ages.

[Fat Freddy]

Oh, and Amazon also lists the reissue for Under the blade as being from Armoury, so is it possible that they are part of the same record label as Spitfire etc?

 

Last I checked, Spitfire Recs. no longer exists -- they were bought out by Eagle Rock Entertainment, who I guess are now licensing the artists/catalog previously released by Spitfire to other labels.

[Captain Howdy]

Spitfire has/had been a sub division of Eagle Rock for most of its existence, hence my use of the Etc at the end.

Just looking into it, and Armoury is indeed another sub division of Eagle Rock.

 

Oh and Dark Star, according to both Amazon and the Eagle Rock site, its the same artwork as the last reissue, and not the original.

http://www.eagle-rock.com/artist/142FDE/Twisted+Sister

[Captain Howdy]

I'm actually now trying to decide whether its worth selling my copy and buying this reissue, as it may be worth something.

My copy must be the original CD release as I bought it around 1993 or so, and its on the Virgin label with the code on the spine being the original Secret records code.

It also features the Ruff Cuts versions of What you dont know and Leader of the pack as bonus tracks.

 

When I bought it, I'd been searching for a cassette copy for years and then one day I was in this clearance record shop that Our Price set up to clear out their warehouse, and I saw about 10 or 15 copies of this CD for 99p. This was actually in my very earliest days of buying CDs, so this was one of my first. I probably had no more than ten CDs at the time.

 

That was actually a great shop while it lasted as not only was I unemployed at the time with very little money coming in, but I picked up literally hundreds of cassette tapes and a handful of CDs for 50p to 99p, and a lot of them were bands I never heard of, or had heard of but never heard.

I came away from there with stuff from the likes of Hanoi Rocks, Sons Of Angels, Nelson, Salty Dog, D.A.D, Vengeance, Wrathchild, Beggars And Thieves, Harlow & god knows how many more.

[Evil Rick]

Spitfire has/had been a sub division of Eagle Rock for most of its existence, hence my use of the Etc at the end.

Just looking into it, and Armoury is indeed another sub division of Eagle Rock.

 

Oh and Dark Star, according to both Amazon and the Eagle Rock site, its the same artwork as the last reissue, and not the original.

http://www.eagle-rock.com/artist/142FDE/Twisted+Sister

So chances are the remastering is the same one that was used for the Spitfire reissue? I have that reissue and I know there were many people upset with the quality of the remastering job that was done on that album.

[Captain Howdy]

It wouldn't surprise me if its the same versions. It wouldn't be the first time a label has re-re-released albums and not changed anything except maybe stick a few extra tracks on them.

Also, I think Armoury is their really bargain basement label, as I am sure it was Armoury that released the Poison Seven days live CD and DVD, and they were real budget affairs as far as packaging goes.

[heaven&hell]

It wouldn't surprise me if its the same versions. It wouldn't be the first time a label has re-re-released albums and not changed anything except maybe stick a few extra tracks on them.

Also, I think Armoury is their really bargain basement label, as I am sure it was Armoury that released the Poison Seven days live CD and DVD, and they were real budget affairs as far as packaging goes.

 

Actually Armory is the label that's releasing all of their new stuff like the Heaven&Hell Live at Wacken/Europe disc/dvd, the last two Stratovarious' and Symfonia 'In Paradisum'. Im sure there's others but that's all I own from that label at least that I know of. I wouldn't call them bargain basement bands or cds but maybe they were at one time.

[Captain Howdy]

I was talking about the quality of the packaging rather than the band or music.

The Poison CD and DVD I mentioned is a big band, and the music quality/video quality is good, but they put no effort into the packaging.

Just look at the cover.

For some reason we have a photo of someone who isnt even a member (the keyboardist) but not Rikki.

[heaven&hell]

I was talking about the quality of the packaging rather than the band or music.

The Poison CD and DVD I mentioned is a big band, and the music quality/video quality is good, but they put no effort into the packaging.

Just look at the cover.

For some reason we have a photo of someone who isnt even a member (the keyboardist) but not Rikki.

 

I see what you're saying now. I never bought that one because the US version didn't have any songs from the Native Tongue album well maybe one "Stand". But the original home video had about four tunes from that album.

 

The other Armory cds I have do have very good packaging with most of them having lyrics, pictures and everything is quality IMO.

[Captain Howdy]

If you get the European version of that album, it has all 18 tracks on it. Its still an Armory release, but for some reason its the complete set.

I was at that concert, and had the VHS for years which I transferred to audio tape as well, so was happy when it finally got released on both CD and DVD, but they really didnt put any effort in on the packaging for some reason.

 

Been looking at some of the other stuff thats available on Armory, and it seems a lot of the stuff is the sort of stuff they used to release under the Spitfire banner.

The new Duff McKagan one is on Armory as well, and they are reissuing the special edition version of his last album as well, with a couple of bonus tracks.

[heaven&hell]

If you get the European version of that album, it has all 18 tracks on it. Its still an Armory release, but for some reason its the complete set.

I was at that concert, and had the VHS for years which I transferred to audio tape as well, so was happy when it finally got released on both CD and DVD, but they really didnt put any effort in on the packaging for some reason.

 

Been looking at some of the other stuff thats available on Armory, and it seems a lot of the stuff is the sort of stuff they used to release under the Spitfire banner.

The new Duff McKagan one is on Armory as well, and they are reissuing the special edition version of his last album as well, with a couple of bonus tracks.

 

Yeah I saw on That Metal Show with Duff that the last Loaded "Sick" is getting reissued and he said that's down to it now being out of print.

[Mullethead]

If you get the European version of that album, it has all 18 tracks on it. Its still an Armory release, but for some reason its the complete set.

I was at that concert, and had the VHS for years which I transferred to audio tape as well, so was happy when it finally got released on both CD and DVD, but they really didnt put any effort in on the packaging for some reason.

 

Been looking at some of the other stuff thats available on Armory, and it seems a lot of the stuff is the sort of stuff they used to release under the Spitfire banner.

The new Duff McKagan one is on Armory as well, and they are reissuing the special edition version of his last album as well, with a couple of bonus tracks.

 

Yeah I saw on That Metal Show with Duff that the last Loaded "Sick" is getting reissued and he said that's down to it now being out of print.

 

Love That Metal Show!

[Guest southhell]

I love this album so much. To me, it's flawless from start to finish. The DVD will be sweet as well.