On October 19, 2004, Twisted Sister released Still Hungry, their sixth studio album. But it wasn't a set of new songs. The band had gone back into the studio to re-record Stay Hungry, the 1984 album that made them famous. The reason? They thought the original was too polished and didn't capture how they really sounded.
They thought the original was too polished and didn't capture how they really sounded.
A rougher take on Stay Hungry
Stay Hungry had turned Twisted Sister into MTV stars with hits like I Wanna Rock and We're Not Gonna Take It. But the band felt the production made them sound smoother than they were live. So they decided to give the album a rougher, heavier treatment. The result was Still Hungry, a track-by-track remake with a harder edge.
The recording took place between January and July at Pie Studios in Glen Cove, New York. The sessions brought the classic lineup together: Dee Snider on vocals, Eddie Ojeda and Jay Jay French on guitar, Mark Mendoza on bass, and A.J. Pero on drums. Producers Mark Mendoza, Jay Jay French, and Phil Carson oversaw the project. The lineup on the record was the classic one, with Dee Snider on vocals and Eddie "Fingers" Ojeda on guitar and backing vocals. Jay Jay French also played guitar and sang backing vocals, while Mark "The Animal" Mendoza handled bass and backing vocals. A.J. Pero took care of drums, percussion, and backing vocals.
Seven bonus tracks added
Still Hungry runs well over an hour, much longer than the original. That's because the band added seven bonus tracks. Two of them, Never Say Never and Blastin' Fast & Loud, had been demos during the original sessions but were never finished. The classic lineup completed them in 2001 for a live compilation called Club Daze Volume II: Live in the Bars, released in 2002.
Another bonus track, Heroes Are Hard to Find, was written by Dee Snider with Bernie Torme. It first appeared on the soundtrack to the film Strangeland, which Snider wrote and starred in. The song had a connection to Twisted Sister's past: the movie's villain, Captain Howdy, was inspired by the band's earlier song Horror-Teria. The album also included several brand-new studio recordings. Come Back, Plastic Money, You Know I Cry, and Rock 'n' Roll Saviors were all fresh tracks made for Still Hungry. They gave the re-recorded album a bit of new material alongside the reworked classics.
The new version of I Wanna Rock from Still Hungry found a second life in video games. It was included in Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s and in Burnout Paradise. That helped introduce the band to a younger audience who had missed the 1980s. The album found an audience beyond the United States as well. In Europe, Drakkar Records handled the release, while Armoury put it out in Japan. That gave Still Hungry a wider reach than the original Stay Hungry had enjoyed. The album's influence reached other musicians as well. The British rock group Cryogen named a song Still Hungry on their first album Daylight as a nod to this record.
Still Hungry was released by Spitfire Records in the US, and Rhino Entertainment handled a later reissue. The album's genres are heavy metal, hard rock, and glam metal. The band wanted this version to sound the way they always intended: raw, loud, and hungry. Still Hungry also made an impression on the charts. It reached number 18 on the UK Independent Albums Chart and number 28 on the UK Rock & Metal Albums Chart. Behind the scenes, the production team included more than the three producers. Danny McNerney worked as sound engineer and handled mixing, with Dylan Ely assisting him. Joe Lambert took care of mastering, while Jay Jay French and Phil Carson both served as executive producers.