Artist: Twisted Sister
Title: “We Are Twisted F**king Sister”
Label: Eagle Vision
Release Date: 2/23/2016
Genre: Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Documentary
Rating: 4/5

Before I begin the discussion about this particular music history documentary, I must make the readership aware that I have been listening to the band Twisted Sister for a number of decades now and began my own personal journey with them around the time that the “Ruff Cuts” EP was released. Believe it or not I still have a copy of it somewhere in my collection of albums. That being said I was super interested in observing the documentary that Andrew Horn put together because it was not only going to give us insight from all of the band members that we know from the classic lineup, it would also get some insight from a former member or two and the people that worked closely alongside them at the very beginning.

As the film begins we hear from founding member and original band leader Jay Jay French about the first lineups and the bands infancy from 1972. Believe it or not, Twisted Sister was founded and active in some fashion before KISS who first launched their brand of Shock Rock in 1973. It’s really interesting to hear how the clubs ran back in this point in history and from this lineup we get a lot of narrative from bassist Kenny Neill. Together they present the trials and tribulations of being a cover band around this time and how difficult it was to sell a “look” like this. At this earliest point in time the only Glitter bands would have been the New York Dolls and David Bowie unless my history was off. French makes mention of the Dolls and cites how he felt the sucked and they wanted to be better than them.

Soon enough we meet Dee Snider who brought the band a renewed sense of energy when things appeared to be at their bleakest for the endeavor and the exploration of clubs and the scene are shown in wonderful legacy clips that I hope we will see longer cuts of at some point in the future. During the film we also hear about the music scene of the time from bands that would have been considered the competition back then with Mark Hitt from Rat Race Choir and Randy Jackson from Zebra. The Good Rats are mentioned briefly a couple of times in passing but we don’t hear from any of their members. Considering that Rats singer Peppe Marchello had passed away in 2013 and the film was done in 2014 is likely the reason for that. Collectively these four groups were the biggest acts on the Long Island music scene.

While I don’t want to discuss the entire film with you and leave a lot to your own discovery, I can say that I found the road stories and the pitfalls of aiming at being signed among the most interesting to listen to. I also felt that these legacy clips were fantastic and its so great to have them. Remember my friends this was way before the whole selfie madness and snagging a video or still of everything happening around you. I miss those days sometimes since people actually watched shows and told you about them afterwards. This is a long film and clocks in at over two hours but at no point did I stop the check my email or to let Facebook know that I was watching “We Are Twisted F**king Sister” on Blu-ray like so many others might have done. Good stuff and a high recommendation even if you don’t really follow much about Twisted Sister but are more of a fan of music documentaries in general. It leaves us hanging at the end which is around the time of “Stay Hungry” so maybe a second documentary will come to pass after the band completes their “Forty and F**k It” tour. Only time will tell.

Bonus features include a number of additional bits of commentary from the people we heard from across the documentary and galleries as well. A “Collector’s Edition” was also released but I didn’t have that one to review and this is for the standard BR edition. Should I get my hands on a copy of the collector’s one I will add a narrative to discuss its merits or lack thereof. Now closing up let’s hear you scream “I’m A Sick Mutha F**ka”!!!! There you go. Dee would be proud.

Official Website: http://www.twistedsister.com
Official Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twisted_Sister