Dee Snider - We Are The Ones

Published October 19 2016

*=Staff's pick	We Are The Ones* Over Again Close To You Rule The World We're Not Gonna Take It Crazy For Nothing Believe Head Like A Hole Superhero So What*

Genre	Hard Rock	Dee Snider	Vocals
Tracks	10	-	Guitar
Running time	37 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	earMusic	-	Bass
Release	October 21, 2016	-	Drums
Country	USA	-	Keyboard
Producer	Damon Ranger
Similar artists	---

When the guys in Twisted Sister now are about to terminate their existence as a band, their undisputed face to the world and center of attention, lead singer Dee Snider, sets his focus on his solo stuff instead. When now releasing, what I personally think is his first real record since 2000's Never Let The Bastards Wear You Down, the flamboyant frontman has decided to come out with a really diverse experience that differs quite a lot from what most of his fans are used to hear from him.

It's not like he's taking things back to Christmas songs or the Broadway appearance, but the songs really stand on their own and no one is similar to the next one. He puts all kinds of things to his rock music, like punk-influenced stuff, electronic and industrial sounds, heavy metal and hard rock parts, string and piano based material and even some pop music elements, as he has definitely been searching for different routes and new directions to let his musical creativity and ability out again.

The song material is unfortunately on the downside and even if I like a couple of the songs, like We Are The Ones with its direct, kick-ass attitude and the honest and intriguing So What, they really can't get a solid grip of me. It's too spread out and if you haven't heard the famous Stay Hungry album version of We're Not Gonna Take It, this re-recording must undoubtedly appear very strange and just a statement of youth and pretty much just an evidence of the man's vocal capacity, which to this very day is still powerful, I must point out, even if he has passed the 60-year mark now.

Dee is probably making this record just the way he wants to, regardless of what his most hardcore or long-time fans think about it. Of course he wants to distance himself from his Twisted Sister days, and maybe even the Desperado and Widowmaker period, but by doing that too much he's most likely going to alienate pretty much his whole fanbase. The record doesn't suck at all, but it's just that implementing too many new ideas and being too experimental as well hardly ever pays off in the end.

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
7	7	7	8	4

Summary
5 chalices of 10 - Tobbe