Losing brothers (and twisted sisters)

It was just announced that AJ Pero from Twisted Sister passed away at the age of 55.

Didn't see that one coming. 

Ok, I may not be a huge AJ fanboy or anything, but who doesn't know the iconic drum intro to "Were not Gonna Take It?"

In my Domicile days, Louie (drums, skins and Bloody Knickles) would occasionally roll into that particular pattern just to crack us all up.

Here's something you didn't know. Nago loves Twisted Sister. Stay Hungry is epic. Absolutely fucking Epic from start to finish. I was blaring that LP playing Final Fanasty in my basement when Nirvana was mainstream.

Twisted Sister is more than one LP and a couple of missteps though. Under the Blade and You Can't Stop Rock and Roll are under rated as balls out albums. They were metal when metal was raw (pre-thrash). TS's releases stood along side of other pre-thrash metal LP's from contemporaries like Raven and Riot, and and propelled them into the band that eventually earned platinum status with the follow-up listed above, surpassing their peers ten fold.

Twisted Sister got it. They had gimmick and songs, belted out by one of the best gravel throated vocalists to ever fly the flag for the Metal genre. Dee was a vocal beast, and I'd argue that with anyone who would say something to the negative.

AJ was ugly back then. Man that dude was, but he owned it. 

Most recently, AJ became a member of Adrenalin Mob, a super group started by drummer extraordinaire (and ego maniac) Mike Portnoy. To fill his shoes say a lot for AJ's ability, even though Mike downplayed his own technical ability in the band.

Twisted's rise and fall has been well documented, and their rebirth is pretty cool. It's great to see them occasionally doing their thing. I could live without Christmas LP's, but they're making money, so who am I to judge. That's a difficult thing to do in the Music biz, especially a Metal band with a 40 year history. I am sure their timekeeper will be sorely missed by their camp.

RIP AJ. Godspeed. 

Nago