Twisted Sister - Hammerheads 1980 [2LP Purple Marble]

Two years before their debut album, Twisted Sister were already a fixture of the Long Island club scene, and Hammerheads 1980 captures them in full flight on a limited purple marble 2LP.

The show was recorded in West Islip, New York, in front of a homestate crowd that had watched the band grind it out on the bar circuit for years. It first surfaced inside the Rock 'N' Roll Saviors box set in 2016, and this release gives the concert a life of its own, marking its first appearance on vinyl.

What makes it fascinating is the preview of what was coming. "Bad Boys (Of Rock n Roll)", "Destroyer" and "Under the Blade" would all land on 1982's Under the Blade, but here they sound rawer and hungrier, delivered by a band still fighting for a record deal. Dee Snider works the room like a frontman who refuses to lose a single person to the bar, and the guitars are loud, sharp and gloriously unpolished.

The twelve-song set also makes room for a rowdy run through Steppenwolf's "Born to Be Wild" to close things out, the kind of cover that kept club crowds on their feet.

For collectors of the Twisted Sister story, this is a sweaty, unfiltered snapshot of the moment just before everything changed.