1123. Dee Snider / Leave a Scar. 2021. 3/5

Everyone knows Dee Snider... well, that’s probably not necessarily true. But everyone knows Twisted Sister, and if you know Twisted Sister, then you know the big lead singer with make-up and long blond hair as the lead singer, and that is Dee Snider, in his most famous role. But Twisted Sister has been and gone for some years now, and Dee has been out there changing up the course of his life.In the years following Twisted Sister, Dee has done television shows both in guest roles and acting roles, including his family’s own reality show, “Growing Up Twisted”. And he has still been in and around the music industry, appearing live on stage and on other projects, including “Dee Does Broadway”, which as you can imagine was a bit of a stretch. None of those albums made a huge impact, and so it wasn’t until three years ago when Jamey Jasta from Hatebreed came along and suggested putting together a metal album for the current day that things began to come back into focus. That album, For the Love of Metal, was written by Jasta along with his bandmates from Kingdom of Sorrow, Charlie and Nick Bellmore who also performed all the guitars and drums, and included guest performances from other vocalists such as Howard Jones and Alissa White-Gluz. Dee was more or less just the ‘hired gun’ as vocalist, but the album was a success, and it brought Dee back into prominence in the metal community which more than anything else was something he had wanted to achieve.

Coming into this new album, Dee had decided that he wanted to be a part of the writing process again, which is great to see given the success he has had with that during his long career. It also gave him the opportunity to continue to build the new-metal-with-old-metal sound that the previous album had begun. And with the same crew together to record the album, and a pandemic of time to spend the time wisely, Dee Snider has come up with an album that, if nothing else, has the right sound about it to connect with fans old and new.
From the very beginning, you can see that the main reason Dee wanted to be involved in the writing process again, and especially the lyrics, is that he had a fair bit on his mind and he wanted to get it off his chest. Snider has never been backward in coming forward when it comes to his opinions on anything and everything. Indeed he was quoted in interviews about this album as saying “I knew I not only had to get back into the studio, but for the first time since the ’90s, I needed to be a part of the writing process. ‘Leave a Scar’ is filled with messages to and for the silent voices in the world who need someone to speak out on their behalf.” That sentiment is captured from the beginning of the album with his lyric “While my mind is still screaming, I can’t stop” and “You will never feel the same, until we rock again”.
From the outset the album finds the right tempo and balance between aggression and anthem. Dee of course is no stranger to being involved in an anthemic tune, and that is utilised here well, along with fast paced and raucous guitars and drums driving along. There is little left to the imagination in songs named “I Gotta Rock (Again)” and “All or Nothing More” and “Down But Never Out”. For a guy who is now aged in his mid-60's, there is an impressiveness in his vocals on this album, and his subject matter is taken and composed on the positive side of the ledger, looking to inspire and rise the spirits rather than take any morbidity within. Even with “Before I Go” where he sings “your fate depends on who you save” he keeps looking for the light.
There are lots of different subjects covered here, and no doubt the downtime during the 2020 covid pandemic has given him plenty of time for reflection, and a desire to use that in his music. The best songs here are the ones with the drive of the drums and the heavy riffs with Dee chanting hard at the microphone, but even when the band changes things up a bit, such as on songs like “Silent Battles” and the closing track “Stand” they still work. There is even a guest vocal from Cannibal Corpse front man Corpsegrinder on the song “Time to Choose”, which is an interesting confluence of vocal styles. There are times during the album that the same can feel a bit samey, a bit too similar in the backgrounds rhythm, and that they may blend too easily into each other. That may bother some people but it’s more a reflection of preference. I am still confused as to why artists at times choose to close out an album with a power ballad as Dee has done here with “Stand”. With all of the heavy material that has come before it, this does finish the album in a strange way.

I came into this album on the back of that previous release For the Love of Metal. Dee had toured Australia on that album, indeed recorded some of the tour for a live release and was a gig that I had wanted to get to but for other reasons was unable to attend. There had been things I had enjoyed on that album, and I was interested to hear if this was any different. What I found was an album that I must admit I found much more comfortable, simply because it felt as though it was Dee’s words I was hearing here this time, that it was a personal reflection on the world, rather than just him delivering someone else’s speech. And I think that was important in the context of someone like Dee Snider, because he is looked up to in the music world for what he has done in the past and for what he has stood for since, and I think you need to know that it is his words you are listening to him sing and not those of someone else. There is nothing ground-breaking here, nothing that will have you digging deep for superlatives when it comes to describing the album and what you think about it. Much as I am doing here. It is a good solid album, one where the songs are perhaps a little formulaic, and where at time you may think they have just rolled off a production line. But there are moments where something hits you and you realise that there is something just a little special about hearing this man back behind the microphone. Dee Snider is a legend of the industry, and should the word recover just enough to allow him the chance to get out there and play these songs in a live setting with a big crowd, I think we will see the best of what has been written at that time. Because if one thing is true, Dee Snider is a phenomenon on the stage, and that is where he is at his best.