Review Summary: Christmas? Twisted Sister? That seems kinda odd, doesn't it? Yet, the hard rock legends and Long Island Music Hall of Fame inductees manage to pull of a nice little rocking christmas record that might find a place this time around rocking under your chris
What can we expect from a Christmas Album done by Twisted Sister, one of the most well known hard rock and heavy metal bands ever? It's something very unusual and rather hard to listen to looking at the circumstances but I'll try my hardest to review it and try give you a good look in what could maybe become the record that you'll spin around on the holy day. I'm already psyched to listen to it, I'm in all for some fun surprises and I'll try my best to review it and so I'll present to you:
Twisted Sister - A Twisted Christmas
Tracklist:
1. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
2. Oh Come All Ye Faithful
3. White Christmas
4. I'll Be Home For Christmas
5. Silver Bells
6. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
7. Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow
8. Deck The Halls
9. The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire)
10. Heavy Metal Christmas (The Twelve Days Of Christmas)
The first song
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas starts with some rather quite tones with lonesome acoustic guitars and vocals until the band kicks the whole thing upside down with someone in the back yelling "Hey guys, what is this crap?!" which was a pretty funny part. Some heavy guitars kick in that give the refrain a harder edge while Dee Snider keeps on singing very clear and rather calm. Then we enter the greatest part in the song. A part kicks in that reminds me of the old Ramones tune "Blitzkrieg Bop", but instead of yelling "Ay Oh, Let's Go" they go with "Ho Ho Ho, Let's Go!" which I found pretty damn amusing. This part delivers a really fun atmosphere and is truly a great opener for this album.
Oh Come All Ye Faithful begins with a very funny throwback. They begin with the opening sounds of their most famous song [b]We're not gonna take it[b] and connect the exact same song with the lyrics of the christmas song. A pretty neat idea to say the least. The big plus here is that it really fits together and makes great for a rocking christmas song. The guitar solo in the middle is pretty awesome and sounds a bit modified to keep the christmas spirit alive. Overall it's a pretty neat idea and keeped me interested for the rest of the album. I wonder what other surprises are in store for me here.
I have to say, I'm not that knowledged in every record Twisted Sister released before so I'm not that good of a source to tell if they sort of conenct every christmas song with one of theirs. Well,
White Christmas is next and it starts with some rough guitars and cool drums in the backgrounds. A positive remark have to be so far the vocals where Dee Snider tries his hardest not to go into a screaming and rocking routine and rather keeping the clear singing. The guitar solo here is pretty sick and well done. The lyrics of White Christmas really click well with the background sound and the song ends with a typical hard rock ending, the guitars and the typical drumming sequence. All in all it was another fun song so big ups for them.
I'll Be Home For Christmas starts off with some dragging, loud guitars that set a kinda relaxed mood for the song. The vocals are again great here until we enter an enormous huge amount of ridiculous cheesyness in the guitar solo, I mean, was that really necessary? Kinda hard for me to listen to. Still, I review a christmas album so I'll better be ready for another amount in the other songs. From a christmas standpoint, I'd say that it's a rather skipable unless your family is in that kinda mood, but in my opinion it's kinda hard to listen to it for 4 minutes.
Now we continue with
Silver Bells that opens with a very cool guitar riff and great background drumming, I can't really tell if it's an old song by them in the background as it seems kinda like that. Well, the refrain is awesome here, Dee sings the refrain with the whole band in the background supporting him with backing vocals. It delivers quite a great feeling here and sets a great mood for a christmas evening. It's the strongest song so far in terms of delivering the christmas feeling with hard rocking music. Even for the long length of 5 minutes they find a way that this song never gets any repetive or boring. They rock out in great fashion in what is the best song so far.
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus has the hardest sound so far, with hard guitars and cool bassline in the background at the beginning that supports it in good fashion. The enxt highlight is the refrain where they pull out all the stops in everything. A great feeling with superb vocals and great guitars in the background. The next you know is the uberlong guitar solo which goes on for about a minute. That was way too long in my opinion and ruined the song a bit in my opinion. They shouldn't overuse those solos and strain them. It gets annoying and rather repetive after a while. But of course, if your not a hard rock and heavy metal geek then you will love them, no doubt about that.
We go on with
Let It Snow that has a pretty neat intro with guitars that get more raw, louder and aggresive the more they go on. We enter the great lyrics of Let it snow and it clicks perfectly here. You can even sing along very loud here which is a major plus in my opinion. Hey, it's christmas, you need songs to sing along with, right? The song manages to deliver the christmas feeling and yet it has the hardest sound so far. Big Highlight right there.
The album itself now really takes steam and gets better every minute you listen to it. They really made an effort here. The next song is
Deck the Halls, the typical annual christmas song. After Let it snow we get another great song in here as they have great background vocals by the crew with some pretty cool "Falala lala lala lala's" which just sound great and just make you either to bang your head or sing along with. The guitars really click together with the original christmas song and there are even some christmas bells and sounds here and there which made for a pretty feeling.
Twisted Sister really gave a great effort so far in what may become a huge hit record in the christmas time for people that time of this year.
The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) is up next and is more of a cooler for the other rather hard and agressive songs. First of, it's not of my faves on this CD as it the whole song seems rather boring. They actually manhandle this poor song with another terribly cheesy guitar solo and an overall more of an annoying sound. I had a pretty hard time listening to that song for you guys. I hope the last song makes up for it.
Let's enter the last song of this rock'n'christmas rollercoaster, entitled
Heavy Metal Christmas (The Twelve Days Of Christmas). Instead of singing "Twelve Days Of Christmas" they go with a funny "Heavy Metal Christmas" completed by the trademark sound of the original yet supported by hard guitars. After time goes the song gets pretty hilarious as the whole band joins in singing the other parts of the song before we enter each day of the Heavy Metal Christmas. I think they did pretty great here as the song clicked perfectly in a whole. After this wild ride we geta nother Bonus track with a choir wishing you "A Twisted Christmas" and a "Twisted new year". Neat idea to say the least.
