Twisted Sister - A Twisted Christmas Album Review

Twisted Sister - A Twisted Christmas (2006)

Members:

Dee Snider – lead vocals

Jay Jay French – guitars, backing vocals

Eddie "Fingers" Ojeda – guitars, backing vocals

Mark "The Animal" Mendoza – bass, backing vocals

A. J. Pero – drums, backing vocals

Additional Musicians

Lita Ford – co-lead vocals on "I'll Be Home for Christmas"

Doro Pesch – backing vocals on "White Christmas"

A Twisted Christmas is the seventh and final studio album by the American heavy metal group Twisted Sister, with the band releasing it on October 17, 2006. The album features classic Christmas songs performed in metal versions, often featuring lyrical changes.

Production:

Jay Jay French – executive producer

Mark "The Animal" Mendoza – producer, mixing, mastering

Denny McNerney – engineer, mixing, mastering

George Marshall – assistant engineer

First Impressions:

Huh? A Twisted Sister Christmas album?

The name Twisted Sister brings about nostalgia for the 80's MTV metal scene. This band was one of the darlings of that era and they always bring about memories of oddball lyrics and cheesy videos. This band was one that very few ever took completely seriously. The had a habit of breaking up and then reuniting a ton all through the 90's and it resulted in a very discordant discography...this 2006 Christmas album proved to be their last one ever released officially so far and it is a mixed bag of things all tied together by a mixed up holiday theme. Now I admit, back in the day I loved this band but they haven't aged well in my collection, I still listen to the odd track or album from time to time, but they aren't a favorite of mine, I still respect what they did for metal and hard rock as a whole, but I usually pass on them now if given a choice. Now then, is this Christmas album worth the time invested in listening to it? Or does it need to lay off the spiked egg nog? Let's dig in and find out track by track...Let's Do This!!!

1."Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" 4:48

Well this is kinda rough to listen to. Sounds like an off the cuff holiday hootinanny....at first anyway. It gets a bit harder with the standard TS sound profile that we are used to. However this particular traditional Christmas song is not really geared to their kinda off kilter arrangement....this is a tough track to rearrange well anyway but they did kinda ok with it by the end.

2."Oh Come All Ye Faithful" 4:40

The "We're not gonna take it" arrangement for this one? Honestly, that's a lazy attempt at being clever with this one. Not really good in all honesty.

3."White Christmas" 3:56

A hard galloping riff for a traditional ballad song. It really doesn't fit all that well. It seems forced to me and honestly could be done far better by this band. The only redeeming part of this one is Doro Pesch doing backing vocals, which I wish were brought forward a bit more.

4."I'll Be Home for Christmas" 4:08

The Dee Snider/Lita Ford duet...well it's another forced sounding track. It just doesn't sound that great to me, and to be honest, I've never been a fan of Lita Ford anyway. This is another track that could have been handled much better by this band.

5."Silver Bells"5:05

This one just "rings" of AC/DC sonically. It's a bit better than the previous 4 tracks but the gang vocals take away from it a bit, all in all so far this band has been pretty bad with this offering.

6."I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus"3:39

Well, this one sounds a bit better musically, but Dee sounds a bit out of his range and phrasing style. Sounds like he's struggling a bit. This is still one of the better ones on this album and I can deal with its odd shortcomings.

7."Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow"3:09

Well another forced sounding riff, almost Black Sabbath like...just not a good. The meter of this one is a bit problematic and the gang vocals are kinda iffy and out of place sounding. Not thrilled by this one.

8."Deck the Halls"2:52

A standard of TS riffage and more unneeded gang vocals. The riff is good and the break in the middle is pretty cool so this one gets a moderate pass from me based on the musicality alone.

9."The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)" 3:40

A standard Co-Written by one of my favorite crooners, Mel Torme. This one is a pretty bad interpretation of this one. Can't say much else without ranting...so I won't....moving on.

10."Heavy Metal Christmas (The Twelve Days of Christmas)" 5:14

How many screwy versions of this one are there? This is an awful one...skip this thing.

11."We Wish You a Twisted Christmas" (hidden track)0:36

Dumb...dumb...dumb.

Conclusion:

Well this album is a loss, and gives a proof why this band ended when it did. It's an uneven mess of a holiday album. Christmas albums are supposed to be fun and the like but honestly this one isn't really fun at all. It's a dumpster fire that just won't burn itself out on so many levels in both execution and production. It could have been done better by this band, who's track record proves they can do and have done much better than this, the best parts are the guitar solos. If this is your goto holiday album, that's fine....but to this reviewer this Christmas album is just a Christmess. In my collection this album really ranks as a 'meh' album at best, and a near audio abortion at worst.

Score: 2/5