The problem with the age of buying albums online is that we’ve lost the joy of browsing the record store.

To buy an album online, of course, you have to know exactly what you want. While record labels and zines do everything they can to publicize bands, only a small percentage of the bands are likely to get through your filter.

That wasn’t true back when we had record stores; in those halcyon days, I would spend a good hour or two just browsing through the aisles, checking out album covers, reading lyrics and song titles and bugging the clerks for info about particularly interesting bands. Part of the fun was taking home an album by a completely unknown (to me) band — yes, I got some stinkers that way, but I also ended up with great albums by bands like Type O Negative, Megadeth, Manowar and The Dead Milkmen.

I had a new “hoooley shee-it” moment recently, when I stumbled across the new Chthonic album, “Takasago Army” at record store in a nearby city. While I think I had heard of Chthonic before, I knew absolutely nothing about them … so my ears perked up and my eyes popped out when the Taiwan-based band hit me with an original blend of traditional Taiwanese melodies and instrumentation and roaring symphonic black metal.

A concept album based on Taiwanese history, “Takasako Army” is a blistering disc and surprises again and again with the inclusion of Chinese and Taiwanese melodies.

I’m not talking about just samples here and there, either; the music of Taiwan is inextricably woven into the songs. Metal is a western creation — but Chthonic doesn’t attempt to imitate western metal. Instead, they make the genre their own. To the uninitiated, it’s an incredibly refreshing.

But, thankfully, injecting Taiwanese culture into the music doesn’t stop Chthonic from being incredibly heavy. With the exception of two brief instrumentals, “Takasago Army” roars from beginning to end.

“Takasago Army” tells the story of Taiwanese aboriginals who were recruited to fight for Japan during World War II. After the war, the men returned home, only to be recruited again when Chinese nationalists invaded Taiwan after the nationalists lost the Chinese civil war. The Taiwanese defenders lost the battle — thereby losing any chance the island nation had for independence after the defeat of Japan.

You don’t have to know all of that to appreciate “Takasago Army,” however. This is symphonic black metal — and the Taiwanese musical references make this as innovative and surprising as Emperor must have been when they first burst onto the Norwegian metal scene in the early 1990s.

Fans of black metal — and metal fans tired of the countless bands that seem to be working overtime to sound as generic as possible — will find much to enjoy here. “Takasago Army” is highly recommended.

But Owensboro’s Factory Damage have had a little more success than the average band; over the past seven years, the band has played shows with major-label metal bands such as Exodus, Powerman 5,000, Warbringer and Malevolent Creation.

On Jan. 29, Factory Damage will play the last show of the band’s career in Louisville when they open for thrash metal legends Anthrax at Expo Five.

“For me, it’s a dream come true,” said band guitarist Ed Young. “If you had said to me when we started this band seven years ago we would be opening for Anthrax, I would have said, ‘you’re dreaming.’ ”

Life in a local band anywhere is difficult — there aren’t any lavish backstage parties, tour buses or bowls of M&Ms with all the brown ones picked out for aspiring garage bands. Instead, hungry local bands can look forward to loading and unloading their own gear, traveling in cramped, overloaded vans and constantly scrambling to find gigs.

“Opening for Warbringer, we saw them pull up in a cargo van (instead of a tour bus),” Young said. “Right then I realized, ‘this is a whole lot harder than anyone thinks.’ ”

Young said the constant search for new shows to play wore the band thin over time. “There’s no metal scene” in Owensboro, Young said. Most local bars require bands to play cover songs.

The band decided to call it quits in September. “It didn’t end on a bad note,” vocalist Chris Hedges said. “We needed time for our families. The stress and hassle of trying to constantly book shows took a toll on all of us.”

“We’re not teenagers,” Young said. “We’ve all got jobs. My kids are getting older, and I don’t want to miss any of it.”

The band was scheduled to play its last show in Louisville opening for Down — a supergroup of sorts containing former Pantera vocalist Phil Anselmo and members of Crowbar and Corrosion of Conformity. But life intervened and Factory Damage had to bow out of the gig.

But the band didn’t want to end their career on a low note. So, when Young learned the Louisville music promoter Terry Harper had booked Anthrax, Testament and Death Angel to play Expo Five, he asked Harper if the band could join the bill.

“Terry was really understanding” when the band dropped off the Down show, Young said. “When I saw Anthrax pop up on his website, I had to ask him, because Anthrax was a huge influence on me.

“Terry has been really great for this band,” Young said. “I guess he likes us.”

Getting ready for the show has been a challenge. Some members of the band, such as longtime drummer Scott Doughty, are unable to perform because of work. To fill out the bill, the Young and Hedges recruited a drummer and bassist from other local bands.

“They’re picking up (the songs) really quickly,” Hedges said.

“We’re practicing pretty much nonstop,” Young said.

Although the band is retiring from music for now, there’s always the possibility of getting back together in the future, Hedges said. But, if not, the band is calling it quits with no regrets.

“We’ve had a lot of fun doing it,” Young said. “There have been more good times than bad.”

“It’s almost cliché … but when you get out on the stage, all the stress (of life) is gone,” Hedges said. “The show hits, and it’s awesome.”

“It’s a whole other world when you get out there (on stage), whether it’s 20 people or 500,” Young said.

Anthrax, Testament, Death Angel, Factory Damage, Stonecutters, Overload and Maltese Cross will perform at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 29 at Expo Five in Louisville. Tickets are $25. Factory Damage is selling tickets to the show; for tickets, e-mail factorydamage@hotmail.com or visit www.ticketweb.com.

That seemed like the end … but the guys in Factory Damage didn’t want to go out with a whimper. So, with the support of Louisville promoter Terry Harper, Factory Damage will play its last show Sunday, Jan. 29, opening for Anthrax, Testament and Death Angel.

The show is at 7:30 p.m. (Louisville time) at Expo Five. Tix range between $25 and $150 and can be found on Ticketweb … but the band members will also be selling tickets to the show.

More details, including an interview with the Factory Damage boys, coming soon. Anyway, this will be a show you won’t want to miss.

I’ve been itching with anticipation since I learned France’s Alcest, those kings of ambient, atmosphere, fog and forest-dew drenched quasi-black metallers are releasing were releasing a new album this month.

Well, Prophecy Records has posted all eight tracks of the band’s new album, “Les Voyages De L’ame,” (which translates as “The Voyages of the Soul”) on YouTube. Since YouTube has sharable videos (unless you’re a Warner Bros. artist that is …), you can hear the entire new album below.

Not sure on the U.S. release date. Prophecy’s Web site say Jan. 6, but Amazon.com won’t have the album available until later this month. I’m just gonna order the thing from the record store; in this neck of Red State America, you can only get them Frenchie records if you order them special … if you don’t mind the clerk eyeing you like you’re one o’ them so-cia-lists.

Enjoy.

Here’s a great Type O performance to remember Peter by …

Anthrax, “Worship Music” – This was easily the best album, and biggest surprise, of 2011. After recording a full album with vocalist Dan Nelson, Scott, Charlie and the other members of Anthrax gave Nelson the boot and wooed former vocalist Joey Belladonna back into the fold (after vocalist John Bush, who sang with the ’Thrax in the 1990s and early 2000s, refused to rejoin).

So, a band re-recording an album with a vocalist that quit/was tossed from the roster 20 years ago? Really? “Worship Music” had disaster written all over it … so it’s hard to overemphasize my surprise when I discovered the Belladonna “Worship Music” wasn’t just good; it was the best album of the year.

Put aside for a moment the whole, “who is better, Belladonna or Bush?” debate and the “why didn’t the band release the Nelson version of ‘Worship Music’ screed, and what you’ll find is that Anthrax is the freshest and most vital member of metal’s “big four.” There’s not a single filler song on “Worship Music;” every song a powerhouse, from the opening barrage of “Earth on Hell” to the remixed hidden version of “Revolution Screams.” This is a band that is still writing great songs.

As for Belladonna, the songs sound like they were written specifically for him. There’s not a hint of “last-minute replacement vocalist here;” Belladonna sounds better now than he did in the 1980s and he absolutely slays here. Instead of being washed up, Anthrax is at the pinnacle of its career. Jeeze, who would’ve believed it one year ago?

Arch/Matheos, “Sympathetic Resonance” – This was a reunion, of sorts, of the early ’80s-era Fates Warning, with Fates guitarist Jim Matheos coming together again with vocalist John Arch and guitarist Frank Aresti. After Fates Warning released its 1986 progressive metal classic, “Awaken The Guardian,” Arch was booted from the band because the others feared Arch’s heart wasn’t in the intense tour-record-tour rock lifestyle.

After 25 years (interrupted by a two-song EP Arch and Matheos cut around 2003), I was curious to see if the old “Guardian” era magic could be resurrected. In short, it could; Arch still has a glass-shattering soprano and Matheos and Aresti shred their fingers off. The songs are long and complex, with multiple movements on “Any Given Day (Strangers Like Me),” “Stained Glass Sky” and “Neurotically Wired.” There are beautiful moments, as well as some stellar playing by all involved (including current Fates Warning members Joey Vera and Bobby Jarzombek). This is a fantastic album that deserves to reach a much larger audience.

Blut Aus Nord, “777 Sect(s)” and “777 The Desanctification”

Ugh what disappointments. In 2009, France’s Blut Aus Nord released “Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars,” the best freakin’ black metal album since, well, since Enslaved’s masterpiece “Isa.” “Memoria Vetusta II” was a series of incredibly beautiful yet cosmically frozen compositions that stretched the boundaries of black metal while retaining the genre’s isolation and cold. It’s still one of my favorite discs.

So, bluntly, what the hell happened to Blut Aus Nord since then? On “Sect(s)” and “The Desanctification” we’re assaulted with endlessly looped riffs instead of compositions. There are no “songs” on either album and even the best moments get run into the ground by the repetition. The albums are indistinguishable from one another because, really, one jumble of minor-chord fretboard runs sounds much like another.

Actually, nothing happened to BAN; the band is known for its constantly shifting musical moods and the heavy industrial riffs of the “777s” have been heard on previous BAN albums. So the fault is not the band’s — it’s mine. I like my songs to have melody and the tracks on ”Sect(s)” and “Descantification” not only lack melody, they don’t hold together as “songs” at all. I gather that Blut Aus Nord has something big to say (why else do a three-album cycle) … but it’s hard to discover the meaning when the medium is so jarring it keeps throwing me out.

There’s a third “777″ album in the works for 2012. The new one may, again, be completely different from what came before on “Sect(s)” and “Desanctification.” I still am intrigued enough in the band to want to hear the new disc when the time comes … but I’m not holding out much hope that I’m going to find anything there I’ll appreciate.

Inquisition, “Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm” –This was my black metal album of the year. Croaking vocalist/guitarist Dagon and drummer Incubus hammer out the intricate, Immortal-inspired anthems to Satan with nasty (yet polished) power.

The band grabs the listener by the throat from the opening barrage of “Astral Path of Supreme Majesties,” but Inquisition isn’t afraid to slow to a zombie lurch on “Desolate Funeral Chant.” Every track is great, but “Cosmic Invocation Rites” is my favorite black metal track of the year.

This album was a jaw-dropper and is still on regular rotation on my stereo. Highly recommended.

Infestus, “ExIst” – Infestus and Inquisition share a connection, in that Inquisition’s Dagon was once in Infestus with Andras. After Dagon split, Infestus became a one-man operation, with Andras singing and performing all of the music.

Musically, this is totally different from Inquisition. Where “Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm” is grounded in the Norwegian black metal sound of Immortal, “ExIst” is darker in mood and filled with acoustic melodies. It’s clear “ExIst” is a much more personal album: Dagon’s Inquisition is just giving a big “hell yea!” to Satan; but Andras’ “ExIst” was a heartfelt effort … even if the emotion Andras felt was hate.

Musically, “ExIst” is horribly depressing, yet quite lovely at moments. While not nearly as interesting (to my ears) as “Ominous Doctrines …,” I do find myself coming back again and again to “ExIst.” This is worth a listen.

Metallica and Lou Reed, “Lulu” – We’ll come back to this one later, OK?

Opeth, “Heritage” – Battle lines were drawn over this release. After Opeth frontman/songwriter Mikael Akerfeldt let it be known that he wouldn’t be doing any death metal growls for “Heritage,” old-school fans began muttering, “sell-out.” The release of the album only increased the controversy, as people who liked Opeth’s heavier music accused Akerfeldt of going completely over to progressive rock while the die-hard supporters took a “if you don’t love ‘Heritage,’ you’re not a true fan” uncompromising stance.

For the record, I agree that Akerfeldt isn’t chained to the rock of death metal  – or “metal” at all, for that matter — and that he can do whatever he likes. But I think the idea that people who liked Opeth in the past have to just loooove everything Akerfeldt does unquestioningly is pretty stupid. That’s the logic of the fundamentalist.

Also, I think there are a lot of reasons fans of the band’s older material will be turned off by “Heritage.”

The album has some great moments and some beautiful ones. In terms of musical trajectory, it’s not even that much of a departure from the past; Akerfeldt has been sprinkling acoustic songs onto his albums for ages . One of the band’s best albums, “Damnation,” is sung entirely in clean vocals and is a mostly mellow affair (I’d add “Damnation” is also the best album for intimate encounters, so if you’re looking for an album to put your honey in the mood to score, pick up “Damnation”).

Meanwhile, parts of “Heritage” irritate quite a bit. “Nepenthe,” in particular, sounds like a song Akerfeldt wrote for “Damnation” but rightfully rejected because it was too long, too frilly and too damn weak to make the cut. “Haxprocess” is pretty, but sounds more like the ambient rock-blues soundtrack to a melancholy Swedish horror film about a haunted house than a rock song. It’s always a temptation to skip to the next track by the halfway point.

 The question I haven’t answered is this – it “Heritage” good? Yes. It’s certainly an accomplished piece of work. But what the album lacks is momentum — it speeds up and sputters down, it approaches the borders of rock and even metal and then retreats 

Do I enjoy the album as much as “Blackwater Park,” “My Arms, Your Hearse” or “Watershed”? No. “Heritage” is a good album; it’s just not especially heavy — and yes, it’s perfectly acceptable to be disappointed. I feel a bit let down and I don’t see “Heritage” becoming one of my essential albums any time soon.

Wolves in the Throne Room, “Celestial Lineage” – I get tired of the whole “hipster black metal” debate. It’s really annoying to read articles or comments on the Web from people who think they’re so “trve” because they only listen to black metal bands who name-check Satan ever 30 seconds. It’s also boring to hear over and over that black metal bands that don’t give clockwork-regular hosannas to Hell’s Unholiness are somehow making black metal safe for a wider audience — as if there’s a group of college kids out there who would turn off that college alternative rock and embrace Emperor if the band wasn’t just so darn scary.

For the record, I do think Washington State’s Wolves in the Throne Room is a black metal band; if one of the defining characteristics of the Norwegian black metal scene was veneration of nature, then WITTR uphold the tradition by writing music totally inspired by the mountains and wilderness of the Pacific Northwest. But, apparently you can only be considered “black metal” if you at least pay lip-service to evil; any bands who deviate are subject to arrest by the Black Metal Police.

But enough of that: WITTR ended their three-album cycle with “Celestial Lineage,” an album that builds on the ambiance of “Two Hunters” while certainly drawing on the psychedelic aura of “Black Cascade.” With that in mind, you might expect “Celestial Lineage” to be the best album of the cycle. But, well, no.

Despite some wonderful moments (“Thuga Magus Imperium” and “Astral Blood” are particularly powerful), the album drags in places — most particularly on “Woodland Cathedral,” a too-long religious-sounding chant featuring sung female vocals rather than scratchy screams. Again, as with Opeth, the issue here is one of momentum — WITTR build up considerable momentum, only to bring the album to a halt on “Woodland Cathedral.”

“Celestial Lineage” is a very good album. I just happen to like “Two Hunters” better. Sue me.

Worst (and Weirdest) Album of the year

 There’s only one real contender in this category, isn’t there?

Metallica and Lou Reed, “Lulu” – Metallica seemingly had it all — a dozen gold and platinum-selling albums, millions of adoring fans and even a fair bit of critical acclaim.

But it wasn’t enough; what Metallica (and I’m guessing particularly drummer Lars Ulrich) wanted was respectability; it wasn’t enough anymore to be loved by the long-haired masses and Clear Channel rock radio audience — no, that was a given, and we never appreciate the things we already have. The band’s new goal was to appreciated as artists, so they could go to high-brow parties and hob-nob with Robert Maplethorpe and the jazz critic from The New Yorker without subconsciously worrying that people were smirking the minute they turned their backs. Never again would Francis Ford Coppola walk out on one of their “S&M” concerts. Yes, respect was what they needed, truly needed – but how could they get it?

Enter, Lou Reed. Exit, old fan-base.

The apocalyptic pairing of Hetfield, Ulrich, Hammett, Trujillo and Reed is surely one of the signs that the End Times are close at hand. Dreadful from the first word croaked out of Reed’s mouth, “Lulu” goes to the heights of stupidity and the depths of terrible songwriting to give us an album that would be hysterically funny, if only it were a joke.

Flowery words aside, my guess is people could only gasp, “what the #@!!” when Reed groaned out, “I could cut my legs and tits off when I think of Boris Karloff and Kinsky in the dark” in the opening 30 seconds of “Brandburg Gate.” And then, incredibly, it continually gets worse. If this is “art,” Metallica and Reed can keep it.

What I’m looking forward to in 2012:

New Alcest – The new album drops later this month. “Escailles de lune” was the best album of 2010; I hope this band of French black metallers don’t drop a turd the way fellow Frenchies Blut Aus Nord did with “777.”

New Lamb of God – Perhaps Lamb of God isn’t America’s best metal band, but they’re certainly one of the most consistent. You always know what you’re getting with a new LOG disc and you know it will always scratch your itch for angry; further, you can expect three or four really strong songs on each album. I’m not the world’s biggest fan, but I respect what LOG do … and I know they’re not gonna drop a “Lulu” on me. So yeah, I’m looking forward to the new one, which also comes out in January.

New music from Ahab – These German doomsters are going into the recording studio in January, so that likely means a new album by the end of the year. I hope so; “The Call of the Wretched Sea” and “The Divinity of Oceans” are my two favorite doom albums — they’re both blisteringly heavy and yet ethereal and beautiful. These guys deserve to be heard by as many metal fans as possible.

New solo music by Bruce Dickinson – I don’t really know if Bruce and Roy Z are working on a new album, but man, I hope so; Bruce’s solo work is darker and, dare I say it, heavier than what he does with Iron Maiden. It’s been six years since “Tyranny of Souls,” so maybe it’s time for Bruce to break the silence.

New Helmet – Did I hallucinate again, or did I read Helmet was working on a new album? Helmet is way under-rated. Go, new Helmet.

Arch/Matheos tour – It would be like a classic Fates Warning tour! The band should do two sets — first, all of “Sympathetic Resonance” and then all of “Awaken The Guardian” in the second set, with “Without A Trace” thrown in as the encore. A band that released one of the best albums of 2011 ought to tour … but perhaps Arch is happy to just remain in the studio. Anyway, my fingers are crossed.

That’s all for 2011. Stick a fork in that baby and bring on 2012.

Blut Aus Nord

Did you ever get really enthusiastic about an album, only to discover later after repeat listens that it’s actually junk?

If not, ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you about my change of heart regarding Blut Aus Nord’s current cycle of albums, “777.”

I thought, and still think, Blut Aus Nord’s 2009 album, “Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars” was one of that year’s best albums. “MVII” was filled with lengthy compositions that were cold and harrowing, but filled with moments of acoustic and ambient beauty. The mood was somber and thoughtful while still retaining the freezing edge of black metal. To this day, I listen to “Memoria Vetusta II” at least on a weekly basis.

So when it was announced that BAN would be releasing a trilogy of albums beginning in 2011, I was very excited. Sure, I knew the band was eclectic — I had heard portions of “The Work Which Transforms God,” “Mort,” “Ultima Thulee” and the original “Memoria Vetusta” to know the band’s sound varies widely from album to album. I felt reasonably prepared.

But when my copy of “777 sect(s)” arrived (special order) from the record store, I was more than a little confused; instead of compositions, the album was, essentially, entirely made up of repetitive riffs and progressions. I tried to convince myself the album was worthwhile initially — on these pages, dear readers, I wrote a review where I largely praise its innovation and daring … but, apparently, my heart and my ears weren’t really behind what I was writing.

Remember how I mentioned I spin “Memoria Vetusta II” just about every week? Well, in contrast, I haven’t listened to “777 sect(s)” all the way through in ages. Once in a while I’ll think, “maybe I should give that album another chance” and I’ll slap it into the player … only to take it back out a short time later, to replace it with something I actually want to hear.

I had dim hopes the second disc in the trilogy, “777 The Desanctification” would be better — but after hearing the disc all the way though, I can report this album is just as dull and repetitive as “sect(s).”

There are good riffs in both albums … but then those riffs just keep on repeating over and over for 4 to 7 minutes. It becomes boring, and no amount of space noise or backwards vocals or can begin to give it interest or life. Frankly, the songs are also pretty much indistinguishable; you could easily mix up the tracks from both albums in random order and not notice; if repetition was the goal, give Blut Aus Nord an award because, hey, mission accomplished.

It’s possible I’m not entirely “Trve” enough to dig what Blut Aus Nord is trying to do here — which, apparently, is make some kind of statement about man’s place in a universe without religion, or order, or something ( in that regard, it’s as if the band made a soundtrack for the works of H.P. Lovecraft — yes, I really did reference Lovecraft, major nerd alert!). But if you’re going to make a Big Statement, the minimum requirement is that it has to be good enough for people to want to hear it — but as for me, I’ve heard enough.

I’m not Poison frontman Bret Michaels’ biggest fan — which is a polite way of saying I think almost every Poison song I’ve ever heard is trite, badly performed crap and that Bret is, at best, a poor man’s Jon Bon Jovi (minus Bon Jovi’s ability to, ya know, actually carry a tune).

After subjecting the world to “Unskinny Bop,” ”Rock of Love” and his dreadful attempts at country music, I didn’t think Michaels could do any worse, either to music or to culture in general — but then Michaels went and rebooted his “classic” song “Every Rose Has its Thorn” as a farewell to talk show host Regis Philbin and I nearly hemorrhaged blood out of my ears.

Can I be honest with you, my two faithful readers? If there’s a band out there that produced a song as gut-wretchingly awful as Michaels’ “Every Rose” rehash this year, I haven’t heard it — and I hope I don’t, because I can’t imagine anything as musically painful as this latest Bret Michaels fart.

What happened here? Did Michaels hear the Metallica-Lou Reed collaboration/abomination “Lulu” and declare, “hey, I can write a song 10 times worse than that!” Or is he just such a star-humping celebrity wannabe that he figured writing a little ditty for Philbin — that Michaels sang on Philbin’s annoying show, “Live with Regis and Kelly” — was just the ticket for getting his name back in the news for another 10 seconds?

Or maybe Michaels just thought, “cash in,” cuz the dude wants you to actually purchase this sniveling dreck from itunes.

Yes, for only $1.29, you too can own Michaels’ moving tribute to  a guy who … uh … was a talk show host, or whatever. That way, you can put the song on your iPod, play it over and over and get all teary-eyed remembering the times Philbin interviewed Mary Lou Retton or Michael Bolton or whoever the hell Philbin interviewed on his freakin’ boring daily blabbfest.

At the same time, you can also make Michaels richer, which I’m sure he’d love. I can’t blame him for trying: I mean hey, millions of people have purchased copies of his other wretched songs and albums, so why wouldn’t he try to sell you another stinker? “A fool and his money …” and all that, right? Right.

There should be a “worst song” award we can send Bret. Ugh. Here, listen to the damn thing for yourself. I’m gonna go purge my ears with some Bathory now.

Twisted Sister’s biggest commercial success was, in retrospect, the cause of their downfall.

Now, some people would argue Twisted Sister didn’t suffer a “downfall;” after all, the band (after a long hiatus) is back on the road touring and still drawing crowds. The ability to bring in paying audiences 30 years later, most would say, is a definite sign of musical success.

But most of the band’s success is largely based on “Stay Hungry,” an album that dramatically altered the band’s musical trajectory after several of its songs became radio and MTV hits. It was the kind of ephemeral success the band would try, and not succeed, to recapture on their followup album, “Come Out And Play.” After “Come Out and Play” failed to maintain the momentum of “Stay Hungry,” the band’s demise was only a matter of time.

Although they’re generally lumped in with the hair metal groups of the 1980s, Twisted Sister was a much older band than most of the hair set; from what I’ve read, Twisted Sister was formed by Jay Jay French in the early 1970s.

Twisted Sister was initially way heavier than the Aquanet hair bands that ruled the ’80s airwaves. While Poison, Winger, Trixter and thousands of other hair bands were formed solely with the goal of writing “power ballads” and cashing in on the pop metal craze,  Twister Sister were heavily influenced by take-no-prisoners bands like Motorhead, Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden.

Don’t believe me? Listen to this early Twisted track, “Tear It Loose;” if your only experience with Twisted Sister is ”We’re Not Gonna Take it,” you’re gonna be surprised.

“Under The Blade,” the band’s first full-length album, was a hard-hitting disc of heavy metal — and, in the case of “Tear It Loose,” borderline thrash. “Destroyer,” from the same album, was heavier than anything on Ozzy Osbourne’s “Blizzard of Ozz” or “Diary of a Madman,” albums — and could hold its own with the hardest moments of Black Sabbath’s “Heaven and Hell” or Iron Maiden’s “Piece of Mind.” While not in the same class as Maiden, Ozzy or Dio-era Sabbath, songs like “Under The Blade,” “What You Don’t Know (Sure Can Hurt You)” and “Sin After Sin” showed Twisted Sister had far more chops than Motley Crue or Def Leppard ever dreamed of possessing.

“You Can’t Stop Rock ‘n’ Roll,” which was released in 1983, was anthemic and catchy without sacrificing heaviness. Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider, who was then the band’s major songwriter, was penning heavy songs that also managed to have singalong hooks. Standout tracks include the title track as well as “Ride to Live, Live to Ride,” “Like a Knife in the Back,” “The Kids Are Back,” and “We’re Gonna Make It.”  While every song isn’t perfect (“I’ve Had Enough” is probably the weakest track), the album is a metal classic.

After “You Can’t Stop Rock ‘n’ Roll,” I get the feeling Twisted Sister could have gone in an even heavier direction. But Snider had a knack for writing catchy tunes and someone at the record label, Atlantic, saw an opportunity to make Twisted Sister the biggest band in America.

So, instead of following up-and-coming thrash bands like Metallica into increased heaviness, Snider and the band chose to play up their way with melody. The end result, “Stay Hungry” was a gigantic hit.

MTV was catching on by the time the band released “Stay Hungry” in 1984 — and with the wild “transvestites from hell” look sported by Twisted Sister, doing a series of videos for “Stay Hungry” was a no-brainer. The videos for “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and “I Wanna Rock” were huge MTV hits (the band also cut a video for “The Price,” but it was pretty standard compared to the “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and “I Wanna Rock.”

The vids for “I Wanna Rock” and “We’re Not Gonna Take It” catapulted the members of Twisted Sister into the public eye in a way that few other hard rock and metal bands had enjoyed at that time, except for Kiss. The videos — which were actually quite funny — showed the band tossing, stomping and generally beating the crap out of a mean-spirited but utterly hapless high school teacher/parent. The videos were “Saturday morning cartoon” violent and the songs were radio-friendly and catchy enough to appeal to a young (really, grade school) audience. Those videos made Twisted Sister MTV heroes.

Musically, pretty much the rest of “Stay Hungry” was equally welcoming to non-metal listeners. “The Price,” “Don’t Let Me Down,” “The Beast” and “Captain Howdy/Street Justice” were light enough to not threaten people who wouldn’t have been caught dead listening to, say, Iron Maiden — and the heaviest songs, “Stay Hungry,” “Burn In Hell” and “SMF” had catchy choruses that at least made them accessible. The album was a huge commercial success.

Perhaps all that MTV exposure and the overt kid-friendliness of the videos turned off the metal crowd, because a backlash certainly hit the band a year later, when “Come Out And Play” was released. In addition to the backlash, the band made several poor choices that undermined their metal credibility. For example, the band’s decision to do a ridiculous cover of the 50s kinda-classic “Leader Of The Pack” was an atrocious mistake that was taken seriously by absolutely no one. 

Trying to capitalize on their MTV smashes from “Stay Hungry,” the band shot a video for the borderline-unlistenable “Be Chrool To Your Scuel,” but MTV balked at the violent imagery of zombies ransacking a high school (complete with a woman sawing through a zombie’s neck in the cafeteria). With MTV refusing to show “Be Chrool,” the band’s previous path to stardom was essentially blocked.

To be fair, “Come Out And Play” had some good moments, but lightning was not going to strike twice for Twisted Sister. Quite the opposite; to metal fans (particularly those who had been put off by the more commercial sound of “Stay Hungry”), the band seemed far too “light” and “safe” compared to other albums that were being released in 1984-85, like Metallica’s “Ride The Lightning.” Meanwhile, the pop audience that had embraced “Stay Hungry” had moved on; “Come Out And Play” wasn’t a commercial bomb, but it sold only a fourth of the copies of “Stay Hungry.”

“Love Is For Suckers” was actually intended as Snider’s solo album — and the disc was recorded by different musicians — but Atlantic threatened to not release it unless it was billed as the new Twisted Sister album. The album went absolutely nowhere commercially and the band broke up within weeks of the album’s release.

Since this is a “what could have been” column, it’s interesting to wonder what would have happened if Twisted Sister had gotten heavier on their followup to “You Can’t Stop Rock ’n’ Roll.” The band switched to a more commercial sound right at the moment when the metal audience was embracing thrash metal. If the band had followed “You Can’t Stop Rock ‘n’ Roll” with an album of hard-driving rock like “Tear It Loose” and “Ride To Live, Live To Ride,” would they have had a longer recording career? I think it’s possible. The one thing we know for sure is, today, the band is essentially a nostalgia act that hasn’t recorded an album of new material in 26 years — unless you count the entertaining, “A Twisted Christmas,” where the band cleverly combines classic Christmas song lyrics with the music of TS tunes like “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and “The Price.”

While Dee Snider would certainly disagree, what I hear when I listen to Twisted Sister is wasted potential. But hey, “You Can’t Stop Rock ‘n’ Roll” is damn near a classic — and one “classic” album is more than most bands have in their careers. It’s just too bad the band’s biggest hit completely derailed their creativity.

McFerran – who is listed at the University of Melbourne Web site as a music therapist, researcher and lecturer with a specialty in music therapy for adolescents and children with disabilities — interviewed 50 teens between the ages of 13 and 18 and conducted a nationwide survey of 1,000 other teens while compiling her study.

According to university press release, “young people at risk of depression are more likely to be listening to music, particularly heavy metal music, in a negative way.” McFerran’s study concluded.

“Examples of this are when someone listens to the same song or album of heavy metal music over and over again and doesn’t listen to anything else,” the press release quotes McFerran as saying. “They do this to isolate themselves or escape from reality.”

“If this behavior continues over a period of time then it might indicate that this young person is suffering from depression or anxiety, and at worst, might suggest suicidal tendencies,” McFerran says in the press release.

McFerran says parents should pay attention to the music their children are listening to and should ask questions if a child’s behavior raises concerns.

“If parents are worried, they should ask their children questions like – how does that music make you feel?” the press release quotes McFerran as saying. “If children say the music reflects or mirrors the way they feel then ask more about what the music is saying.”

The comments on Blabbermouth were, for the most part, predictably histrionic. Without bothering with direct quotes, many of comments were in the vein of “metal’s awesome,” “I listen to metal and I’m not depressed,” and “McFerran sucks.”

But I think McFerran raises an interesting question — why do people listen to certain types of metal, and what does the music do for (or to) them?

The answer, of course, is that there is no one answer. People listen to music for a variety of reasons — and yes, one of those reasons (for some people) is that music reinforces their world view. That’s true of more genres than metal — country star Taylor Swift (and I’m only slightly familiar with her work) seems to have several songs about broken hearts and love gone wrong. Now, do people listen to those songs because they feel empowered by the fact that other people have also suffered broken hearts and have lived to tell the tale – or do they listen to them because they want to wallow in their pain?

Again, the answer depends on the individual. Somewhere, if we could find them, I’d sure we would come across scores of women and girls who play Swift’s broken heart songs repeatedly because they are experiencing the pain of a relationship gone wrong. Some of those women will feel better by identifying with the sentiments in the song, while others will be reminded of their own pain and feel worse.

My point here is that any depressed person is going to find music in any genre  that could potentially feed their feelings of isolation and sadness. I’m a big fan of classical music, but there are some pieces I won’t listen to because they’re just too much of a downer. Jazz, blues and even pop music are also full of sad tunes; It’s not hard to imagine a depressed person obsessively playing Miles Davis’ “Flemenco Sketches” over and over and feeling even bluer than before.

But McFerran singles out metal — or, more specifically, the teens she interviewed who were depressed more often than not indicated a preference for metal music. Well, certainly, metal (generally) is darker music than country or classical or pop, so a person with a dark mindset could be drawn to metal’s dark themes. But that’s not the case for everyone.

Some people, myself included, find metal rather empowering; as McFerran says the University of Melbourne press release, some people use metal as exercise music; I never go for a run without metal on my mp3 player — and when I recently ran a half-marathon, songs like Motorhead’s “Deaf Forever” and S.O.D.’s “United Forces” gave me an energy boost at times when I was feeling tired.

But when I’m not pounding pavement, I still listen to metal — largely because I think it’s fun. Sure, there’s policial, religious and social commentary thrown in by some of the better bands … but mostly metal is just exciting music . I don’t listen to any music that makes me sad, or would make a bad day worse; for example, I think Nine Inch Nails’ “The Downward Spiral” is a fantastic metal album … I just never want to hear it again.

I agree with McFerran that parents should be aware of what kind of music their children listen to — just as parents should know what movies and TV shows their kids watch and who they socialize with on a daily basis. I also think, if a child is listening to sad songs in any genre over and over, that’s cause for an intervention.

I think McFerran’s study is even-handed — and I think McFerran would agree that not every teen metal fan is depressed and not every depressed teen is a metal fan.

Hopefully, parents and adults won’t use McFerran’s study to stereotype metal fans. There are a lot of teen metal fans who are doing just fine.