A Twisted Christmas is the sixth and final studio album by American heavy metal group Twisted Sister, with the band releasing it in October 2006. The album features classic Christmas songs performed in metal versions, often featuring lyrical changes. Holiday carol “O Come All Ye Faithful”, which heavily inspired the band’s popular song “We’re Not Gonna Take It”, is recorded in a style exactly like the Twisted Sister hit. The group’s take on the carol has become one of their most well-known songs since their 1980s heyday, with Twisted Sister creating a comedic music video involving the band members crashing a holiday celebration in a bickering couple’s home.
Although not properly a concept album, it begins with a version of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” done in the style of traditional pop music that’s interrupted by a bit of banter by the group’s members. Things then segue into the band’s standard heavy metal style, though incorporating festive elements such as the tolling sounds of bells. Track “Heavy Metal Christmas”, including a section known as “We Wish You a Twisted Christmas”, closes out the album in a burst of clapping and cheers.
Parts of the guitar riff to “White Christmas” seem to be based on “I Wanna Rock”, another Twisted Sister song. Parts of the guitar riff on “Silver Bells” is based on “Problem Child” by AC/DC. Some of the guitar riffs on “Let It Snow” are based on Black Sabbath’s “Children of the Grave”. Some of the guitar riffs from “Deck the Halls” are based on “The Boys Are Back In Town” by Thin Lizzy. Also, the guitar riffs on the song “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” are based on “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin'” by Judas Priest.
Metal star Ozzy Osbourne’s influence on the group and its music is name-checked in closing number “Heavy Metal Christmas (The Twelve Days of Christmas)”: with the promised gifts being “twelve silver crosses, eleven black mascaras, ten pairs of platforms, nine tattered t-shirts, eight pentagrams, seven leather jackets, six cans of hairspray, five skull-head rings, four quarts of Jack, three studded belts, two pairs of spandex pants, and a tattoo of Ozzy”.
Music critic James C. Monger praised the release for the publication AllMusic. Monger remarked that the band’s members “filter the beloved Christmas carol” tradition “through the same makeup-smeared sieve” that brought them earlier success. Arguing that Christmas albums “need to either be pretty good, horrifically terrible, or completely original to cause even the jolliest head to turn”, he wrote that Twisted Christmas “manages to achieve all three” and constitutes a “collection of yuletide classics”.
