Album Review: Twisted Sister - Come Out And Play

Twisted Sister - Come Out And Play

Atlantic Records - 1985

5.5/10

Following three consecutive banger records that had varying levels of success and heaviness, there was really no doubting that Twisted Sister had an ear for melodic hooks appealing to radio crowds and metalheads alike. It would take the hits of Stay Hungry to break Dee Snider and co. into the largest realm of the mainstream. That very success would influence the next album heavily, taking the poppier elements and stretching them across an entire record. The end product is Come Out And Play, one that receives mixed feedback for what I think are obvious reasons.

Never will it be an issue to swing towards something more melody oriented, or just a general step back in heaviness. That said, reaching too far for the sake of that identity can sometimes overcompensate and leave out an otherwise sturdier bottom. The overall theme here seems to be a bit of a response to the 1960s easy going feeling combined with 1980s heavy metal riffing. Between the Shangri-Las cover of “Leader Of The Pack,” and the obvious nod towards The Beach Boys in “Be Chrool To Your Scuel,” it’s pretty hard to overlook such a template that’s almost too obvious for its own good. Admittedly, I love the cover, but if it’s my favorite song on an album, there may be an issue.

The rest of Come Out And Play feels like an uncertain path towards that pop/metal bridge. The title track is almost misleading, opening on the fastest and heaviest note on the disc, only to give way to repetitive leads that make up the majority of this disc after the first two tracks. The outcome is a handful of songs that are fun enough on the surface but struggle to go anywhere. “You Want What We Got” has the anthemic glam metal charm in its chorus, but almost no weight in the music to carry things smoothly. “Kill Or Be Killed” reflects the earlier Twisted Sister vibes, raking in the violent nature but to the inverse, focusing too much on that and not enough on memorable riffing. Even “I Believe In You” drops below the typical ballad that the band would put out, only being memorable because of the repetitiveness in the chorus.

Perhaps I’m a little hard on this record, because it certainly isn’t anything terrible, and there are moments that I enjoy. But it does lack some serious ingredients that made the first few records so great. It’s tough to overlook how non-linear the flow on this feels despite having several clear ideas. If they had landed with a little more cohesion, and maybe if this wasn’t so rushed, this could have been better. After all, they have done an album every year since their debut up to this point.