Steel Panther, heavy metal parody group playing in Allentown, is no joke

An interview with a member of comedy glam metal band Steel Panther can, like the band's stage show, be uproariously funny. The band's members interview in their characters of profane and politically incorrect stereotypical 1980s hair-metal musicians.

But while you chortle at drummer Stix Zadinia saying he's just come from the gym, where he was "checking out the cougars," listen to what he says about the band's tour with metal gods Judas Priest. (The bands play Wednesday at Allentown's PPL Center.)

There's plenty of truth and wisdom in the answers, too.

Take the explanation of the band's recently released third album, "All You Can Eat," given by Zadinia (he doesn't reveal it, but his real name is Darren Leader.)

"When we went in for 'All You Can Eat,' we wanted to make a complete record that covers all the bases, musically, that we liked," the drummer says. "We didn't want to do 12 tracks that sounded exactly like each other. And we didn't want to do songs that sounded like ones we recorded on previous albums. And we wanted to paint a whole musical picture.

"And I think we were able to totally go in and do that. And the end product, I think, is a ... kicking album."

Someone apparently agrees. Released April 1 (get it?), the disc hit No. 24 on the Billboard albums chart, Steel Panther's highest position ever. And it became the group's third-straight disc to top the Comedy chart, starting with 2009's "Feel the Steel" and 2010's "Balls Out."

The new album's songs are filled with over-the-top juvenile sex, drug and rock 'n' roll humor, with titles such as "Party Like Tomorrow Is the End of the World," "You're Beautiful When You Don't Talk" and several titles unprintable in a family newspaper.

But the disc is, indeed, a collection of styles, and Zadinia says the group is able to do that because of its comic persona.

"I feel like we are allowed to do whatever the ... we want to do," Zadinia says. "You take an artist like, I don't know Maroon 5, right? They're expected to put out pop songs. They're expected to sing about relationships. Or they can sing about dance songs like 'Moves like Jagger.'

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Steel Panther, heavy metal parody group playing in Allentown, is no joke