Get ready for headbanging weekend

We know one thing about this weekend: It’s going to be loud.

With a blitz of hard rockers storming the area—you can head north, east, west or to Shockoe Bottom to catch them—it seemed a no- brainer to observe this unusually timed assemblage of guitar shredding and eyeliner.

If you do the math—and what metal fan doesn’t love math?—these four bands have a collective 126 years of existence among them.

That’s a long time to be squeezing into spandex and schoolboy outfits and a lot of years spent repairing bleeding fingers and the occasional patch of hair from an errant burst of pyro.

So, for those who continue to rock, we salute you.

‘80s metal act Stryper keeps the faith—and the yellow-and-black outfits

While Mptley Crue and Twisted Sister were giving Tipper Gore fits because of their so-called “devil music,“ Stryper was scoring points with the angels.

Long regarded as pioneers of Christian metal, the band achieved the kind of success in the mid-‘80s that planted it on MTV alongside Def Leppard and Van Halen.

Their power ballad “Honestly”—still a wedding staple—was as melodically flush as any of their peers’ work. And with their yellow-and-black-striped spandex outfits and teased-to- the-heavens hair, Stryper found themselves as role models for a faction of fans who didn’t want to compromise their faith for the sake of a few nifty guitar runs.

Flash-forward 25 years and the band—singer Michael Sweet, his drummer brother Robert, bassist Tim Gaines and guitarist Oz Fox—is still attracting fans and pounding out favorites “Free” and “Calling On You,“ while tossing in a few new songs from its current album, “Murder by Pride.“

Though Stryper hasn’t achieved the retro touring success of Poison or remained on the charts as steadily as Bon Jovi and Def Leppard, it is content doing the club rounds and making the occasional pop-culture splash.

In the Drew Barrymore-directed “Whip It,“ her paean to the roller derby, the main character played by Ellen Page sports a faded Stryper T- shirt that becomes a pivotal plot point in the film.

Michael Sweet, calling last week from a tour stop in Indianapolis, said Barrymore contacted the band’s management to get permission to use their image.

“I guess Drew is a fan of the band and, growing up, liked us at some point,“ he said.

Stryper’s 25th-anniversary tour, which runs through the end of November in the U.S. and then hits Europe in January, requires a demanding lifestyle change for Sweet and the guys.

“I love writing and recording, but the travel side of it gets really rough. We’re in a bus with 12 people,“ he said. “The turnouts at the shows have been great, all things considered with the economy. But as much as I love [performing], in my old age, I don’t like living out of a suitcase and being away from home.“

Home for the past 14 years has been Cape Cod, where he lives with his 18-year-old daughter, Ellena, and 22-year-old son, Michael, (whose band, Flight Patterns, is opening for Stryper).

Sweet’s personal life underwent a significant adjustment when his wife of 22 years, Kyle, died in March after a two-year battle with cancer.

“It was a rough two years,“ he acknowledged, “but I started grieving when she was diagnosed. ... I know where she is. I know she’s OK. It helped me to have the attitude of, ‘I have to move on here. I have to keep moving.‘“

On Monday, Sweet, 46, announced on the band’s Web site that he is engaged.

“She is an angel and a godsend and I look forward to a lifetime together,“ he wrote of his fiancée, Lisa, whom he announced that he was dating this summer in an open letter to fans.

In addition to his duties as the frontman for Stryper, Sweet has handled co-singing duties for Boston since 2008.

After the untimely death of that band’s distinctive singer, Brad Delp, Boston needed a touring replacement, and Sweet’s high-range vocal ability made him an ideal fit (Tommy DeCarlo, a fan whom Boston discovered singing on MySpace, shares live vocals with Sweet).

“It’s surreal the way it worked out. I keep pinching myself, saying, ‘Is this real?‘“

Sweet said he is still in the band and hopes to participate in a new Boston album and 2011 tour.

But for the moment, Stryper—along with those trademark yellow and black outfits—is his priority.

So how did it feel putting on the rock-star outfits again?

“Oh, it’s OK because they’re modernized,“ Sweet said with a laugh. “The guy who did our original outfits made them for us, but these are not the outfits of old. That would be really, really uncomfortable.“

    KISS When: 7:30 p.m. tomorrow at Hampton Coliseum. Buckcherry opens. Tickets: $25-$127.50 Info: http://www.ticketmaster.com or (800) 745-3000 The latest: Taking a cue from AC/DC, KISS last week released “Sonic Boom,“ its first studio album in 11 years, which is being sold exclusively at Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club. Ever the cunning marketers, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, the CEOs of this operation, have packaged the project as a three-disc collection containing the new release, a disc of re-recorded hits and a six-song live DVD recorded this spring in Argentina. The best part? The package is selling for a mere $12. Hey, it’s cheaper than a KISS Kasket ($4,500, in case you were wondering). Joining Simmons and Stanley on stage this go-around (wasn’t their Richmond Coliseum show in 2000 part of a “farewell” tour?) are Eric Singer on drums and Tommy Thayer on guitar instead of Peter Criss and Ace Frehley. Sound bite: Three weeks ago, KISS was finally included on the ballot of potential inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class of 2010—10 years after it reached the eligibility milestone.

AC/DC When: 8 p.m. tomorrow at Verizon Center (D.C.) Tickets: $92.50 Info: http://www.ticketmaster.com or (800) 745-3000 The latest: Almost exactly a year ago, AC/DC’s first studio album in eight years, “Black Ice,“ arrived exclusively at Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club—a gamble that paid off with the ultimate jackpot: a debut at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart, 785,000 copies sold its first week, and now, sales hovering in the 2.5 million range in the U.S. alone. The band’s notoriously electrifying live shows meant that its worldwide tour would result in major ticket sales. Indeed, according to concert trade magazine Pollstar, AC/DC’s tour grossed $150.6 million in the first half of 2009 and played to a total of more than 1.7 million people in 61 shows in Europe and the U.S. The band played a sold-out show at the Verizon Center in November, but, given the aforementioned numbers, can you blame it for returning? Sound bite: This is the band’s first date back after postponing the first six dates of this new fall leg while singer Brian Johnson recuperated from a medical procedure involving ulcers. The band releases “Backtracks,“ a three-CD/two-DVD box set of rare studio and live tracks, on Nov. 10.

    Metallica When: 7 p.m. Saturday at John Paul Jones Arena (Charlottesville). Lamb of God opens. Tickets: $51.50-$71.50 Info: http://www.johnpauljonesarena.com or (888) 575-8497 The latest: Newly minted members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, touted as the fourth-highest-selling artist in SoundScan history with more than 50 million records sold in the U.S. since 1991, boast their own “Guitar Hero” installment and winners of a Best Metal Performance Grammy in February. Think it has been a good year for Metallica? The hard rockers, whose double-bass drum assault from Lars Ulrich and twin guitar sizzles from James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett have rarely come up for air since the early’80s, have been anchored by bassist Rob Trujillo since 2003. His arrival seems to have steadied the band, which released its most robust album in years with last fall’s “Death Magnetic.“ Sound bite: Richmond’s metal whiz, Lamb of God, is opening the show. Metallica specifically tapped the band to open the 25 dates on this run.