Tommy "T-Bone" and Frankie Burke have decided upon their choice of careers.

Most parents would applaud children who have settled on a professional goal at such an early age -- T-Bone is 14 and his brother 11 -- until they find out that the life's work they want to pursue is playing loud, aggressive rock 'n' roll and spewing lyrics such as "I'm not like you in any way," "You are my worst enemy" and "I wish you would go away."

But the boys' dad, Tommy -- the family lives in Huntley, Ill. -- is cool about it. In fact, he's encouraging them.

"He's pretty much the reason we got into music," said T-Bone, the drummer for Slitheryn, which plays Wednesday at Freddie Fresh's, Sharon. "It's hard not to play music when your whole family's into it."

The boys' mother supports them in that time-tested tradition of maternal nurturing: She drives them everywhere.

Burke said his sons' aspirations are "way cool."

And why shouldn't he think that way? He played drums in Chicago-area bands for years but quit in 1992, when the boys were small.

"The coolest thing we ever did was open for Cheap Trick," he said.

The boys picked up an ear for music early on -- "A record store's our church, pretty much," T-Bone said -- so they naturally gravitated to their father's equipment. When T-Bone started fooling around with it, Burke bought him his own bass.

"It was cool because every little kid wants to play guitar or something," said T-Bone, who appreciates heavy rock for its anger release and fun.

T-Bone and his cousin, 14-year-old Anthony "Ant" Burke, a guitarist, would play Korn covers in Ant's basement.

"One day, my brother came downstairs and started screaming to one of the covers," T-Bone said of Frankie, who is addicted to Mountain Dew. "We thought, 'He screams pretty well.' "

With Frankie's preteen tenor injecting a dose of venom, Slitheryn slithered out of Ant's basement with T-Bone switched to drums, Ryan Beitz, 14, on bass, and Mike Lang, 14, on guitar.

The 10-month-old band played its first gig at a skate park. Although mostly only family and friends showed up, the concert earned the band some notoriety because of the musicians' ages, which led to other gigs.

Locals are not the only ones who took note of the boys' ages. Burke said he's fielded calls from industry giants such as DreamWorks, Interscope and Columbia.

"They want to market the kids," he said. "They see dollar signs."

While teens Hanson, Britney Spears and Leann Rimes have scored million-selling albums in the pop, rock and country realms, heavy rock hasn't turned out any teen terrors.

So far, the industry calls have not led to any deals for Slitheryn.

"I feel they're just waiting for the kids to develop a little more," Burke said.

Burke, with some help from industry insiders with ties to the Deftones, is managing the band, in between the duties of his day job building skate parks.

The band has recorded songs for a promotional compact disc and a CD-ROM video of a live performance.

Inspired by the Deftones, Mudvayne and Filter, Slitheryn bills itself as "the youngest, hottest, new metal band in the world," and has managed to score a couple of high profile gigs, including opening for Union Underground at the Nemo Music Showcase Conference in Boston, and a concert at the Metro in Chicago.

"That was sweet," T-Bone said of scoring a gig in the Windy City.

Burke said the boys put on an energetic show and are serious about improving as musicians, but haven't let early success go to their heads.

"The coolest thing is the kids at school don't know they're in a band," he said, although T-Bone has a little different take on that fact.

"Pretty much, where we go to school are all farmers," he said. "They listen to Garth Brooks and stuff."

T-Bone said the musicians are committed either to playing or finding other careers in music.

"I'm pretty sure we'll all stick with it because we live for music," he said.

Burke thinks the boys have qualities that will help them reach their goals.

"They don't brag," he said. "They don't have egos. If they stay that way, it will be a lot cooler, because there will be nothing in their way."