Artist: A Tragic Setback
Title: “Greensleeves”
Label: 12/22/2014
Release Date:
Genre: Christmas Metal
Rating: 4.5/5
Just the other day I posted a Christmas cover by the band Edge Of Paradise which properly prepared me for the annual holiday experience of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra who I see each and every year around this time. Upon arriving home I was filled with the generous holiday spirit and was pleased as some quality spiked punch to find an email about yet another free Christmas tune being delivered to the Metal masses and this time it comes from the band A Tragic Setback who delivers a throttling rendition of “Greensleeves”. Now historically speaking this song has been around since the 1500’s and I am positive that you have heard its melodies over the years in some form or another. It was associated with Christmas in late 1600 and I must thank Wikipedia for the quick history lesson about that since I only knew that the song was rather old.
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Artist: Steel Panther
Title: “The Stocking Song” (Single)
Label: Universal Music
Release Date: 12/9/2014
Genre: Glam Rock/Satire Metal/Holiday Hard Rock
Rating: 4/5
I’m pretty sure that you know what you get when it comes to those raunchy bad boys of Glam Rock n Roll in Steel Panther at this point and with that being said, the guys have just unleashed a charming little Christmas ditty for the whole family to enjoy. Well, the family that is 18 years of age and above preferably since just like their material on albums such as “All You Can Eat” and “Balls Out”, “The Stocking Song” is loaded with double entendre and pseudo sexual innuendo. Done acoustically in terms of guitar with accompaniment on bongo, the tune is enhanced by some kazoo and jingle bells which bring the holiday spirit to a larger than big hair life.
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Artist: Halford
Title: “Winter Songs”
Label: Metal God Entertainment
Release Date: 11/3/2009
Genre: Holiday Metal
Rating: 4/5
“It’s a very Halford Christmas” as the Metal God himself steps outside of his duties with Judas Priest and delivers a Heavy Metal Holiday album with Halford and while the premise might strike you as a little weird, the end result is oddly satisfying. Given the powerhouse potential of the musicians that made up Halford in the first place and the fact that such Holiday-themed releases have been coming out in record number and actually being on the interesting side I ended up with high hopes for Rob and the boys and am happy to report that they did not let me down. I’ve long been a fan of the juggernaut holiday enterprise that is the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and the ever rising popularity of their “Christmas Eve and Other Stories” album which successfully blended heavy riffs into a holiday theme. Their use of Savatage riffs and classical melody to this end was bound to find other Metal artists tossing their own Santa hats into the arena and since this truly became the case why not see how the Metal God would do at it.
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Artist: Various Artists
Title: “We Wish You A Metal Xmas and a Headbanging New Year” EP
Label: Armoury Records
Release Date: 11/24/2009
Genre: Holiday Metal
Rating: 2.5/5
This is a review of the four-song EP that is being released as a digital download only companion piece to the original release of “We Wish You A Metal X-Mas & A Headbanging New Year. Since we reviewed that recording last year, we are representing it to get you up to speed and then we shall examine the new four song EP tracks. We enjoyed that original album and gave it a ranking of 4/5. Read on.
“I’ve been a fan of the holiday juggernaut that is the Trans-Siberian Orchestra for several years now, but there was no way that my experience with that would have prepared me for how Twisted Sister would deliver their “Twisted Christmas” release. I bring them up as it originally hit me as one of the most absurd items in reviews to do pile but after several listens I found myself intrigued at just how well the conventional Metal vibe worked when crafted together with Holiday classics that they chose. It was an album that left you hungry for more and that made the arrival of the “We Wish You A Metal Xmas and a Headbanging New Year” release something I was eager to dig into. The players on this one are as vast as the Metal genre itself and as result finds legends like Alice Cooper and Ronnie James Dio performing along with the likes of diverse quality players like Steve Lukather and Ray Luzier and many, many more. The vibe of this release is rather heavy which was good and I admit it that it almost felt like a Motorhead track when Lemmy gave it a go at “Run Rudolph Run”. Shock master Alice Cooper and John 5 delivered the creepiest “Santa Claws Is Coming To Town” I’ve ever heard and believe me at the end of this one, the fact that he knows when you are sleeping and knows when you are awake will scare the Charles Dickens out of you. Winners come shining through during a few numbers like “Silver Bells” which has a powerful modern Metal drive to it and Geoff Tate singing and I felt the same way about the albums opening title track that gave us the magical voice of Jeff Scott Soto, a singer I have always been able to enjoy. Dio is at his ominous best with Mr. Iommi and company for “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” and the best way to describe this one is as imagine the band Heaven And Hell doing the track. Weird huh, but it does work on some levels. I had to say that I was put off by the Death Metal growls of Chuck Billy and Thrash treatment given to “Silent Night”, as this is a track that I like to much to see given such a reworking.
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Where Heavy Music & Pop Culture Collide
