By now you may have grown more than a bit weary of the same old tired holiday music. From radio airwaves to the local mall to the doctor’s waiting room, there seems no escaping them: Mariah Carey, Elvis Presley, and those dramatic ear-curdling vocal flourishes of Christina Aguilera. (No offense to fans. She is undeniably über-talented and a hometown girl no less, but still, if I am subjected to her version of The Christmas Song one more time, my eyes will go yellow and bulge from their sockets.) The overabundance of saccharine-laced holiday music out there drove me to burn a holiday compilation album of my own from a mix of what’s available for download. So if you’re craving your Yuletide carols with a side of badass rock and bone-crunching metal, may I suggest for your listening pleasure some of the more obscure offerings of the season, sure to get the devil horns pumping and heads banging.
If you're a member of Pearl Jam’s official fan club, The Ten Club, then you know that each year the band releases two or three songs on old-fashion vinyl and sends them out to fans as a holiday gift. The songs aren't necessarily holiday-themed tunes, but over the years, the group have put out several Christmas songs that may have slipped past the casual fan. The oldest of the bunch, “Let Me Sleep (It’s Christmas Time)” is co-composed by singer Eddie Vedder and lead guitarist Mike McCready. The single about the magic the holidays can hold for children was first released on the band's inaugural 1991 Christmas single and was also released on their 2003 B-sides album Lost Dogs. Over the years Pearl Jam have also released the upbeat-tempo “Don’t Believe in Christmas” (2002), which was originally performed by a group called The Sonics; the classic Christmas song “Someday at Christmas” (2004), made famous by both Stevie Wonder and the Jackson 5; and the group’s original single “Santa God” as well as a version of “Jingle Bells” (2007) that Pearl Jam performs as a hard-rock instrumental featuring distortion pedals and a number of McCready guitar solos. A must hear for all fans, but probably best enjoyed towards the end of your annual holiday party.
For something a bit livelier, there’s the jolly punk rock of the Joey Ramone EP Christmas Spirit…In My House, which was released posthumously in 2002. Of the five songs on the album though, only the first two have a direct connection to Christmas. The first is a remake of the Darlene Love holiday classic “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” on which Ramone is joined by Ronnie Spector on harmony vocals. The song sounds very much like the Phil Spector Wall of Sound except that the strings and horns have been replaced by electric guitars and Ramone’s sad, but edgy, vocals. The second of the two songs is a reworking of The Ramones’ number “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight).”
If it’s the blood of the innocent and punishing power chords you’re after, then We Wish You a Metal Xmas and a Headbanging New Year is for you. From a roster of metal gods that include the late great Ronnie James Dio playing with Sabbath’s Tony Iommi on “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”; the gruff vocals of Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister who teams up with Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters) and ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons on “Run, Rudolph, Run”; and Alice Cooper’s take on “Santa Claws is Coming to Town,” this metal compilation makes for some rockin’ holiday listening. The album also has four bonus tracks including “Frosty The Snowman” by Anvil's Lips Kudlow and an intense version of “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer” by DevilDriver's Dez Fafara that’s sure to scare the bejesus out of the young and impressionable. We Wish You a Metal Xmas also features music by George Lynch (Dokken), Chuck Billy (Testament), Scott Ian (Anthrax), Geoff Tate (Queensryche), Stephen Pearcy (Ratt) and Tracii Guns (L.A. Guns). The songs are all familiar classics, so you can play this one for your non-metalhead friends as well.
For the more musically open-minded, you can get your holly jollies off to some death metal, courtesy of Korn, whose menacing, distortion-heavy treatment of “Jingle Bells,” which they’ve renamed “Jingle B*lls,” is appropriately dark and raunchy. The band also have “The Christmas Song” available for download. This little treasure is a complete reworking of what is arguably the best known verses ever written by an American, the Clement C. Moore poem The Night Before Christmas. In Korn’s hands, this classic, which is largely responsible for our conception of Santa Claus, becomes something vile and sinister.
On a more poetic note, The Blind Boys of Alabama’s 2003 CD Go Tell It on the Mountain includes the song “In the Bleak of Midwinter,” which features The Pretenders Chrissie Hynde and award-winning British songwriter/guitarist Richard Thompson. Based on a poem written in 1872 by the English poet Christina Rossetti, this carol has been covered by several musicians, including Sarah McLachlan, James Taylor and Annie Lennox. There’s something about the perpetually sneering Ms. Hynde singing such a tender, delicate piece that makes it positively riveting.
There’s also August Burns Red out of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, who do a smokin’ instrumental version of both “O Come O Come Emmanuel” and “Carol of the Bells,” while the Nashville-based Jeremy Lister, although certainly not on the heavy side, has penned a slick, snappy tune worth a listen called “Santa’s Lost His Mojo” that’s a stubborn one to get out of your head. Sure beats the Chipmunks trilling away in there.
So even though those promised holiday releases from Scott Weiland and Ozzy never materialized this year, with a little poking around online, you can unearth all kinds of Christmas goodies. These are just a sampling of songs to help you get your ho ho ho on. What are you listening to this holiday season?
