Various Artists - "We Wish You a Metal Xmas..."

Various Artists - We Wish You A Metal Xmas...

2008, Armoury

1. We Wish You a Merry Xmas

2. Run Rudolph Run

3. Santa Claws is Coming to Town

4. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

5. Silver Bells

6. Little Drummer Boy

7. Santa Claus is Back in Town

8. Silent Night

9. Deck the Halls

10. Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer

11. Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

12. Happy Xmas (War is Over)

I've been waiting for a real metal Christmas CD forever! You'd think with my affinity for metal that I would fall all over myself in praise of this disc. Sadly, that's not the case. It's pretty hit and miss for me - it's got some great tunes, some okay tunes, and some crap tunes. The great: "Little Drummer Boy" with Doug Pinnick (King's X) on vocals, "Deck the Halls," "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," and "Silver Bells" featuring Geoff Tate (Queensryche). These are good rockin' songs and the vocals are spot on. "Santa Claws is Coming to Town" with Alice Cooper is merely okay as is "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" (with Ronnie James Dio). Then there's "Run, Run Rudolph" with Lemmy Kilmister (Motorhead) and his voice is garbage. I know it's normally not that great but on this song it just sounds like he's mumbling through the words. I also don't care for Chuck Billy (Testament) growling through "Silent Night." We've already got the definitive metal version of that song with Deliverance. So if you're a fan of metal you can take some songs off this and make a cool Christmas playlist, but as a whole I think it's a little lacking.

Useless Fact: I think this album was born out of the Twisted Sister's Christmas album that came out the year before.