The late great Dio recorded this chunky version of the classic carol for the 2010 compilation, We Wish You a Metal Xmas and a Headbanging New Year. Ronny James Dio with Tony Iommi, “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” While the ten songs included here are by no means all inclusive, they’ll certainly liven up any holiday celebration and allow even those with the blackest of hearts to find a little joy in the season. The years have brought us plenty of Christmas classics from icons of metal and punk that will appeal to even the most hardcore of music fans. The bane of every holiday season, the curse of every service industry employee, and a stain upon the airwaves, Christmas songs, with their sappy sentiment and shitty music, are notorious for their lack of broader appeal to subcultures. Once he is fully self-actualized, he realizes that this was his destiny - to cleanse the Earth of man."ĭeath Metal Christmas - Hellish Renditions of Christmas Classics is out now, and you can purchase it here.It’s common knowledge that Christmas songs suck. He then betrays them and inflicts great suffering on man the world over in the name of power and greed. As he gains more power and influence, he soon realizes his own lust for power and seduces the leaders into crowning him king. The times are ripe because everyone is looking for answers. He develops his political career and is such a great orator in adulthood that world leaders turn to him for solutions to their citizens' issues. Azrael is born to a wealthy, politically connected family during times of great turmoil on Earth. "The lyrics depict a fantastical and possible future outcome to mankind's current path and focus on Azrael, the angel of death in some Islam, Sikhism, and Hebrew lore. It's a bit of a daunting concept, as he explains. Not content to rework the songs musically to fit a death metal framework, Hrubovcak (who says he has no plans to play this material live) also redid the lyrics. Something else worth mentioning is the lyrical concept on the EP. I mentioned to someone else that every genre has its own version of aggression and passion - jazz has hard bop, classical has the early 20th century Russian composers, we have death metal. I love any music with aggression and passion. "Obviously, 'Nutcracker' wasn't a hymn but it's aggressive and dark and Tchaikovsky rules. It's probably the EP's standout track (although the sludge-death take on "We Three Kings" is most excellent), and for Hrubovcak, it all comes down to passion. Even if it wasn't a Christmas record, I thought these hymns still need to be heard in a death metal context."Īnd he branched out from hymns as well, tackling the Nutcracker theme song, which is still associated with the season. I've wanted to do this for a while and I chose songs that were some of my favourites. "Obviously, if you take a look at Roman Catholicism, there are a lot of dark themes of struggle, pain and oppression in everything. "Some of these tunes made the time periods in which they were written feel so forlorn and like such a struggle," he says. The dark lyrical themes and minor keys were very appealing to a boy who would go on to become a lover, and player, of dark, extreme music. That's why it was so important to focus on the seriousness and themes in the press releases and let folks know it's not what they might think."Įnlisting his brother Mike on vocals (who also happens to sing for Vile and legendary death metal underdogs Monstrosity), Hrubovcak says he grew up hearing religious Christmas hymns in his household, and he loved them.
The joke novelty perception is probably the biggest hurdle when introducing folks to the EP. I wanted to do something I would want to listen to myself, and I love serious old-school death metal. I wanted to do it in a serious manner and make it a real metal record and twist the original lyrics to apply to the present time with darker themes. "I don't want to see Santa zombies or hear exact covers of 'Frosty the Snowman' with growls.
"I hate the holiday jokey novelty thing with a passion," enthuses Hrubovcak in a recent Exclaim! interview. Hrubovcak is a skilled musician, but surely this was going to be a silly one-listen affair, right? So, imagine our surprise when we learned the overarching vibe of the EP is one of complete straight-faced seriousness. Hrubovcak announced that he was going to be releasing Death Metal Christmas - Hellish Renditions of Christmas Classics, the idea was met with chuckles and smiles.
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