A Very Brutal Christmas - EP

Album Review

Heavy metal bands doing novelty holiday albums is nothing new, as evidenced by such releases as Twisted Sister's A Twisted Christmas from 2006. However, no extreme metal bands have tackled Christmas tunes until Austrian Death Machine came along with their 2008 EP A Very Brutal Christmas. But be forewarned. The title is a bit misleading, as there is only a single Christmas song included — a thrash-punk rendition of "Jingle Bells" — which is joined by the silly original "Get to the Choppa" and a cover of Judas Priest's "Hell Bent for Leather." In other words, this is not an album full of extreme metal reworkings of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," "Frosty the Snowman," etc. That said, for fans of such goof metal acts as Green Jelly, Austrian Death Machine's 'A Very Brutal Christmas' may provide a few smirks and chuckles.