It’s here – what will (in all probability) be the final Slaylist of 2012. What with it being so close to Christmas and all, we figured wd’ stick to tradition and wheel out a modified version of the gargantuan Xmas-themed Spotify Slaylist we made a few years ago – this year we’ve tweaked it, edited it, and got it to a neat hour of festive idiocy.
It’s December. It’s Christmas. So for this week’s Midweek Bootleg we’re getting all festive with curious cover c/o Far and a couple of their pals from Deftones and Will Haven.
Yeah, we’re those annoying pricks who get really, really, REALLY into Christmas. We’re the pricks who insist on organising the office Secret Santa. We’re the ones drinking nothing but eggnog and mulled wine for the next five weeks. We’re the ones posting weird Christmas cover songs in our (mostly) weekly Midweek Bootleg feature. Yep, we are those guys.
Because Christmas is bloody awesome – so merry Christmas, to the lot of you. Now get off the internet, even if you are playing with that fancy iPad that Santa left for you under the Christmas tree, and go stuff your face with a mince pie or something.
In short: Yes, yes it is. We’re not entirely sure why Dez Fafara (DevilDriver, Coal Chamber), Doug Aldrich (Whitesnake, Dio), Rob “Blasko” Nicholson (Prong, Rob Zombie, Danzig, Ozzy Osbourne), and John Tempesta (White Zombie, Testament, The Cult) decided it would be a good idea to team up and cover ‘Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer’ (for the Metal Christmas album, We Wish You A Merry Xmas and a Headbanging New Year). Neither are we quite sure whether or not the beyond OTT nature of the result in any way justifies the idea’s inherent stupidity. In either case, we’ll be damned if we have to suffer the knowledge of this song’s existence alone.
Awww, you guys didn’t think we’d pack up for Christmas without giving you a little gift now, did you? In the best of all cheapskate Christmas traditions, rather than go to the effort and expense of going out to the shops, fighting our way through the hordes of last-minute present buyers, and then umm and ahh over what to get each and every one of our readers, instead we’re just going to re-package up and pass on someone else’s gifts to you.
And just what is it that we’re passing on to you? Why, a vertiable mountain of free music, that’s what.
When Black Sabbath announced their reformation earlier this year, everyone but the surliest and most mean-spirited music fans was over the moon. Everyone loves Black Sabbath. Even Santa Clause loves Black Sabbath. That’s why he wrote and performed a parody song of ‘Iron Man’ - with the forgivably-unimaginative title of ‘I Am Santa Claus’.
We know what you’re thinking. It’s songthing like “Wait, didn’t you already do a Season’s Bleedings for Malefice yesterday? You’re not about to tell us that you forgot to combine the two sets of answers into a single blog post, and now you’re giving Tom Hynes one all to himself? You are? Oh.” Right? Well, it’s Christmas. Cut us some slack!
It’s been a good year for Black Spiders. They released their debut album Sons Of The North, played a lot of festivals, toured in China and just came back from supporting Monster Magnet in Europe in time to send us a Christmas card. Busy boys. We caught up with frontman Pete Spiby to see how festive he’s feeling.
What do you get when you combine a pickup truck, a job-lot of ill-fitting elf costumes, a love of slightly shitty rock’n'roll, and an excess of Christmas cheer? Why, you get heavy metal carol singing of course!
Those Berkshire metallers, Malefice, have had a pretty hectic year. Not only did they release their fourth ful-length album, Awaken The Tides, but they also seemed to have managed to miss The Arab Spring, the war in Libya, and the global #Occupy Movement. Then again, maybe that’s just their guitarist, Ben Symons, who the band nominated to face our Winter interrogation.