"...And All Through the House..." - EC Comics

"What Child is This?" - August Burns Red

One of my favorite metal groups of the last 10 years has been the heavy-hitting August Burns Red.  A while back, it became a tradition that the band releases a Christmas-themed song.

This year they have covered one of my personal favorites, "What Child is This? (Greensleeves)".

Enjoy!

Creepy Carolers

"A Cool Yule with a Ghoul!"

A Traditional Christmas

Have a Merry (if not completely traditional) Christmas!

Cthulhu Claus!!!

"Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good fright!"

"Christmas: A Ghostly Gathering" - Midnight Syndicate

As December 25th draws nearer, too many of us find ourselves already out of the spirit of the season due to the onslaught of sugar-coated, nerve-grating music that is all but inescapable this time of year.  Thankfully, Midnight Syndicate's latest release presents a wonderfully welcome alternative...  A Gothic-inspired Christmas album that provides a slightly darker - but far more enjoyable - approach to holiday music.

It seems to me that the majority of Christmas albums typically tend to be either saturated with overtly put-on cheerfulness or completely devoid of any substantial musical value.  The very notion of a Christmas album is usually associated with the ho-hum of yet another cash-grab for flavor-of-the-month pop performers who are happy to phone-in unimaginative, haphazard covers of songs we've heard already lazily covered a million times over.  

But just as Midnight Syndicate isn't your typical group of musicians, Christmas:  A Ghostly Gathering isn't your typical Christmas album... 

For this offering, the group alternates between original compositions and reworkings of classic Christmas songs.  As long-time fans would expect, the majority of the original pieces are unmistakably the work of Midnight Syndicate.  On these tracks the group does what they do best:  generate adventurously dark instrumentals thick with mood and a Gothic atmosphere.  "Winter Storm" is a particularly epic symphonic track that could easily have been a part of the group's previous release, Monsters of Legend.  Other notable original pieces include the gleefully devious "Little Helpers", the truly haunting "Into the Stillness", and the surprisingly heart-warming "Christmas at Midnight". "Night of the Krampus", an homage to the legendary Christmas devil of eastern European folklore, is of course one of my personal favorites.

However, the re-imaginings of the classic carols deserve attention as well!  One could easily imagine a self-described "Gothic Christmas Album" merely consisting of organs simply playing covers of well-known songs at a slower tempo to fit the label, but it is abundantly apparent that Midnight Syndicate was not going to be content with churning out a creatively lazy effort.  Instead, each of these reworkings offer something different and refreshing and are true re-imaginings of the Christmas songs you've heard so many times before.  

Older, more traditional songs that have been around for over a century (or longer) such as "Coventry Carol", "Greensleeves", and "Carol of the Bells" almost naturally lend themselves to a dark reworking.  But Midnight Syndicate also take on cheerier tunes such as "Up on the Housetop" and twist them into something you might expect to hear on the soundtrack for a horror film.

While the group does indeed take a darker approach, that isn't to say that the album isn't to say that the album is a completely grim in tone or lacking of any kind cheer associated with the Christmas season.  Quite the contrary, there are more than a few moments of what I can only be describe as genuine Christmas joy and wonder!  "Sing We Now of Christmas" is simply majestic sounding (I imagine climbing some moonlit snow-covered peak while listening to this piece). The group's rendition of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" caught me totally off guard...  For a moment I forgot that I was listening to a Midnight Syndicate record and got swept up in the majestic awe captured on the track.  

The final verdict:  Midnight Syndicate's Christmas:  A Ghostly Gathering is a Christmas album that defies the conventions of holiday music flooding the airwaves this time of year.  Bursting with creativity and imagination, this collection of original pieces and dark re-imaginings of classic carols are a perfect alternative for anyone looking for a truly unique listening experience this holiday season.  Who would have guessed that a group known for creating Halloween music would be so successful in breathing new life into Christmas songs?

You can find out more about Midnight Syndicate and purchase albums such as Christmas:  A Ghostly Gathering on their website.

The Krampus Approaches...

Legendary's Krampus movie looks like it could be fun.  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to see it just yet.

In the meantime, I'm loving this haunting promotional image!

Beware the Krampus

"You better watch out..."  

So begins the beloved Christmas song "Santa Claus is Coming to Town", but maybe it isn't Santa that children shouldn't be worried about this time of year.  Perhaps instead they should be on the look out for his malevolent counterpart, the Krampus!

Originating from German folklore, the Krampus is a malevolent demon-like creature who accompanies St. Nicholas as he makes his yearly yuletide rounds.  While St. Nicholas rewarded the good little boys and girls, the Krampus punished the bad.  Generally depicted as the black-haired, long-tongued devil beast, the Krampus would beat kids with switches and rusty chains or haul them off in sacks.

Apparently, the tradition of the Krampus goes as far back as the 1600's.  Many believe that the Krampus (and other such traditions) originated from pagan Winter Solstice celebrations that eventually found themselves incorporated into Christmas celebrations.  In Austria and other neighboring European countries it wasn't all that unusual to receive Krampus-themed greeting cards depicting scenes of the grinning demon torturing screaming kids.  Another bizarre tradition featuring the Krampus is Krampusnacht (Night of the Krampus) which is a sort of parade in which young men dressed as the Krampus and terrorized any children on the streets.

Examples of Krampuskarten - Krampus Greeting Cards

Around the 1800's the Catholic Church attempted to phase out the Krampus as part of their annual Christmas celebrations and later in the 1930's (and even into the 1950's) the Austrian government even discouraged the tradition.  In some places the beast was all but forgotten while in others it never fell out of style.  However, thanks to a resurgence in popularity (due to online curiosity and references in various pop-culture mediums) the Krampus is making something of a comeback.  Krampusnacht parades having become an alternative holiday celebration with droves of people dressing up as the Krampus and terrorizing the general public in Europe and North America.

A modern Krampusnacht parade