August Burns Red - Sleddin' Hill: A Holiday Album (2012)^{Release ID: 4138}

LOL, it's only two months before Christmas and I'm writing review about a Christmas album! August Burns Red had released a few Christmas instrumentals before including their notable epic metalcore version of "Carol of the Bells" (Eat your heart out, Trans-Siberian Orchestra!!). After their fourth album Leveler, I'm guessing vocalist Jake Luhrs wanted his vocal chords to rest. So the band made their first ever mostly instrumental Christmas record with a few of the Christmas songs the band released in the past, including "Carol of the Bells", remastered and revised. Any August Burns Red fan would be thrilled, and anyone looking for Christmas metal would be pleased. This is... Sleddin' Hill: A Holiday Album!

August Burns Red brings a lot of new elements into their hardcore/metalcore table, probably even some stronger punk vibes while still staying metal. Of the 13 tracks in the standard edition, 11 are traditional Christmas classics while the other two are original instrumentals. Musically, the band continues to mix punk guitar with metal breakdowns, along with shredding soloing in tune of the melody of each song. The best thing is, they're not just rock versions of old songs; the band shows some of their best creativity by adding many different memorable influences into each song.

I don't really go full song detail on cover albums but there are still a few songs worth mentioning. The opening track, "Flurries" is one of the two original tracks in this album. It really fits in both the band's metalcore sound and the Christmas spirit with a bell-chiming breakdown. Even "Frosty the Snowman" ends up having some blast beat action! That might not be totally enjoyable as a Christmas song, but it really brings the usual August Burns Red fanfare. "Sleigh Ride" is one of the most complex songs by the album and even the band, blending many different genres flawlessly. It builds up from a slow rock feel to a more hardcore punk pace. Then there's a jazzy piano/horn section before breaking into a metalcore breakdown. Then it heads through the ending MxPx style. A worthwhile Christmas metal cover! "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman" is one of the best songs on the album, an epic extreme Christmas metal cover with more blast beats.

"Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" is the only song in the album with vocals. The original song is a fun one to sing, so I guess the band wanted to add vocals by having all members perform gang vocals - "Rudolph the red nosed reindeer had a very shiny nose (like a light bulb!)" The other original track, the title track has some traditional instrumentation like acoustic guitar, banjo, and fiddle for a real American Christmas vibe before adding the distorted guitars. And there are some honorable mentions like the epic "Carol of the Bells" and the terrific closer "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", but I have enough mentioning Christmas in October (as of writing this).

Now before I come to the conclusion of this review, I'd like to show a short story I've written around last Christmas, based on this entire album. I'm hoping for someone to take my story and turn it into a 50-minute film with the entire album used as its visual soundtrack realization (just like that film Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem, based on Discovery by Daft Punk). Anyway, here's my story - August Burns Red Presents: Sleddin' Hill - the Movie:

Flurries - 'Twas the day before Christmas 2002.. In the town of Metalvania, the citizens all love heavy metal so much that the music is part of celebrating Christmas, snow flurries occur signifying that the holidays are coming near, bring excitement to everyone in the town. A young 17-year-old guy named Matt has always dreamed of being a professional metal drummer, but everyone else is occupied in their own metal bands.

Frosty the Snowman - Matt decides to build 4 snowmen to help start his own band. With the power of his magic metal drums, he brings the snowmen to life and they all have their own instruments (lead guitar, rhythm guitar, bass guitar, vocals). Matt and his snowman band practice playing some songs ("Frosty the Snowman").

Sleigh Ride - After all that practicing, Matt and his snowman band have a sled race down a hill, with the snowmen using Matt's 4 spare sleds. At the base of the hill, there's Metal Claus next to his sleigh and herd of 8 reindeer. Metal Claus is like Santa Claus but he hands out metal gifts. Metal Claus asks Matt what he would like for Christmas, and Matt wishes for new drums to impress people enough to form a real band.

God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman - Suddenly, the Jazz Grinch shows up, riding a spare sleigh he stole from Metal Claus. The Jazz Grinch is the villain of the story who wants to kidnap Metal Claus, steal all the metal decorations and presents, and hypnotize the citizens of Metalvania to listen to smooth jazz. Matt and his snowman band start a battle against the Jazz Grinch with snowballs and snow instruments, but the snowmen soon retreat because of the Jazz Grinch threatening to use a flamethrower on them. The Jazz Grinch also has a hypno-blaster to do the hypnotizing, but Matt dodges the laser bullet shot from the blaster. However, that doesn't stop the Jazz Grinch from kidnapping Metal Claus and fulfilling his mission to steal Christmas from Metalvania.

Jingle Bells - Matt and his snowman band gather together to plan out how they're going to save Metal Claus and stop the Jazz Grinch. They start tricking out Metal Claus' sleigh to make it big enough to fit them all and add in rocket engines to make it fly higher and farther than ever before.

Oh Holy Night - The sun begins to set and Matt and his snowman band have just all night for their mission to save Christmas. After a test run, riding down a hill with Metal Claus' rocket-powered sleigh and reindeer and flying all over the city, they decide that they need more reindeer and a much higher hill.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer - Matt and his snowman band travel with their sleigh and 8 reindeer to a deep forest past the border of Metalvania to find 8 more reindeer. They decide to play a song they've been practicing to attract some reindeer ("Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"). Long story short, it works! They now have the 8 more reindeer they need.

Sleddin' Hill - Matt and his snowman band travel with their sleigh and 16 reindeer beyond the deep forest to Sleddin' Hill, a super high mountain tall enough for all the citizens of Metalvania to see, half the size of Mount Everest! With the strength of 16 reindeer, they pull the sleigh with Matt and his snowmen riding it and climb up the high mountain faster than a train. Once they reach the top, they ride down the mountain and a ramp at the base launches them into the sky. The rocket engines activate and away they fly!

Little Drummer Boy - During the flight, Matt decides to play a tin drum he has brought along for the ride, and his snowman band join in, playing their respective instruments ("Little Drummer Boy").

Winter Wonderland - Soon, they reach their destination, a distant uncharted island in the middle of the ocean, Jazzpit Island, where the Jazz Grinch lives in a lair on top of another high mountain. Matt and his snowman band wander around the snowy base of the mountain, gathering enough snow to make weapons like snow-swords, snowball blasters, and snow grenades.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel - Matt now has an army of 4 snowmen and 16 reindeer, all wielding snow weapons. All ready for battle, they march up the path to the Jazz Grinch's mountain, just in time to see the Jazz Grinch getting ready to dump Metal Claus and all the stolen metal presents and decorations off a cliff high above the shallow rocky shores, but Matt stops him before he could get the chance, and they both do some emotional talking. The Jazz Grinch explains that he wants to rid the world of heavy metal because he really can't stand that kind of music and thinks it's nothing but noise, and Matt says that it is just a music genre and just because the Jazz Grinch doesn't like metal, doesn't mean he can just take it all away. However, the Jazz Grinch doesn't care, so Matt prepared his army for the big battle with a rousing speech.

Carol of the Bells - The duel between Matt's army and the Jazz Grinch begins! The snowmen and the reindeer attack with their snow weapons, but the Jazz Grinch uses his flamethrower to melt the snowmen and their weapons, and uses his hypno-blaster to hypnotize the reindeer to chase Matt, but Matt outruns them, unties Metal Claus, and takes him and the stolen decorations and presents to the sleigh. Soon, Matt and the Jazz Grinch are cornered by Matt's hypnotized reindeer at the edge of the cliff. The Jazz Grinch prepares to use his flamethrower on the army, but Matt, not wanting the reindeer to get burned, snatches and throws the flamethrower and hypno-blaster over the cliff. The reindeer gets closer until Matt and the Jazz Grinch slip and fall off the cliff. At the same time, the Jazz Grinch's weapons hit the ground and break, undoing the hypnosis and turning the reindeer and the Metalvania citizens back to normal. The reindeer notice Matt and the Jazz Grinch falling, so Metal Claus flies his sleigh and the reindeer off the mountain and rescues them. As they all fly home, the Jazz Grinch decides that he should make amends to what he did wrong.

We Wish You a Merry Christmas - Once the team returns to Metalvania on Christmas morning, the Jazz Grinch returns all the stolen stuff to the metalhead citizens, admits his theft and apologizes. Matt invites him to a special Christmas party happening later that night. The party includes an all-you-can-eat buffet with food including a roast beast, and Matt has a live performance with a real human band that would later be August Burns Red ("We Wish You a Merry Christmas"). And the story ends with a nice little toast from the party-enjoying Jazz Grinch..

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy - First end credits song.

Joy to the World - Second end credits song.

Thank you all for taking the time to read this long Christmas story! If any of you feel like turning all this into an actual film with the soundtrack (as mentioned above), please do so and credit me for the idea and credit August Burns Red for the soundtrack. Now back to the review... I would really recommend this for August Burns Red fans and people wanting to find a nice mix of Christmas and metalcore. If you're NOT a metal fan, then I would say at least half of it would be enjoyable for you because of Christmas music, and the other half not so much. Some sections may be heavier, but the album is mostly fun Christmas instrumentals enjoyable for the holiday spirit. To be honest, I kinda thought the album would be half instrumental, half vocals, like some Trans-Siberian Orchestra albums. Well even so, this album still has a lot that I hoped for. Sleddin' Hill is definitely worth the holiday season! 'Tis the metalcore album to be jolly....

Favorites: "Flurries", "Sleigh Ride", "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman", "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", "Sleddin' Hill", "Carol of the Bells"