No matter your holiday preferences, Christmas music can be entertaining – especially if it’s metal-infused! Bands such as Iron Maiden, Papa Roach and even legendary parody band Spinal Tap have released special holiday offerings.
Hate Eternal bass player JJ Hrubovcak released Death Metal Christmas: Hellish Renditions of Christmas Classics as an unholy take on Christmas hymns.
Korn – Jingle Balls
Korn’s take on Jingle Bells from 1999’s Issues album is an exceptional example of how metal musicians can successfully merge Christmas with heavy metal. A festive hit indeed!
With plenty of double kicks and hellbound guitar solos, this metal rendition of Carol of the Bells will have you moshing pitting under the mistletoe in no time! A Pennsylvania metal band has been making Christmas music for 12 years now – this apocalyptic take certainly is an impressive piece!
Released as part of Brutal Christmas, this dark and menacing rendition of this classic tune offers an alternative take. Complete with devilish prelude, sleigh bell tinkles and King Diamond’s vocal that channels Lucifer himself, this version provides a hellishly good rendition of an already menacing Christmas tune.
Coal Chamber – Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer
Coal Chamber’s version of Rudolph, one of their early hits, showcases their contributions to nu metal music. Dez Fafaras unique rap growls and psychotic vocals helped set them apart from other bands at that time. Beginning with dark riffs before bopping along nicely to a beat. Meegs Rascon plays bass guitar which occasionally can sound plain but works together beautifully.
Rivals was the debut full length effort from Californian group Rivals and received rave reviews from both fans and critics alike. It marked the debut of drummer Corey Taylor and saw them conquer heavy metal music successfully. As their next releases would show, their popularity would only increase before frontman Dez Fafara fell out of favor due to personal and creative differences and eventually split soon after Rivals was released.
Twisted Sister – Jingle Bells
Christmas songs lend themselves well to metal interpretation, so it should come as no surprise that some of the biggest rockers such as Lemmy of Motorhead or Dave Grohl and Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top have released festive albums.
Korn’s 2006 stocking filler We Wish You a Metal Xmas & A Headbanging New Year successfully sidestepped the tacky, cash-in cheese that often dominates such festive releases. One particular highlight was Jingle Bells; here, Korn transformed the iconic tune into a death march complete with downtuned guitar riffs and Jonathan Davis’ demon vocal growls for maximum impact.
King Diamond excelled at creating entertainingly campy videos like this one, featuring an uptight girlfriend removing her hula skirt and dancing around the living room. His first solo effort – an infectious barrage of theatrical heavy metal that would have had many people raising their fists with wide smiles on their faces – would certainly do that too!
Rainbow – Snowman
Take a listen to some of Planet Rock’s finest metal Christmas tunes this holiday season and celebrate in style. Enjoy some festive eggnog while listening to some amazing metal Christmas tunes!
Korn have made their classic festive song, “Jingle Bells,” into an unholy death metal march full of downtuned riffs and mournful growls for an unconventional take on this timeless tune that makes this track essential listening for any metal Christmas playlist.
Metalheads were surprised that Judas Priest singer Rob Halford released an album solely featuring Christmas songs – but he managed to pull it off brilliantly. His version of classic tunes like Silent Night featured iconic falsetto, anthemic power chords, swaths of synth and wide open drumbeats for maximum effectiveness.
If the upbeat sounds of August Burns Red’s “Flurries” don’t suit your tastes, try Type O Negative’s haunting song, “Red Water (Christmas Mourning).” From their 1996 LP October Rust, this haunting track adds an air of melancholy to your Christmas playlist.
Dio – O Come All Ye Faithful
Metal Christmas songs don’t get much better than this one! A true metal anthem, Ronnie James Dio’s iconic falsetto soars over anthemic power chords and wide-open drumbeats on this remake of a timeless Christmas tune – which even features references to Ronnie in its video! An instant classic that stands out among other reworkings of Christmas standards.
Korn have proven it with this in-your-face version of “Jingle Bells,” complete with downtuned riffs, slow drumming, and Jonathan Davis’ haunted vocals, to create something truly sinister for Xmas metal fans to enjoy.
King Diamond stands out among metal Christmas songs with his captivating take on festive seasonal comedy. As an admitted Satanist, he attacks its inherent comedy with unflinching conviction, making for an infectious blast of theatrical heavy metal perfect for fist-pumping and wide grins alike! This track appeared on 2009 album Winter Songs.
Christopher Lee – The Little Drummer Boy
Christmas carols can be heard everywhere at this time of year – shopping centres, supermarkets, radio stations and movies alike all featuring them as background noise. Unfortunately it can become difficult to shake them from your mind; but heavy metal provides much-needed relief by being an expression of rebellion and thus offering much-needed respite.
Christopher Lee, 91-year-old British actor and one of the greatest voices ever, brings his powerful baritone to this classic metal take on the traditional festive tune. Chugging riffs rumble beneath Lee as he bellows out Saruman-esque pa-rum-pa-pum-pum beats. Truly legendary. One of the finest covers on our list!
Korn’s 1999 album Issues’ closes out in style with this hard hitting finale that takes the classic Christmas carol to death metal territory. After an intro featuring delicate xylophone plonks and orchestral strings, we are hit with an onslaught of distorted guitars while Jonathan Davis narrates about how Santa will send Krampus (half goat, half demon) after misbehaving children to punish them.
220 Volt – Heavy Christmas
Symphonic metal titans of the early 2000s take on one of the classic Christmas songs with an energetic, epic rendition that’s guaranteed to put you in the festive spirit. Even without heavenly choirs or string arrangements present elsewhere, this track still delivers plenty of festive headbanging fun.
Christopher Lee used his distinctively terrifying vocals on several alternative Christmas tunes, such as this menacing cover of “The Little Drummer Boy”. A mix of doomy vocals and crushing music with chunking riffs makes for an unnerving rendition that perfectly bridges horrorshow Christmas with metal.
Gothic metal masters Type O Negative explore some dark festive themes on their 1996 LP October Rust with this haunting, darkly-tinged track that tells the tale of a misbehaving child fearing Santa will punish them with Krampus (a half-goat/half-demon demon). Perfect for those who don’t wish to be distracted by traditional Christmas music like bells jingling and orchestral plonks!
Halford – O Come All Ye Faithful
Rob Halford of Judas Priest may come as something of a shocker, but in 2009 he made waves when he released Winter Songs LP with its collection of original and traditional holiday favourites like this metal interpretation of “We Three Kings,” featuring Halford’s trademark shrieking along with power chords, wide drumbeats, and atmospheric synths.
As much as metalheads were skeptical at first when Halford announced he was recording a Christmas album, this one proved very worthwhile. With original tracks as well as classic holiday favorites like this version of “We Three Kings”, including this performance of this beloved classic by him himself (such as its version available here on Halford’s Christmas album), it showed us all just how exceptional his vocal talent truly is during Christmastime as any other time of year.
August Burns Red from Pennsylvanian metalcore band August Burns Red have transformed an accessible Christmas carol into an ear-splitting death metal track with incredible vocalist Chaney Crabb delivering an astounding performance over its heartwarming lyrics. The result is simply magnificent.