When rockin' around the Christmas tree just ain't enough, Armoury Records presents "We Wish You A Metal Xmas & A Headbanging New Year", an all hard rock and metal compilation of everyone's favorite holiday songs which features the likes of Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters), Geoff Tate (Queensryche), Ronnie James Dio, Lemmy, Alice Cooper, Billy F. Gibbons (ZZ Top), George Lynch (Dokken) and more!

Of course it's silly. And hilarious and creepy; but just about worth it! I do think there is a bit of a hard slog around the middle, and perhaps a couple selections and/or singers would've been better off substituted for others, but it's fun enough.

Alice Cooper lends his particular brand of funhouse creepiness to Santa Claws (sic) is Coming to Town, and although I've always thought that "demon growling," popular in certain sub-genres of metal, is laughably ridiculous virtually every time I've heard it, Testament's Chuck Billy growls a special poignancy to Silent Night. The team of Dio and Iommi seem to define "Darkness" with their rendition of God Bless Ye Merry Gentlemen. And of course, Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer is always a lot of fun, regardless of who does it, but the "metal" treatment here makes it even more of a toe-tapper.