As if the hard rock ballad in the hands of a metal band weren't clichéd enough, with this set listeners get the whole enterprise moved even one more step into campy absurdity with hard rock and metal versions of various Christmas songs in a collection perfect for a headbanger's Christmas Eve party. It's difficult not to chuckle and smile as songs like
Skid Row's thundering take on "Jingle Bells,"
Firehouse's galloping "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree,"
Faster Pussycat's clattering industrial run at "Silent Night," and
Stryper's "Winter Wonderland" go bombasting by with all the subtlety of an anvil being dropped onto a glass table. Background music this surely isn't. . ~ Steve Leggett