Merry Axemas
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Music CD Cover
Edition: Music CDCD Release Date: 1997-10-14
Music Label: Sony
Soundtracks:
- Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer - Kenny Wayne Shepherd
- The First Nowell - Eric Johnson
- Amazing Grace - Jeff Beck
- Jingle Bells - Brian Setzer Orchestra
- Silent Night/Holy Night Jam - Joe Satriani
- Joy To The World - Steve Morse
- Christmas Time Is Here - Steve Vai
- Blue Christmas - Joe Perry
- The Little Drummer Boy - Alex Lifeson
- Cantique De Noel (O' Holy Night) - Richie Sambora
- Happy X-mas (War Is Over) - Hotei
Free Music Notes for Merry Axemas
Free Music Review: Not Shabby For What It Is, But Could Have Been Better
Hit: 3 Stars
For those of us who grew up loving Christmas and all the classic Christmas songs that accompany the season, the ones we reminisce about listening to on vinyl and cassette tape with our parents as kids, classics like Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Andy Williams, Perry Como, we've all run into a bit of a conundrum in our adult lives: while these classic tracks bring back joyful memories to play on our own time, you can't exactly bust them out for your Holiday parties, unless you want to gently rock your guests to sleep that is.
Many who purchase Merry Axemas, a compendium of arrangements on traditional Christmas tunes from some of the most prominent ambassadors of hard rock and pop metal, are going to be aiming to have some fresh, shredding takes on the yuletide classics to blast forth with, especially in a social setting where they can tap the sentiment of the Holiday but still get hips rocking and heads bopping. With offerings from the likes of Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Richie Sambora, and more, this aspiration would be well founded.
I see that many other reviewers found true appreciation for this "Guitar Hero" Christmas, per se, but I have to admit I found it somewhat lacking and that it fell short of what I had expected. No knock to the talents of the axe-wielding masters who graced this work, for their shredding skills do come through in just the right amounts, but for the most part the arrangements are far too simplistic and ploddingly derivative of the traditional nature of the songs.
This fact is most notably conveyed when comparing the true standout track on here to the rest; Brian Setzer and his Orchestra's up tempo, slamming version of Jingle Bells. I was already quite well versed with Setzer's take on this most hackneyed of Holiday tunes from his phenomenal Boogie Woogie Christmas, and how he deftly recreated the foundation of the tune and made it a rocking anthem of Christmas. This approach was for the most part, sadly abandoned by most of the other contributors to Merry Axemas, who in most cases used 90% of the typical arrangements we've all heard so many times and transposed the lyrics with their guitar riffs.
This all is not to say that the CD isn't completely without merit. Kenny Wayne Shepherd's opening slant on Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer twists the song into a nice 70's rock rendition, Joe Perry's Blue Christmas churns along at first, before kicking into overdrive and blasting the melancholy right off the track, and Jeff Beck's performance on the arrangement of Amazing Grace does a great deal to combine the spirituality of the Christmas holiday with some rocking guitar.
Nonetheless, too many of the artists here played it safe and slow, namely Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani, and Steve Vai, some of the heaviest names when discussing masters of the 6 string. Given an opportunity to redefine Christmas music for their generation within the parameters of their mastered medium of Hard Rock Guitar, they seemed to have been overly cautious with taking artistic license, and its a true detriment to the quality of this CD.
Merry Axemas was a great concept, and had all the right elements to establish itself as a definitive Christmas endeavor for the Hard Rock Genre, and its not a complete failure in this regard, but those who are fans of this music were likely expecting more. One's money could be much better spent in an attempt to obtain some contemporary, rocking renditions of your favorite Christmas Tunes on the likes of the aforementioned Boogie Woogie Christmas by Brian Setzer, or Gary Hoey's works, which I received in conjunction with Merry Axemas, and heartily delivers the rocking takes on so many Christmas classics I had hoped for on this CD.
Merry Axemas Poster
Guitar/metal Compilation Produced by Steve Vai. Japanese Release to Coantain an Exclusive Bonus Track.A tour de force of guitar players Steve Vai has known rock around the Christmas tree in this must-have Yuletide album. Vai, who began his career as a member of Frank Zappa's band and in more recent years has been David Lee Roth's partner in crime, transcends both roles by playing matchmaker between a few of our more inventive (albeit overlooked) guitar slingers and some of the best-loved Christmas carols. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer's proboscis has never glowed quite so brightly as when Kenny Wayne Shepherd cranks up his guitar and takes us down an edgy blues journey. Eric Johnson's clear-as-a-Christmas-bell tones are a joy to listen to in his rendition of "The First Nowell." The standout, however, is Jeff Beck's haunting and emotional "Amazing Grace." --Jaan Uhelszki
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