THE CHRISTMAS ATTIC

The Christmas tree is in the room and the cat is wondering what those two things on two legs are up to now. A turkey is being filled with all kinds of stuff called "the family's old recipe" by the woman whose left hand is deep inside the turkey. No horizontal jogging tonight, then.

I am trying to get the final decorations sorted out when trying to get into the mood by listening to this album. This is my annual deep dive into the cheesy world of Christmas albums. An annual punishment, if feels. Although last year's descent into hell was pretty good. Jethro Tull's Christmas Album, that is.

I am not sure who is the vocalist here. But Jon Oliva from Savatage is the usual suspect and I guess it is him again. Trans-Siberian Orchestra has become a pretty massive band in the USA where all sorts of cultural naffness is sure winners. All of Trans-Siberian Orchestra's albums falls into this category. But in particular this album. All cliches are on display here. Choirs, electric guitar molestations of Christmas carols and a general rampage through Christmas carols which is good enough in their own right. What does Trans-Siberian Orchestra adds to this ? Well, they take out good paychecks from this band and their albums. Far more than they ever earned on their regular bands. So employments are secured. But the music in this album is overblowned, molested Christmas carols which is almost as bad as Justin Bieber's own Christmas album.

This is an album for fat greasy US truckers on highway nine and for those who thinks Christmas carols is best with a heavy rock sound to them. So why one more star than I am describing here ? Well, the arrangements are quite good. Cheesy as heck, but still pretty good. There are some good melody lines on this album. That inbetween cringe worthy melody lines. Some human intelligence has been applied to good effect throughout this album. That aside, this is not a Christmas album I will ever lend my ears to ever again. I am not that fond of cheese.

2 stars