Published on Dec 23, 1998
Ah, nothing like the sounds of the holidays with two days to go
before Christmas. The shoppers duking it out at Toys ‘R’ Us for the
last Furby… the kids being traumatized during their yearly visit
to Santa… the sound of electric guitar slaughtering what used to
be a classic Christmas carol…
Whoa, Lumpy, back up there…
Drawing on the success of the first
Merry Axemas volume, executive producer Steve Vai compiles,
with the help of ten of today’s hottest guitar players, a new
collection of plugged-in Christmas songs on
Merry Axemas, Vol. 2. And while I don’t think this disc will
be replacing Andy Williams on my stereo for holidays to come (gimme
a break, I’m a child of the ’70s), there are some interesting spins
put on some of these numbers.
The guitar work falls into three distinct categories. First, you
have the artists whose work has already been hailed as
ground-breaking, and they do not fail to deliver the goods. Stu
Hamm’s bass guitar rendition of “Sleigh Ride” and ex-Yes guitarist
Trevor Rabin’s version of “O Come All Ye Faithful” stand out in
this regard.
The second camp features artists whose work might not be as
heralded, but this album helps to further their cause. The more I
hear of Steve Stevens (who turned my thinking around last year as
part of Bozzio Levin Stevens), the more I’m impressed (though I
would have liked to have heard him stay with the acoustic vein on
“Do You Hear What I Hear”), while ex-Ozzy Osbourne axeman Zakk
Wylde turns in a phenomenal acoustic performance of “White
Christmas. I’d even throw Robin Trower into this category with his
version of “O Little Town Of Bethlehem.”
Finally, you have “the also-rans”… those artists whose work
was good, but just didn’t stand out at the end. Ted Nugent (“Deck
The Halls”), Steve Lukather (“The Christmas Song”) and,
surprisingly, Al Di Meola (“Carol Of The Bells”) are examples of
who I’d put in the third category.
Merry Axemas, Vol. 2 has a more difficult fight against it
— the uphill battle against tradition. Now, I know that Christmas
carols come in all shapes and sizes, and I can appreciate and
welcome a musical diversity. But it did take me a long time to feel
comfortable with these rendidions, and I’m still not at the point
where I’d recommend slipping this one in the office CD player as
the hold music. Such is the difficult road that pioneers face.
Merry Axemas, Vol. 2 is really an album aimed more towards
the adolescent who might be starting to think that Christmas carols
are cornball. Hearing some of their musical idols shred the
classics might just give them a fresh look at the classics — and
in this instance, that’s not a bad thing. For the rest of us, once
you’ve listened to it a few times, it starts to grow on you. Just
be sure to give it a few listens — otherwise, it will kill your
spirit faster than getting the yearly ugly tie under the tree.