I don’t want a lot for Christmas either, but I also didn’t know I wanted or needed this cover, so at this rate, spin the wheel and make a deal, I suppose.
Metalcore frontrunners August Burns Red have had a thing for releasing holiday albums in the last few years, namely their 2012 effort Sleddin’ Hill and their non-album single “What Child is This? (Greensleeves)” in 2016. Their holiday shows have also become the stuff of legend, but with the ongoing pandemic, that will be taking a different form altogether. The band will be streaming a Christmas Burns Red show on Sunday, December 12th, and to whet the appetite for it, the band has released their instrumental cover of the Mariah Carey holiday classic “All I Want for Christmas is You.”
Says guitarist JB Brubaker on the effort:
“Doing an annual holiday show has been a long-standing tradition for ABR. This will be our 15th consecutive year, and we didn’t want to let COVID-19 end the streak. While we are bummed we can’t play for everyone in person, we are doing everything we can to make sure that this year’s Christmas Burns Red is bigger and better than ever. This will be our first time playing a bunch of new songs off of Guardians, and we are putting the finishing touches on our biggest stage production to date. We can’t wait to play for you again!”
The cover is a shredtastic good time, and probably was best left as an instrumental, as a growling and screaming version of the song may have proved to be as unbearable as Carey’s original. There’s a lot of great guitar things on display here, and in true metalcore fashion, we end on a D-beat breakdown that opens up pits big enough to make keeping six feet apart from one another that much easier.
Tickets and merch bundles for the December 12th Christmas Burns Red show can be purchased here.
Stream the instrumental take on “All I Want for Christmas is You” below:
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