Welcome to the first installment of what could eventually be called “Metal Heads Are Nice, Too”. Where we present to you stories about metal heads being… well, big softies really. Since having discovered Metal Cats
and reading about Slayer’s recent rescue of a stray kitten (they called her Gyspy and got her adopted because awww)
we’ve been waiting for something even more magical to happen. And it has. Holy Father Christmas, it so has.
Christopher Lee (actually, that’s Sir. Christopher Frank Carandini Lee), bad-ass 92 year old who you might remember from Lord Of The Rings or any of his 300-odd other film and television appearances (not even kidding, his Filmography has it’s own Wikipedia page), has released a Christmas single. Yep. You read that correctly.
A. Christmas. Single.
It seems we were perhaps a little premature on the best Christmas songs front, and really, we should have known. We should have known it was coming because in 2012 and 2013, Lee released Christmas EPs for all to delight in. Just like this year’s offering Darkest Carols, Faithful Sing is a light-hearted gift to the world, it would seem that his operatic tones were one to Lee, as his great-grandparents were Opera singers.
No stranger to the world of heavy metal, Lee has worked with members of Judas Priest in the past and has released in total four EPs, including this year’s Metal Knight. The single, Jingle Hell (we see what you did there) from last year’s EP A Metal Christmas Too found its way to number 18 on the Billboard charts, which made him the oldest living artist ever to chart. Darkest Carols, Faithful Sing can be heard at the 1:50 mark in the video. Seeing as we’re super nice though, we thought we’d be generous and provide you with a little compilation that includes snippets of previous releases, too.
This is some pure Santa Clause magic and you all need to listen to it (keep an ear out for some of the creative and all ’round metal lyrical adaptations throughout the various tracks) because it’s killer. And by that, we mean: Merry Christmas, boys and girls.
Merry Metal Christmas.