Trans-Siberian Orchestra Knows How To Ring Your Bell

Once again I come before you to salute one of the Christmas season's superlative holiday tunes. Back in 1995, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra did the season a real service by taking Carol of the Bells which quite often can be thought of as a light wispy escape into delicate snowfall memories and turning in into a brawny hard rock eargasm. It's as if they asked themselves: "What if Christmas went heavy metal?" At first this interpretation is pretty restrained. Some preliminary notes offered up on guitar, a bass fiddle for gravitas, and a flute punctures the air. Once you've been nudged into this world that's when the octane really fires up. Listening to the composition go on its high speed chase gets me excited each time, particularly when the electric guitar pushes its way into the spotlight. The piano thunders down the octave register like it has an axe to grind. With this rendition the rock audience is represented. There's a time and place for Frank Sinatra, Eartha Kit, and Mannheim Steamroller. The Trans-Siberian Orchestra shook things up, cobwebs and all, and made some diabolically clever music that could even win over people who'd rather gargle glass than embrace the prolonged merriment. Who knows. Maybe one day James Hetfield will be called upon to be conductor. Given what his band's been through over the years it would not surprise me to see him take on the challenge of learning the rhythms necessary to lead the orchestra and then give Carol his own imprint. This chestnut isn't for pansies.