5 Songs to Get You Through the Week #146

5 Songs to Get You Through the Week is a feature I run on Young Ears, Fresh Perspective on Sundays/early hours of Monday morning where I pick out 5 tunes that I think are notable and tell you a bit about them. The point is to give you some rocking music to help you deal with your weekday blues. You can either listen to one each day, listen to them all at once, or any other combination that you feel. As long as you can get through the week without the man getting you down, that's all I care about. Without further ado, here are the 5 tracks I've picked out for this week:

1. Carol of the Bells, by Steve Lukather featuring Steve Vai

I think this was a pretty cool collaboration between two phenomenal guitarists. I know the Trans-Siberian Orchestra version is the more famous one, but I think this one is still DEFINITELY worth your time and attention. With these two guys playing on the same track, it's got to be pretty good wouldn't you think? Anyway, give it at least one play when you have a moment. It's a neat take on a classic carol.

2. Heavy Metal Christmas, by Joe Satriani

Satch did something pretty cool with Silent Night. He starts off with main melody of the song in his signature style, but then he goes off into a prog rock odyssey with it and closing with the melody once more. You might not think it would be that interesting, but it actually is. It kept my attention the entire time because I wasn't expecting it to go the way it did and I was wondering just what was going to happen next.
 

3. Oh Come All Ye Faithful, by Twisted Sister

I have LOVED this version of the song since I first heard it. Twisted Sister brought its classic 80's rock n' roll rebel look and attitude to this song and made it epic. I didn't think you could do such a thing with a Christmas carol (especially a religious one) and turn it into something so loud, pounding, and rocking. It just goes to show you that just because you believe in and worship Jesus it doesn't mean you have to be wimpy and lame about it.

4. Rain Drops on Christmas, by Buckethead

This is a whole album (though a short one) rather than just a song, but I felt the whole thing was worth posting because all of the songs work and flow together so well. You wouldn't think that Buckethead being the creepy Halloween centric guy he is would be able to pull off something with such a rich, genuine, magical Christmas vibe but in this work of art he manages to do just that. For those of you who might be apprehensive about giving him a try, this might not be a bad way to get a first look.

5. Mistress for Christmas, by AC/DC

This has always been one of my absolute favorite Christmas songs of all time. I never would have expected AC/DC to do a Christmas song because it just isn't their style. However, this tune shows that not only could they do one but they could do it well. It's cranked to 11, speaker busting, and sleazy as all hell; so pretty much everything you would expect from AC/DC. They manage to do all that AND keep it festive. Not an easy thing to accomplish.

Writer's Moment:

This will be the final week of posting for this year.After this coming Friday I will be done for 2017. I will be taking the rest of the year off to spend time relaxing and enjoying the holidays with my friends and family. I will be returning on January 3rd to get back to business as usual. In the mean time though, I will be posting every day now through Friday with my annual Top 10 Albums of 20XX posts to let you know what I thought the best releases of 2017 were!