How beautiful Christmas could be – if it weren’t for Christmas. What may seem like a utopian idea of cultural romanticism is actually the premise of Germany’s major avantgarde outfit Panzerballett’s new record X-Mas Death Jazz. For too long the festivity has wasted away between well-meant “Merry Christmases” and gifts that would best be put away again right away. However, Panzerballett now offer a solution to that dilemma. “Extremized” Christmas songs – entirely without the dirty snow, crowded city centers and disgusting spiced wine. On their new album X-Mas Death Jazz Panzerballett this time utilize universally known Christmas songs from all over the world such as White Christmas, German classic Leise rieselt der Schnee as well as Last Christmas. However, the jazz-metal impresarios show no mercy so that, except for the basic tone progression, no stone is left unturned – none whatsoever. Once again Panzerballett utilize their self-perfected concept of “Verkrassung” (“extremization”) and thus create jazz-metal monsters that fuse technical force with the warmth of ease. The virtuoso skills of Jan Zehrfeld (guitar), Joe Doblhofer (guitar), Alxander von Hagke (saxophone), Heiko Jung (bass) and Sebastian Lanser (drums) add to a record that does not only have something to say but is also an enormous amount of fun. X-Mas Death Jazz can be summed up in few words: Hooray, de-Christmastized Christmas!
01) White Christmas (voc)
02) Kling, Glöckchen
03) Little Drummer Boy
04) Es kommt bald (voc)
05) Last Christmas
06) Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer (voc)
07) For Whom The Jingle Bells Toll
08) Let It Snow (voc)
Bonus:
09) White Christmas (inst)
10) Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer (inst)
11) Es kommt bald (inst)
12) Let It Snow (inst)