Hanukkah Gone Metal, Gods of Fire (Black Thirteen)

I don't know if Jack Black is Jewish -- there's a trivia nugget at IMDB.com that says he realized his acting talent while playing Freeze after a Passover seder -- but if he's heard about this 2009 album, he's probably kicking himself that he didn't think of it first. Gods of Fire are a working New York metal band that put together six original tunes and added two traditional songs to create a Hanukkah album -- one that sounds a lot like what a Hanukkah album by Tenacious D would sound like. Actually, I'm surprised there hasn't been more in the way of metal Hanukkah music, as the genre tends to gravitate toward material with epic storytelling potential, and Hanukkah does provide an epic story. The Gods are an excellent band in their genre, and their songs do a good job of depicting the story of the holiday, from disc opener "Eight Days of Victory" to closer "Taking the Temple." It's just that, well, metal is one of those genres that is rooted to a specific time period -- mid- to late-70s to mid-80s -- and seeing and hearing these guys is sort of like going to a Renaissance Faire set in that time period. A visit to their MySpace page reveals the band roster as "Prometheus (Vocals), DJ Blood Sacrifice (7 String Guitars, Keyboards), Saucy Jack (6 String Guitars), Helios (Drums), Evil Thunder (Bass)." And they address their blog posts to "Mortals." In the modern day, they would be well advised to shake off the cliches of the metal style and let the music speak for itself.