With the music charts of today being overrun with hip-hop-flavored tunes when they're not hip-deep in bro-country, it's become popular in the music press to write the obituary of rock 'n roll. Well, it's still out there, as this website continues to confirm, even the particular rock genres that have fallen out of style, like heavy metal. Which brings us to Thor, a band from Vancouver, B.C., that's been around since 1973 (quite a story, by the way) and still records and tours to this day. Given the current ubiquity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you'd have to assume they managed to grandfather their use of a major Marvel comic book character's name for their band. This 2018 Christmas album is straight-up original 70s metal and hard rock, with all the screaming guitar, stomping drums and rock heroics intact. That said, ever since "This Is Spinal Tap" it's tempting to rate metal bands against those fictional icons, and I'll say these guys aren't actually ludicrous in the manner of Chris Guest's creations. Nevertheless, there is a lot of cliché-slinging going on here. I mean, "The Slay Rider," pun intended? "Gonna Have a Rockin' Christmas?" But I'll give them credit for a full album of original tunes performed with conviction (leaving aside "Not So Little Drummer Boy," sung by a child before breaking into a full metal drum solo). They demonstrate their mastery of the power ballad with "It's Christmas Time" and "Our Last Christmas," rock out hard on "Lend Me Your Ears," "Donner & Blitzen," "If Tomorrow Never Comes," and mix a pastiche of holiday readymades with horror movie cliches on "Cold Saint Nick," read in the style of "Night Before Christmas." Metal was never my thing, but if it's yours, well, Merry Christmas.
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