Thursday, June 29, 2017

Trans Siberian Orchestra This Christmas Day Review


Trans Siberian Orchestra is known as one of the best Christmas Rock and Metal bands ever.  Starting in 1996 TSO was born when the prog metal band, Savatage ended.  Paul O' Neill, Jon Oliva, Robert Kinkel, and Al Pitrelli would become the leaders of this huge music production and they would put their vision to the test when they were making the Christmas Eve and Other Stories album.  They decided to create the melodic metal Christmas themed album by bringing together many different vocalists and musicians and it would result in one of the best and highly recognized Christmas albums of all time.  Christmas Eve and Other Stories would come to contain one of my all time favorite Christmas rock songs, This Christmas Day. 

This Christmas Day has a great musical flow to it.  The way it starts with piano and horns is a good slow intro that sets you up for a positive, uplifting Christmas song.  Then when Tommy Farese starts singing he really builds on that feeling.  Tommy has a very good blues style voice that fits perfectly with this song.  He captures the mood and feel so well and I would argue that nobody does it better then him.  Then there is the great melodic guitar work of Al Pitrelli.  I have always thought Al Pitrelli is an underrated guitar player and he delivers big time on this song.  He owns the guitar solo he plays in this song.  It is very melodic and well balanced to include some fancy playing without getting away from what the mood is.  Musically, everybody did a fantastic job. 

Lyrically, this is a good message about a daughter returning home for Christmas.  The verse starts out with the family wondering what the meaning of Christmas is and contemplating if there is a meaning.  Then when the chorus comes in and the daughter returns they realize what Christmas is about.  I like a song that tells a story lyrically and this song does it very well.  When you hear the lyrics you know what the story is and it really captures your attention which is not easy to do.  Jon Oliva and Paul O Neill did a fantastic job writing the lyrics.

I have seen TSO three times and every time they have played this song and they have made it sound amazing.  This song is very well composed, very well written, and creates a unique Christmas song that sounds like TSO and TSO alone.  Christmas Eve and Other Stories is a great album and the one song I recommend the most off it is This Christmas Day.  For its well written lyrics and well composed music I give This Christmas Day a 5 out of 5.    


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