Band:	Majestica
Album:	A Christmas Carol
Style:	Power metal
Release date:	December 2020

01. A Christmas Carol
02. Christmas Story
03. Ghost Of Marley
04. Ghost Of Christmas Past
05. The Joy Of Christmas
06. Ghost Of Christmas Presen
07. Ghost Of Christmas To Come
08. A Christmas Has Come
09. A Majestic Christmas Theme

[Extended version]
01. A Christmas Carol
02. A Christmas Story
03. Glory Of Christmas
04. Ghost Of Marley
05. Ghost Of Christmas Past
06. The Joy Of Christmas
07. Ghost Of Christmas Present
08. This Christmas
09. Ghost Of Christmas To Come
10. A Christmas Has Come

Those of us who live in the United States have a peculiar problem around this time of year: there's some dumbass holiday wedged in between Halloween and Christmas that prevents us from decking our halls as soon as the clock hits November.* That holiday is called Thanksgiving, and it's when we Americans remember to be thankful for the smallpox blankets we used to take over the continent. But Metal Storm is based in Estonia, where there are no such barriers to Christmas, so it's time to get sleighed.

Tommy Johansson may have been conscripted by Sabaton back in 2016, but far from impeding his personal endeavors, his new assignment seems to have given him a rocket boost. Majestica - the newly christened reboot of his erstwhile solo project, ReinXeed - is already on its second album in as many years, and this ain't even Tommy's only full-length release this year (he provided lead vocals for Memories Of Old's debut album, The Zeramin Game). With COVID-19 roasting everybody's holiday plans on an open fire and Trans-Siberian Orchestra forced to hang up their jingly bells for the season, Tommy has taken the opportunity to raise our spirits while also realizing a long-nurtured dream of his: releasing a Christmas album. And not just any Christmas album, but a proper concept album that retells Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol.

Now, everyone and their fairy godmother has adapted A Christmas Carol over the years. Mickey Mouse did it. Blackadder did it. Beavis & Butthead did it. Yes, The Simpsons also did it, like, 16 times, probably. It's a story we know quite well, so it takes something special to make yet another adaptation worth sitting through. Fortunately, the name "Majestica" ain't for nothing.

All four members of Majestica share lead vocals on this album, and Tommy isn't the only one with a set of golden power metal pipes in his lungs; everyone here could be equally at home fronting their own band. The cast of strong, operatic voices turns A Christmas Carol into a proper musical, with distinct characters trading dialogue and sharing scenes, and the broad expanse of the album's lead vocal palette imbues the music with feelings of warmth, comity, and community that beautifully enhance the message of the story, not to mention some positively angelic, sky-piercing hooks. An ebullient orchestral backing - strings, horns, glittering mallet percussion, and, of course, sleigh bells - generates an even grander sense of the divinely cheesy, taking inspiration from Stradventovarius, Santa Arcticlaus, and Eggnog Malmsteen. In addition to writing soul-enriching power metal and spreading the joy of Christmas, the secret mission of this album is to cram as many classic carols into every song as possible; I love the "O Come All Ye Faithful" solo that tears through the middle of "A Christmas Story" and right into an "O Holy Night" breakdown, and the "Deck The Halls" verses of "Ghost Of Marley" have to be the best perversion of a holiday standard since Dio and Iommi's "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen." Even if Christmas isn't your trip, this immaculately produced ennead of luxurious power metal (with some purely symphonic bookends) will satisfy your need for cheese, providing both ripping speed metal charges ("Ghost Of Christmas Past") and sappy ballads ("The Joy Of Christmas").

Now, me, I'm a sentimental doofus, and I love Christmastime. And while I do think it's a little early to start tossing tinsel over every banister and hand-carving your Nativity scenes, I can't deny that I, like most of you, have been in need of a little pick-me-up. A Christmas Carol may not be my favorite album of 2020, but it's the first one in all these months that has, purely through its own essence, made me feel kind of? good. It's certainly one of the most joyous celebrations of the season you'll hear in a heavy metal context, and it might be just the tidings that you need. This year, I won't be visiting family or spending time with my friends or even participating in an office party out of consideration for the circumstances, and neither should you, but hunkering down in your virus bunker doesn't mean that you have to miss out on the joy of Christmas.

*Not that that stops the department stores and radio stations from going from Dio to Dion as soon as Halloween dies.