The Third Eye

Brooklyn-based psychedelic doomers Clouds Taste Satanic are wishing you a very evil Christmas! So, if you get an Aleister Crowley book in the mail from an anonymous person this year during the holidays, you know who it may be from. The band released a four-song EP of Christmas covers called All I Want for Christmas is Your Soul on November 24th, just in time for the holidays.

The covers include a heavy reworking of “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” “Little Drummer Boy,” and the Spinal Tap original, “Christmas With the Devil.” But the centerpiece of the EP is the band’s take on Mariah Carey’s ubiquitous “All I Want for Christmas is You,” a song you can’t escape this time of year and sometimes makes me want to barf.

“Christmas songs from a doom metal band, you ask?” Clouds Taste Satanic says in the press release. “Just because they are fans of Satan doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy a bit of holiday cheer. And what song isn’t improved with a heaping helping of loud guitar?” That’s a good point. And the band has always had a, dare I say, devilish sense of humor, so this EP makes perfect sense.

Christmas songs from Clouds Taste Satanic bring a new meaning to this year’s holidays. It’s kind of like the classic holiday movie Home Alone with a demonic twist. By alone, they mean alone in an indifferent universe that cares nothing about your sufferings and petty problems. Alone as in forsaken by God and exiled to the seventh circle of hell. Alone, as in lost in the dark woods and chased by a serial killer, as you beg and plead for your life. You get the point.

“You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” is a doom take on the holiday classic with plenty of sinister atmosphere and fuzzed-out guitar. “Christmas with the Devil” is an excellent take on the Spinal Tap song and maybe a good one to play while unwrapping presents this year. The drums in “Little Drummer Boy” sound less like holiday cheer and more like a death march through the North Pole.

And then there’s the crown jewel of the bunch: “All I Want for Christmas is Your Soul.” If any band can take Mariah Carey’s hit holiday classic and twist it into something evil, then it has to be Clouds Taste Satanic. The cover maintains the up-tempo bubbliness but it’s all fed through post-doom and fuzzed-out metal.

It appears All I Want for Christmas is Your Soul is only available digitally on Bandcamp but here’s hoping the band releases it on vinyl or CD eventually. It would sure be great to see this gift nestled under the Christmas tree.

Check out All I Want for Christmas is Your Soul on Bandcamp here.

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