Merry Axemas, Vol. 2 Middletown NY

Merry Axemas, Vol. 2

Various Artists

Epic Records, 1998

REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 12/23/1998

Ah, nothing like the sounds of the holidays with two days to go before Christmas. The shoppers duking it out at Toys 'R' Us for the last Furby... the kids being traumatized during their yearly visit to Santa... the sound of electric guitar slaughtering what used to be a classic Christmas carol...

Whoa, Lumpy, back up there...

Drawing on the success of the first Merry Axemas volume, executive producer Steve Vai compiles, with the help of ten of today's hottest guitar players, a new collection of plugged-in Christmas songs on Merry Axemas, Vol. 2. And while I don't think this disc will be replacing Andy Williams on my stereo for holidays to come (gimme a break, I'm a child of the '70s), there are some interesting spins put on some of these numbers.

The guitar work falls into three distinct categories. First, you have the artists whose work has already been hailed as ground-breaking, and they do not fail to deliver the goods. Stu Hamm's bass guitar rendition of "Sleigh Ride" and ex-Yes guitarist Trevor Rabin's version of "O Come All Ye Faithful" stand out in this regard.