Hanukah Gone Metal

It had to happen sooner or later: following last year's Songs in the Key of Hanukah by Erran Baron-Cohen, this year will see the relase of a Chanukah-themed metal album. I recently heard a pre-release copy of Hanukah Gone Metal by the New York band Gods Of Fire.

Although there are a couple of covers, most of the album is original material. It's still shtick though, replete with puns and word play predicated on the unlikelihood of Hanukah (and Jews) getting the metal treatment. So we have 'No Gelt No Glory' and 'Spin for the Blood of Our Elders'. The central conceit is the Maccabees and the Jewish people treated the way Hammerfall treat the Templars - as a legendary band of mythic warriors. Here's the title track:

And here's the lyrics:

On the first night of Hanukkah, I received a mighty dreidel
On the second night of Hanukkah, I received a little latke
On the third night of Hanukkah I did receive the mystical treasure of gelt
On the fourth night of Hanukkah I did receive the sadness of oversided socks

I must see
What it will be!

Hanukkah Gone Metal!
The festival of lights
Hanukkah Gone Metal!
Are you ready for your eight crazy nights?

On the fifth night of Hanukkah I received a golden yarmulke
On the sixth night of Hanukkah I received Judah's steel sword
On the seventh night of Hanukkah I did receive a Menorrah constructed of bones
On the eighth and final night of it all I received...
I received...
The gift
Of
METAL!!!

Spin me a winner baby
Fry it up
You know I'm gonna make you rich baby
Walk a mile in my shoes

I want a golden yarmulke
I want Judah's steel sword
Gimme my mighty Menorrah made of bones
On the eighth night, I DEMAND METAL!!!

Hanukkah Gone Metal!
Are you ready for your eight crazy nights?
Hanukkah Gone Metal!
The festival of lights
Hanukkah Gone Metal!
The festival of lights
Hanukkah Gone Metal!
Are you ready for your eight crazy nights?

It's pretty amusing stuff. I like the 'gift of METAL' line and the metallisation of the various gifts ('a might dreidl' etc). The song, like the rest of the album works well as metal and the band clearly know what they are doing. This isn't pseudo-metal used in a cynical way to promote a Jewish 'message', if anything it is the reverse: the album kind of uses Judaism to honour metal. And hey why not?

Like Purim, Hanukah has become the a festival of Jewish shtick (Gods Of Fire work with something called Major League Dreidl). My niggling worry with this is that to some extent the shtick on Hanukah Gone Metal only works because of the assumed strangeness of Jewish metal. I love humorous music, but I've always yearned for ways of doing metal Jewishly that were 'serious' to the extent that the relation between Jews and metal was as unremarkable as between other nations and metal.

Still, I don't know when Hanukah Gone Metal is officially released, but when it is it's worth getting a copy: it's too damn fun to get hung up on its cultural politics.

UPDATE: I'm informed that the album is on iTunes and Amazon.

Comments

[Jack]

Truly awesome. Thanks for posting this.

[Random Internet Jew]

Has anyone heard the LeeVees' "Hanukkah Rocks"?