Well metalheads, it’s Christmas time again. And no matter how much you profess to worship the devil, no matter how hard you go in the pit, no matter how tall your spikes are, no matter how long your hair is… admit it, you love Christmas. Come on, we see you headbanging to “White Christmas” and laying out cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve… even if you do eat them yourself the next day.

Well, the cool thing is, Christmas is a great time for metalheads. Know why? Because right around the holidays, there’s always tons of new cool shit for metalheads to buy. Here are a few gifts that will be ideal for your Christmas list, whether you’re doing the giving or the getting.

The 2020 Metalhead’s Holiday Gift Guide

Hey all you leather-jacket wearing, denim-jean ripping, pit-circle moshing, long-hair whipping, tattoo-covered mother effers”¦..it’s Christmas time! And you know what that means, it’s time to show those mangy metalheads in your life some appreciation by buying them gifts and stuff.

Now I know you probably don’t know nothing about no gift giving, which is why I’m here. That’s right, your good old metal mama is going to recommend some great gifts that you can give your metalhead friends without even having to get up from the computer. Okay, ready? Here goes…

… the 2018 Metalhead’s Holiday Gift Guide…

We Sold Our Souls
Hardcover | Kindle
By Grady Hendrix
Publisher: Quirk Books
Release date: September 18, 2018

The myth of musicians selling their souls to the devil in exchange for success goes back to 18th century violinist Niccolò Paganini, a rock star in his own time. But of all the musical genres, this Faustian pact has become most associated with heavy metal, the modern-day “devil music.” It’s one thing to choose to sell your soul to gain fame and fortune, but what if someone bargained your soul away for their own benefit without your knowledge, leaving you broke and in despair? That’s what happens to rising star Kris Pulaski in Grady Hendrix‘s We Sold Our Souls.

In the 1990s, guitarist Kris Pulaski and her band Durt Wurk were seemingly on the verge of a major breakthrough. They had released several well-received albums and had toured the world, where they opened for the likes of Slayer and repeatedly won over live audiences. But then one night, Durt Wurk’s lead singer, Terry Hunt, deceived and betrayed his bandmates, tricking them into signing a contract that led to his – and only his – eventual stardom and their downfall.

Two days before Christmas in 1985, a pair of young Judas Priest fans from Reno, NV went to a Lutheran church playground and attempted suicide with a 12-gauge shotgun under the chin. One of them died instantly while the other survived with facial disfigurement but died from an overdose of painkillers three years later. Their parents brought a civil action suit against the members of Judas Priest, alleging that their sons had been compelled to kill themselves after hearing what they believed to be a subliminal message hidden in a cover of Spooky Tooth’s 1969 song “Better by You, Better than Me” that Priest recorded for their 1978 album Stained Class.

Since the origins of rock & roll, any music that wasn’t family-friendly sock-hop fodder sung by Bing Crosby or Peggy Lee was considered to be the work of agents of the dark lord Satan, and groups of self-righteous religious nuts and power-mad authority figures assembled protests and burned thousands upon thousands of copies of these records in effigy. Horror filmmakers in the latter half of that narcissism-fueled decade cashed in on the raging hysteria by producing several low or medium-budget features with hard rock and/or heavy metal tunes not just occupying space on the soundtrack albums, but actually figuring prominently in the plots.

Horror and metal have always enjoyed a cozy relationship that endures to this day. Since no celebration of Halloween is complete without a juicy fright flick marathon to enjoy with that bag of candy you pilfered from your nieces and nephews, here’s my list of the 5 best heavy metal horror classics to ever grace a theater screen or the shelves at your neighborhood mom & pop video store that closed down ages ago and was replaced with a Verizon Wireless retailer.

Kreator
Gods of Violence
CD | MP3
Label: Nuclear Blast
Release Date: January 27, 2017

Teutonic thrash lords Kreator have just unleashed their fourteenth studio album, Gods of Violence. The record is out now worldwide via the Nuclear Blast label and marks the German legends’ first studio effort in five years. That’s the longest period that Kreator have ever taken between albums in their 30-year career. So, was it worth the wait?

In short, yes! Not only is Kreator at the top of their game musically, but Gods of Violence may just be their most cohesive effort to date. It’s truly amazing when any band has such longevity, but to continue raising the bar when many of your contemporaries have long since fallen out is an extreme rarity.