Savatage was a heavy metal band that recorded an excellent 1995 album, DEAD WINTER DEAD (not exactly a holiday album).
Their popular song was CHRISTMAS EVE (Sarajevo 12/24) which was to be meditation on the plight of the people during the war in Sarajevo. Notable for it’s heavy metal instrumental version of CAROL OF THE BELLS it would soon become enshrined in popular holiday culture when the band changed it’s name to release an entire Christmas album. When Savatage reinvented themselves as The Trans Siberian Orchestra.

Now there is another unwarranted war being inflicted on a people who did not ask and did not deserve it. Let’s use this time to reflect on Ukraine and what the people are going thru this year. May they merge victorious against Putin’s savage, punishing brutalization.