DeathOfSeasons So by now you should all know who Austrian Death Machine are. If not, Austrian Death Machine is a novelty Thrash Metal side-project of Tim Lambesis (vocalist of As I Lay Dying). Anyway, this is Austrian Death Machine's second release for 2008 (their first being their underrated debut, Total Brutal). Anyway, this is a mostly unnecessary release, as it contains only one unreleased song (a cover of Jingle Bells), a track off their debut (Get to the Choppa) and an unreleased at the time cover of Judas Priest' Hell Bent for Leather (now available on Double Brutal).

Anyway, the album starts off with Jingle Bells. This is the highlight of the album. The chorus is awesome, with Lambesis yelling and growling "Jingle all the way". However, the song fails when it comes to the verses. The song swaps to Arnold Schwarzenegger (voiced by Chad Ackerman) talking about how Santa should loose weight or else there will be no cookies for him. It seems out of the place and those parts should've been swapped for something similar to the faster paced chorus. I'd like to note the awesome guitar solo which perfectly captures the sound of Christmas and Thrash Metal. Fuckin' awesome.

The second track, Get to the Choppa was the highlight of Total Brutal and it's still just as awesome here. It contains a great riff, awesome (catchy) chorus and a kick ass solo. However, the song is letdown by the random breakdown at the end of the song. It's out of place and it really shouldn't be there.

The last track is a huge letdown. While the two previous tracks are awesome, Hell Bent for Leather is goddamn awful. It has an epic guitar solo, but it contains some terrible clean vocals in which Tim Lambesis tries to imitate Rob Halford and fails miserably. Throw in a lot of chugging guitars and a what the fuck? moment near the end when some guy pretending to be a chicken starts singing.

So overall this release is quite pointless. If you have both Total Brutal and Double Brutal then don't even bother with this. But if you don't, then this is worthy of the one dollar it goes for on Amazon.

Download: Jingle Bells

For fans of: Municipal Waste, Santa Claus

(Originally written for Rate Your Music)