Carol Of The Heavy Metal Bells
Is heavy metal the sole musical genre of action films? No, of course not. Stupid question.
There’s plenty of badass moments scored to dope rap songs, operatic and symphonic tunes, and even the occasional ironic bop. But metal covers of non-metal tracks tend to make them more bombastic with visions of super guns dancing in one’s head. (If you add in a strings section to that? Ooowee; now you got a stew going!)
Enter Orion’s Reign and their cover of “Carol Of The Bells.” According to Metal Temple’s review of Orion’s Reign’s album Scores Of War, the band’s niche is
symphonic power metal that started in 2001 and hails from Athens, Greece. This is a reissue of their 2018 album “Scores of War” which was the band’s second full-length release, originally through Pride and Joy Music. “Elder Blood” has some really powerful choirs before having a full-fledged assault and some really long high notes from Daniel Vasconcelos, who has quite the set of pipes. I find there are some similarities with SABATON in how the band has very high energy. The vocals are rather different from the latter, but they pack quite the punch.
“Carol Of The Bells” is already a dramatic song perfect for a car chase, siege, or some sort of steadily escalating fighting sequence that ends with a parlor scene where the villain informs the hero that, despite all appearances to the contrary, they are not so different. It’s also covered with suitably badass guitars by August Runs Red—which was used in American Dad’s outstanding “For Whom The Sleigh Bell Tolls” episode.
So why choose this version by Orion’s Reign over the others? Cuz it’s dope as fuck, they put out an entire album of Christmas music (Carols Of Chaos) so there’s a lot more to listen to if you dig it, and whoever uploaded the video for “Carol Of The Bells” put in a bunch of research and information into it. At the very least, more than you’d expect:
Originaly, the name of the song was "Shchedryk" (from Ukrainian: Щедрий вечiр, "Bountiful Evening"). "Shchedryk" was a Ukrainian New Year's carol. It was arranged by composer Mykola Leontovych in 1904, and tells a story of a swallow flying into a household to sing of wealth that will come with the following spring. "Shchedryk" was later adapted as an English Christmas carol, "Carol of the Bells", by Peter J. Wilhousky, who changed the lyrics ( (which were not based on the Ukrainian lyrics).
Enjoy Orion’s Reign performing “Schedryk”. Be sure to follow them on Twitter and if you dig this, check out their other holiday tunes on Spotify. Hit it, Rockapella!
(Thanks to the constant ebb and flow of Nazis, I try to vet some of these things. So if it turns out Orion’s Reign is really cool with the European fascist movement Golden Dawn or something, please let me know so I can take this down, apologize, and add them to the list of Nazi punks that should fuck off.)