August Burns Red Kick off the Holidays With ‘Santa Claus Is Coming to Town’
Is there any other metalcore band that loves Christmas as much as August Burns Red?
The Pennsylvanian act release a holiday single almost every year, and 2021 is no exception. On Friday (Nov. 12), August Burns Red shared an instrumental "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town."
The tune turns the winter classic into guitar-fueled metal, a method the Jake Luhrs-led band have refined since their 2008 take on "Carol of the Bells." Indeed, August Burns Red amassed enough Yuletide numbers that they released an entire Christmas album in 2012, Sleddin' Hill. But that hasn't stopped them from rocking even more holiday covers.
Listen to "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" below.
A newer August Burns Red seasonal tradition is the band's Christmas Burns Red concert in their hometown of Lancaster, Pa. This year's will take place on Dec. 29 at Lancaster's Freedom Hall with support from Zao, Texas in July, Lorna Shore and Varials.
ABR's most recent original song, "Vengeance," arrived last month. Their album Guardians came out last year, the Guardian Sessions EP in April. More recently, to celebrate 10 years of their 2011 album Leveler, ABR re-recorded that effort and mounted an anniversary tour.
"Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" (as it was initially stylized) was written by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie circa the 1930s. Banjo player Harry Reser captured its earliest recorded version in 1934. The 1970 stop-motion Christmas TV special, Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town, showed the song's continued popularity. It remains a holiday standard to this day.
NEW MUSIC PLAYLIST: Keep up with each week's new songs by following Loudwire's "Weekly Wire" Spotify playlist, featuring 50 tracks with updates each Friday.