Epic Records originally sent Fight’s “Christmas Ride” as a promo to radio stations in 1994. This promo has evidently become somewhat of a collector’s item. But in the spirit of Christmas, Rob Halford has now made it available as a free download on his site. Downloading the two tracks (the song plus Halford’s holiday greeting) is a surprising pain in the arse, so I’ve put them up here.
Rob Halford’s Holiday GreetingChristmas Ride
Unlike many other metal Christmas songs, “Christmas Ride” isn’t a beefed up version of an existing classic. It’s basically just a Fight song, albeit about Satan…er, Santa: “The fat man’s coming and he knows no fear / He’s a big red rebel with some mean reindeer.” Halford has made a career out of turning such cheese into heavy metal thunder. Perhaps no other singer has a higher quality of voice to quality of lyrics ratio. Such simultaneous banality and transcendence are why he’s by far my favorite metal singer.
