PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
This is the 2nd full-length release from Lava/Atlantic recording entity Trans-Siberian Orchestra. After 3 seasons of radio and sales success via the dramatic "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24" track, TSO has started a whole new holiday music tradition. The 2nd installment of a planned trilogy, the new album tells it's story through an original blend of Symphonic and Rock music, courtesy of composer/guitarist/producer Paul O'Neill (Savatage).

AMAZON
Fans of Andrew Lloyd Webber will discover he has a soul mate in one Paul O'Neill, the "conductor" of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. A dyed-in-the-wool sentimentalist, O'Neill presents this pop-rock tale from 1998 with all the glitz and glory of a Lloyd Webber Broadway show. Playing to the common themes of the season through a tale about a little angel sent to Earth to leave behind a gift, O'Neill creates a big-sounding production heavy on lead guitars and orchestral filigree. There are pieces of familiar Christmas carols and hymns and a handful of unembellished acoustic numbers to offset the brighter parts of the musical melodrama. While his singers and players are all professional sounding, O'Neill often mistakes sentiment as a grand gesture when it needs to be something less ambitious or noticeable. Nonetheless, there's a TV special or Broadway show wrapped up in this attic and it won't go away until it gets done. --Martin Keller