2017 holiday release. How beautiful Christmas could be - if it weren't for Christmas. What may seem like a utopian idea of cultural romanticism is actually the premise of Germany's major avantgarde outfit Panzerballett's X-Mas Death Jazz. For too long the festivity has wasted away between well-meant "Merry Christmases" and gifts that would best be put away again right away. However, Panzerballett now offer a solution to that dilemma. Extremized Christmas songs - entirely without the dirty snow, crowded city centers and disgusting spiced wine. On X-Mas Death Jazz, Panzerballett utilize universally known Christmas songs from all over the world such as 'White Christmas', German classic 'Leise rieselt der Schnee' as well as 'Last Christmas'. However, the jazz-metal impresarios show no mercy so that, except for the basic tone progression, no stone is left unturned - none whatsoever. Once again Panzerballett utilize their self-perfected concept of "Verkrassung" ("extremization") and thus create jazz-metal monsters that fuse technical force with the warmth of ease. The virtuoso skills of Jan Zehrfeld (guitar), Joe Doblhofer (guitar), Alxander von Hagke (saxophone), Heiko Jung (bass) and Sebastian Lanser (drums) add to a record that does not only have something to say but is also an enormous amount of fun. X-Mas Death Jazz can be summed up in few words: Hooray, de-Christmastized Christmas!