Style: heavy metal, thrash, tributeLabel: Metal Blade
Year: 2008
Home: San Diego, California
Members: Tim Lambesis ~ vocals/all instruments
Chad Ackerman ~ Ahhnold voice
As Christmas time approaches it seems like everyone wants to make a Christmas album, albeit most fail to make something that stands up to the rest of their catalog ... even Arnold Schwarzenegger, governor, movie star, terminator wants to get into the act ... well ... sort of ... ADM is the pet project of As I Lay Dying vocalist Tim Lambesis, or as he once put it AILD "is heartfelt & full of passion" while ADM "is an outlet of pure testosterone & stupidity." I'm glad he said & saved me the hassle, though I think he has the order backwards for ADM, albeit it is creative none the less. Many listeners may not be able to make it through the rather bland thrash onslaught of a full album by ADM so this EP is a safe place to go to get the same experience but in a smaller & tighter dose, plus it pretty much is the best of ADM, which is ... 'Ahhnold'. ADM usually fails by not including as much of the Terminating Governor as they should but with only three songs they have no time to waste & thus focus on the joke & do what they should do in the full albums. ADM sets out to answer what if the governor of California turned president? No, sorry, I mean, metal singer? The answer sort of answers the question ... sort of ... Ahhnold, done in a pretty good imitation, appears between the tracks doing some Terminator slang narration via skits & song introductions, only to have the songs be bland raunchy thrash with the normal shouting vocals done by Tim & not in the Ahhnold voice. It's supposed to be Arnold singing, but with Tim singing the joke is quickly killed. Sometimes Ahhnold will appear in a chorus or voice-over, but that's the extent of it. While the songs are violent but not necessarily Ahhnold themed. For full ADM albums the best way to listen is to skip over the music. But, on A Very Brutal Christmas, released the same year as their debut, the songs stay with an Ahhnold theme with the voice appearing before, in-between & during. The joke is kept tight like it should be. As for the songs themselves the title is misleading. The album was released for Christmas but features only one holiday song, "Jingle Bells". This is the highlight of the album, followed by the unmemorable Terminator themed original "Get To The Choppa" & a reworking of "Hell Bent For Leather" by Judas Priest. But, really, the music is secondary because really you just want to hear Ahhnold say "you'd better start working out or otherwise no cookies for you."
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