Forget snowflakes and mistletoe. There’s something about the Christmas season that just lends itself so well to monsters, murderers, spirits, and psychopaths. From the three ghosts in A Christmas Carol to Bobby “Boris” Pickett’s “Monster’s Holiday” to 1974’s Black Christmas up to Tim Burton’s A Nightmare Before Christmas, Halloween has been Christmas’s Secret Santa for decades. If there’s one creature that has come to embody the Halloween spirit during this time of year, it’s Krampus. The mythical half-goat, half-demon is celebrated in “Naughty & Nice,” the chillingly catchy track from that ghoulish gang on the Naughty list, LOVECRAFT.
“It’s a Holiday Horror surprise when Dec. 13th lands on a Friday. It was a spooky opportunity that we couldn’t pass up,” LOVECRAFT member DeepKutz says to HollywoodLife. “Sure, we all love Santa, but even Santa needs a nemesis. We felt that is was finally the time that Krampus gets the “shining” he deserves,” added Norman Crates, while Lil’ Punkin suggested that “Naughty & Nice” might be the perfect gift for people who are tired of the old Xmas standards. “ ’Santa Clause is Coming To Town,’ ‘White Christmas,’ ‘Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer’….blah blah blah. It’s finally time to celebrate Christmas’s most underrated spooky hooved character, Krampus, with a holiday bop of his own. I know I’ll be up all night wondering who’s coming down the chimney.”
A bop it is. “Naughty & Nice” is bound to replace “Jingle Bells” this season. The jingle-jangle beat will dance around your head like a sugarplum. It’s a Jack-o’-lantern bathed in colored Christmas lights, a wildly jolly track that throws in a dash of pumpkin spice along with the hot chocolate and candy cane flavor of the season. For the spooky-minded creeps out there, LOVECRAFT’s new song is exactly what they wanted for Christmas.
LOVECRAFT, much like the elves in Santa’s workshop, has worked tirelessly with some of the biggest names in music. The group of seven Halloween-obsessed songwriters – DeepKutz, Lil Punkin, Norman Crates, Scary Ana Grande, Ghost M’lone, Count Trackula, and DejaVudu – have penned hits for Beyoncé, Rihanna, Britney Spears, Mark Ronson, Madonna, Mariah Carey, Kylie Minogue, Charli XCX and countless others. The group came together to release This Is Halloween Volume 1 this year. The album featured nine original ghoulish tracks – including “Awooo” and “Skeleton Sam” – as well as two hauntingly fun covers of Kim Wilde’s “Kids In America” and Backstreet Boys “As Long As You Love Me.”
With Christmas encroaching further and further into Halloween’s territory – seriously, how many times do you see stores with Santa decorations for sale in the middle of October – this might seem like LOVECRAFT striking back. However, as it turns out, Christmas used to be just as spooky as All Hallow’s Eve. Telling ghost stories during the winter months is a hallowed tradition, according to Smithsonian.com. It’s a folk custom that “stretches back centuries,” but the Puritans frowned upon it, so it never really made its way over here to America. So, in their way, LOVECRAFT’s terrifying track about the demonic anti-Santa is totally in line with the reason for the season. Happy horror holidays!
