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Christmas is usually filled with the sound of jingling bells and strumming harps.

But Trans-Siberian Orchestra is welcoming back the holiday season with its screaming guitars and drum solos during its 2015 winter tour.

The band's two shows Tuesday in Salt Lake City will feature fan favorites from its Yuletide story "The Ghosts of Christmas Eve," which was made into a one-hour film for Fox several years ago, but hasn't been played live since.

In addition to songs possibly not heard live before, this year's concertgoers are getting a bonus. With every ticket comes a digital download of the band's latest effort, "Letters from the Labyrinth."

The new album is a "major change" from the band's usual album-length rock operas that are built around a single story, said band creator Paul O'Neill.

"It's a collection of completed songs that have, basically, left the safety of the studio where they were born. The stories will emerge from their combined journeys," O'Neill said. "Just as TSO was designed to be a constantly evolving, morphing band over the decades, 'Letters from the Labyrinth' is our first album where we're experimenting, we're calling it an open-ended album."

The album draws much of its inspiration from some of the darkest events happening around the world — from Ukraine to Syria.

O'Neill said the idea for the new album changed dramatically in a single day. While he was playing in Germany, he bumped into two young men from Iraq who were Sunni Muslim. About 50 feet away, he talked with two young men from Iran who were Shiite Muslim. All four were there to attend the TSO show.

O'Neill said he pictured a moment in the future when these four faced each other on a battlefield and recognized each other from the TSO show. He said he hoped they would put down their weapons in that moment.

"It's hard to hate someone, let alone shoot them, that you've gone to a concert with," he said. "That is the magic of music. It's really amazing."

The writing process also changed as the band moved away from its traditional album concept.

"In some ways it's easier; when I have the story written I know emotionally where each song should go, I know where the melodies should go, the balance, the dynamic," O'Neill said. "This is a new action adventure for us. Again, it's not a rock opera, it's not a regular album where it's a bunch of songs, it's kind of a hybrid, it's something in between."

TSO also has unveiled a new symbol that will be stamped on the front of its new album: two phoenixes intertwined to resemble the yin-yang sign.

"A phoenix is something that rises out of the ashes from something destroyed by evil, to build something stronger. It's done in the yin-yang shape … which is, basically, the balance of life and looking out at things from the other perspective. We combined those two images," O'Neill said.

But one thing hasn't changed: the over-the-top production of a TSO show.

The band has formed a team of people who can operate the lights, the lasers, the pyrotechnics and other effects in a seamless way to create a single "nervous system" for the show to break the barrier between an audience member and the band, O'Neill said.

"We all realize, the bottom line is, it's all about the audience," he said. "To take everybody in that arena on a journey of their imagination where they're not in that arena. They escaped and they feel emotions they never felt before. They leave that building recharged." —

When • Tuesday, Nov. 24, at 4 and 8 p.m.

Where • Vivint Smart Home Arena, 301 W. South Temple, Salt Lake City

Tickets • $42.50 to $61.50 at smithstix.com or at Smith's Tix outlets