Tonight, the Recording Industry is in a tizzy for “The Biggest Night In Music” (but that’s their own branding and not those of us here in the trenches support that which Rocks and Makes The Metal. Based on the time that I am posting this, we are still about 45 minutes away from the broadcast of the 2019 Grammy Awards but you Heavy Music loyalists don’t even have to tune in since they have already given out the awards for the five (count ’em FIVE) Rock and Metal Categories. I’ve listed those winners down below and left those who were also nominated to you can have a point of argument if your favorite didn’t end up winning the Grammy. Let’s go.
Best Rock Performance:
“Four Out Of Five” by Arctic Monkeys (from “Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino”)
WINNER – “When Bad Does Good” by Chris Cornell
“Made An America” by THE FEVER 333 (from “Made An America”)
“Highway Tune” by Greta Van Fleet
“Uncomfortable” by Halestorm (from “Vicious”)
Best Metal Performance:
“Condemned To The Gallows” by Between The Buried And Me
“Honeycomb” by Deafheaven
WINNER – “Electric Messiah” by High On Fire (from “Electric Messiah”)
“Betrayer” by Trivium (from “The Sin And The Sentence”)
“On My Teeth” by Underoath (from “Erase Me”)
Best Rock Song:
“Black Smoke Rising” by Jacob Thomas Kiszka, Joshua Michael Kiszka, Samuel Francis Kiszka & Daniel Robert Wagner, songwriters (Greta Van Fleet)
“Jumpsuit” by Tyler Joseph, songwriter (Twenty One Pilots)
“MANTRA” by Jordan Fish, Matthew Kean, Lee Malia, Matthew Nicholls & Oliver Sykes, songwriters (Bring Me The Horizon)
WINNER – “Masseduction” by Jack Antonoff & Annie Clark, songwriters (St. Vincent) (from Masseduction)
“Rats” by Tom Dalgety & A Ghoul Writer, songwriters (Ghost) (from Prequelle)
Best Rock Album:
“Rainier Fog” by Alice In Chains
“M A N I A” by Fall Out Boy
“Prequelle” by Ghost
WINNER – “From The Fires” by Greta Van Fleet
“Pacific Daydream” by Weezer
Best Alternative Music Album:
“Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino” by Arctic Monkeys
“Colors” by Beck
“Utopia” by Björk
“American Utopia” by David Byrne
“Masseduction” by St. Vincent
In Memoriam Fails: In 2018 the Heavy Metal world lost Kyle Pavone (We Came As Romans), Oli Herbert (All That Remains), Jill Janus (Huntress), “Fast” Eddie Clarke (Motorhead, Fastway), Chris Tsangaridis (Famed Producer) and Vinny Paul (Pantera, Damageplan, Hellyeah). All of these artists were left off of the In Memoriam segment. Speaking frankly this didn’t surprise me since they had slighted Metal and Hard Rock in the past and one massive omission comes to mind when they failed to mention Jeff Hanneman of Slayer. I guess I should also add shock that Dolores O’Riordan of The Cranberries was also left off. I guess they ran out of time by adding a performance of an Aretha Franklin song to the tributes but I really don’t think they would have included them anyway.
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PiercingMetal Predictions: Back in December, I laid out my predictions as falling to Greta Van Fleet, Ghost and David Byrne and well, it looks like I am fortunate that I am not really a betting man. While I was glad to see the late great Chris Cornell win the “Best Rock Performance”, I think with him having passed that a special honor should have been delivered instead. High On Fire winning “Best Metal Performance” was cool but I felt that the combined group of nominees was weird and I wasn’t 100% sure how they were selected. Still good to see a heavy band doing well and hopefully it brings more fans to shows overall. The winner of “Best Rock Song” should have gone to Ghost for “Rats” and not the Pop/Disco-esque offering by St. Vincent so on that one I felt the true Rock acts were cheated. Glad to see GVF winning “Best Rock Album” but I think their only competition in the category was Ghost and Alice In Chains. Oh well, another year down as the awards show moves further and further away from the music that I love to listen to and talk about. This past year I felt that the nominees were all over the road with only a few that made absolute sense to me but perhaps I am jaded. Kudos once more to Chris, High On Fire, Beck, St. Vincent and Greta Van Fleet for their wins.
Official Website: http://www.grammy.com