Last night, the nominations for the 55th Annual Grammy Awards were announced. As we all know, the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) has proven in the past how ignorant they are in regards to metal. So how do this year’s nominees for the “Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance” awards look?
Well let’s get right into it, here are this year’s “Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance” nominees:
Anthrax, “I’m Alive”
Halestorm, “Love Bites (So Do I)”
Iron Maiden, “Blood Brothers [live from En Vivo]”
Lamb Of God, “Ghost Walking”
Marilyn Manson, “No Reflection”
Megadeth, “Whose Life (Is It Anyway?)
So let’s point out the flaws first. We love Iron Maiden (and they are known for releasing great live albums), but it kind of blows that a live track got nominated over other deserving metal songs. And technically, Megadeth and Anthrax should have been nominated last year (both songs appeared on albums released in 2011). Still, it’s great to see Anthrax getting some well deserved love, along with Lamb Of God. And even though Halestorm and Marilyn Manson’s nominations are questionable, we’d argue that they’re better picks than Sum 41 (who were nominated last year for the same award… for some reason).
And unsurprisingly, the rest of the Grammys lack any really metal (or even hard rock for that metal). The Black Keys are the most rock the two main awards get (aka “Record Of The Year” and “Album Of The Year”), while Muse also got some love from the Academy. Tenacious D also nabbed a nomination for “Best Comedy Album.” We’ll be sharing our predictions shortly, but in short: this year’s Grammy nomination for metal/hard rock is slightly better… key word being slightly.
