Last night, the nominees for the 56th Grammy Awards were announced in a ceremony in Los Angeles. While the hard rock and metal performance Grammys were combined a few years back, the phrasing has changed, and the category is merely “Best Metal Performance.” And unlike last year, when Halestorm was nominated (and won), at least all five of the nominees this year are actually bands that could be described as metal. Here’s what we’re looking at:
The Enemy Inside — Dream Theater
In Due Time — Killswitch Engage
Room 24 — Volbeat Featuring King Diamond
Not bad, right? It’s especially cool to see that while Volbeat was nominated, they went with the King Diamond track as opposed to one of their more commercial songs. And it’s a bit odd for Anthrax to score their second consecutive on behalf of an AC/DC cover that really didn’t move the needle anywhere. Elsewhere, Black Sabbath also got nominated for Best Rock Album and Best Rock song (for “God Is Dead?”). Queens of the Stone Age’s …Like Clockwork also picked up a trio of nominations for Best Rock Album, Bet Rock Performance (for “My God is the Sun”) and Best Engineered Album, Non Classical. The Sound City Reel to Real soundtrack got a Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media nomination while the Paul McCartney song from it, “Cut Me Some Slack,” was among the “Best Rock Song” nominees. And hey, Metallica’s Through the Never soundtrack got a nod for Best Recording Package!
You can read all of the nominees here, and watch the awards on January 26th.
