The Juno Awards: Canadian Grammys > American Grammys
While the U.S. National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences is too busy giving awards to washed-up geriatrics to even remember to honor one of their own winners, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences seems to, like, ACTUALLY have their shit together: they’ve announced the nominees for their annual Juno Awards, which are basically the Canadian Grammys, and look which bands got nods for “Metal/Hard Music Album of the Year”:
- Anciients, Heart of Oak
- Gorguts, Colored Sands
- KEN Mode, Entrench
- Protest the Hero, Volition
- The Flatliners, Dead Language
I mean, HOLY SHIT, right? Four out of these five albums are ACTUALLY RELEVANT. (The exception is The Flatliners, who must be huge in Canada or something.) It’s almost as though the people in charge of the nominations really do pay attention to what’s going on in the world of metal and don’t just throw darts at a board to pick nominees, or include someone because “Oh, we’ve HEARD of them!” It’s enough to make me wish my father had dodged the draft and gone to live in Canada. I could have free health care AND music awards that aren’t a total joke right now. Sheesh.
UPDATE: Literally moments after completing this article, I received the below e-mail from Handshake Inc.’s David Hall:
Voivod Snubbed by Junos over Power-Pop Band; Petition Created by Former Juno Metal Judge to Fix Erroneous Mistake.
In a decision that seems reminiscent of the 1989 Jethro Tull/Metalica controversy of the 31st Grammy Awards, Quebecois Prog Metal Pioneers Voivod have been left out of the running for a Metal/Hard Music award at the 2014 Junos (Canada’s National Music Awards) – instead, a power-pop band from Ontario, Called The Flatliners, have received a nomination.
Voivod, formed in the early 1980s in Quebec, are not only considered by most metal-heads to be Canada’s preeminent metal band, but are adored world-wide by rabid fans and critics alike. In 2013, they released their sixteenth album, Target Earth, on Century Media, which scored an impressive 84/100 on aggregate critique site Metacritic.
The album, fully eligible for a Juno nomination, has been left out of the race, and, in what seems to be an error or mistake, a band called “The Flatliners,” a power-pop band from Ontario, have been nominated in the Metal/Hard category for their 2013 album “Dead Language.”
Enter David Hall…former Juno Metal/Hard Judge and owner of Handshake Inc., an independent film and video production company, and record label that specializes in metal music. “When I first read the nominations for the Metal/Hard category, I was like “who the f*ck are The Flatliners,” said Hall from his London, Ontario office, “and more importantly, where the f*ck are Voivod?” The other nominees, all metal bands, are KEN Mode, Gorguts, Ancients and Protest the Hero…the other nominee is The Flatliners.
In an effort to draw attention to this error, David Hall has created a petition through Care2, a petition website. The petition is called “Voivod are Metal, The Flatliners are Not: Fix this Mistake Junos.” Hall is hoping to receive one-thousand signatures which he will share with board of directors of the Junos.
Finally, Hall had this to say regarding the petition. “I have nothing against The Flatliners, I’m sure they are a wonderful band and I wish them no ill will, but they are simply not a metal band. I hope that through this petition I can help raise awareness about what an awesome metal band Voivod are, and perhaps make the Junos aware that a serious error was made.”
The petition can be found here.
So I guess not everyone is so happy with the nominations. But even with Voivod getting snubbed, The Junos are STILL superior to The Grammys, doncha think?
Thanks: Landon M.
