And the Nominees for This Year’s Bullsh*t “Best Metal Performance” Grammy Are…
Candlemass & Tony Iommi – “Astorolus – The Great Octopus”
Death Angel – “Humanicide”
I Prevail – “Bow Down”
Killswitch Engage – “Unleashed”
Tool – “7empest”
VV ACADEMIC ANALYSIS: The frontrunners, I’d imagine, are Tool and Candlemass/Tony Iommi. This is because every Grammy voter gets a say regardless of whether or not they know who the heck these artists are, and they will definitely recognize the names Tool and Tony Iommi even if they’ve never heard the songs in question. That also means Tool are likely the front-frontrunner, because they’ve won this category twice before (in 1998, for “Ænema,” and in 2002, for “Schism”), and especially because of the incredible success of Fear Inoculum. “7empest” is, in my unassailable expert opinion, the best song on that album, so I’m okay with it winning. It would also be neat for Candlemass to win, but they’d probably be doing so on Iommi’s coattails, which would be kind of a bummer, like breaking a professional sports record on steroids.
Which is why, in my heart of hearts, I’ll be pulling for Death Angel and Killswitch Engage, two honest-to-Dio, no-bullshit, successful-but-not-mega-star metal bands who don’t have a famous guest star on their nominated songs. FYI, Death Angel have never been nominated before, and KSE haven’t been nominated since 2005 (for the title track from The End of Heartache), which actually means Jesse Leach has never been nominated before. Good for all those dudes.
And if they lose, hey… they can take solace knowing that awards are completely meaningless and history will decide which art is or is not “worthy,” for lack of a better descriptor.
Here are some other categories in which you might be interested:
Best Rock Song
- Tool – “Fear Inoculum”
- The 1975 – “Give Yourself A Try”
- Vampire Weekend – “Harmony Hall”
- Brittany Howard – “History Repeats”
- Gary Clark Jr. – “This Land”
Best Rock Album
- Bring Me The Horizon – amo
- Cage The Elephant – Social Cues
- The Cranberries – In the End
- I Prevail – Trauma
- Rival Sons – Feral Roots
Best Rock Performance
- Bones UK – “Pretty Waste”
- Gary Clark Jr. – “This Land”
- Brittany Howard – “History Repeats”
- Karen O & Danger Mouse – “Woman”
- Rival Sons – “Too Bad”
This year’s awards will take place at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, CA on January 26, 2020.
[via The PRP]
