QUESTION OF THE WEEK: WHAT ARE YOUR NOMINATIONS FOR BEST METAL GRAMMY?

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Welcome to “Question of the Week,” a (sometimes) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue.

This week’s question was once again suggested by “Hipsters Out of Metal!” columnist Anso DF, and even though the Grammy nominations were actually announced last week, it still seemed like a fun debate to have. So:

WHAT ARE YOUR NOMINATIONS FOR BEST METAL GRAMMY?

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

So this basically just a fancy way of asking what our five favorite metal songs of the year were, right? Okay, that’s a little tricky, but off the top of my head, in alphabetical order by artist:

• Enslaved, “Ethica Odini”
• Kvelertak, “Fossegrim”
• Levi/Werstler, “Casting The Molten Sea”
• Nachtmystium, “Then Fires”
• Triptykon, “A Thousand Lies”

This leaves out literally hundreds, if not thousands, of other great songs that came out this year, but we’re fantasizing about a meaningless award show, so I’m not gonna agonize over it too much. Ppppffffttt.

-Axl Rosenberg

Best Metal Performance

• Arsis — “Forced To Rock”
• Deftones — “Beauty School”
• Iron Maiden — “The Alchemist”
• Overkill — “Bring Me The Night” (w)
• Soilwork — “Enter Dog of Pavlov”

P.S. Best Hard Rock Performance

• Alice in Chains — “Lesson Learned” (w)
• Crashdiet — “Armageddon”
• Filter — “No Love”
• Monster Magnet — “Ghost Story”
• Ratt — “Take Me Home”

-Anso DF

To quote de-facto metaller Chuck D, “who gives a fuck about a goddamn Grammy?” But, confoundingly, everyone does, so the metal category — so out of the touch that they pick live versions of old songs by established bands instead of taking seven minutes to seek out an even-slightly underground band on the reg — gets a pathetic amount of attention, especially from the “THATS METAL EW LOL” crowd (of which there are plenty this year, considering that Katy fucking Perry is up for Album of the Year. Yes, the industry puts a ton of emphasis on an awards show that considers Katy Perry — an admittedly magnificent pair of boobs with literally no other talent of which to speak — to have potentially put out the BEST ALBUM OF THE YEAR.) That being said, complaining about the Grammys is like whining about baseball salaries or snow in New England, so I’m approaching Andy Rooney-level proportions of needless curmudgeoning. Were the world finally right and I was in charge of picking the Grammys’ Best Metal Songs for ’10, I’d have to go with: High on Fire’s “Snakes of the Divine” (“Thunderstruck” for the Relapse Records set), Triptykon’s “Goetia” (I haven’t heard a stronger statement of purpose open an album in a long-ass time), Fleshwrought’s “Self-Destructive Self Loating” (if I could nominate that riff toward the end on its own, good God, I would), Cynic’s “Wheels Within Wheels” (completely makes up for the boring EP that precedes it), and Rotting Christ’s “Aealo” (melodic blackened death metal built around an all-female chanting chorus? Yes, please!). Who would win? Well, that’s up to a bunch of people who know nothing about metal to vote on. So the winner would clearly be a live version of “Until It Sleeps” by Metallica off of a live album only released in Austria on January 3, 2010. Call me when they nominate Devourment.

-Sammy O’Hagar

It depends on why we’re nominating who we’re nominating. If we’re just talking five awesome performances, I’d go with:

• Knut – “Fast Forward Bastard”
• Intronaut – “Miasma”
• East of the Wall – “The Ladder”
• Huntress – “Off with Her Head”
• Immolation – “A Token of Malice”

If we’re talking a joke nomination, Wormrot’s “So Fierce for Fuck?!” all the way, mostly because I love knowing that some palsied blowhard on the judging panel had to listen to eight seconds of Singaporean grind with an Engrish title.

-Satan Rosenbloom

Okay, kiddies, now it’s your turn! Weigh in with your answer to the question of the week below.