THIS YEAR’S REASONS NOT TO CARE ABOUT THE GRAMMYS

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 at 10:00am by

Gramaphone

So the nominations for the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards have been announced. The nominees for “Best Metal Performance” are slightly less embarrassing than usual – I’m assuming because the popularity of metal is on the rise, so some bands with actual talent are enjoying the spotlight. Here they are:

  • Judas Priest, “Dissident Aggressor” (from A Touch of Evil Live)
  • Lamb of God, “Set to Fail” (from Wrath)
  • Megadeth, “Head Crusher” (from Endgame)
  • Ministry, “Senor Peligro” (from Adios… Puta Madres)
  • Slayer, “Hate Worldwide” (from World Painted Blood)

So I actually respect all of these bands, and like four of these five songs. But the Grammy usually goes to the band the most number of people have heard of – which means Ministry is out. Slayer have won twice before so I could see them taking home another. I’m sure Dave Mustaine is DYING to be recognized, which is why I hope Megadeth lose. It would be awesome to see Lamb of God win just ’cause they’re Lamb of God, but I don’t see it. I’d say it’s either Priest or Slayer… not that it really matters.

And just for shits and giggles, here are the nominees for “Best Hard Rock Performance”:

  • AC/DC, “War Machine” (from Black Ice)
  • Alice in Chains, “Check My Brain” (from Black Gives Way to Blue)
  • Linkin Park, “What I’ve Done” (from Who Gives a Shit? Live)
  • Metallica, “Unforgiven III” (from Death Magnetic)
  • Nickleback, “Burn it to the Ground” (from Dark Horse)

I have no idea who’s gonna win this one. All these bands are pretty famous. If the voters actually listen to the songs, I’d guess that either Metallica or Nickleback will take it, since their tracks are the most melodious (e.g., easiest on the ears).

I gotta say, though: it is HILARIOUS that even the Grammys recognize that Metallica is no longer a metal band, but, rather, a hard rock band. I guess even old white dudes know “not metal” when they hear it.

-AR

  • Skanes

    Fuck the Grammys. That is all.

    • http://verbalspace.blogspot.com verbal space

      + infinity

      • evilfatguy

        x infinity

        • http://verbalspace.blogspot.com verbal space

          well played!

    • Kult Black Metaller

      What’s “The Grammys”? Even though I listen to Metal, I still love my Grams and Gramps.

  • Martin

    Wow I thought Mastodon would be up there for sure.

    Either way, I don’t see a lot of point in the Grammy awards (or any other music awards). How can a completely subjective experience be manifested in an award?

    • KC

      The same could be said for any artistic themed award show. Movies, books, music, its all subjective, yet every year there are multiple awards given out in each of those areas to the “best.” I find it slightly irking that they don’t ask people who actually listen to metal what the 5 best metal performances of the year are. You really think the people that come to this site are going to pick those five songs as the best 5 of the year? I mean they didn’t even pick the best songs off of the LoG and Slayer albums in my opinion.

    • cosk!

      yeah i totally thought the new mastodon would make the hard rock list at least…

  • I killed a Dunky

    Grammys are a Joke, I dont waste my time watchin that stupid nomination, Ill reather go on line and see the winner that it. I guess its for Slayer again, hard rock nomination Metallica should be ashmed of being nominated on a category lower that what they created, thats why I always been a Megadeth long time listener, they dont need to force themselves to create Metal THEY ARE METAL, I wish AIC gets that one. Peace

  • Tim

    I think it was when “my humps,” the black eyed peas’ middle-school attempt at sexuality, won a grammy that I stopped caring.

    • Double D

      My lovely lady lumps.

    • evilfatguy

      I stopped caring immediately in the same moment that I first heard about the Grammys. It’s just an industry pissing contest, and is utterly meaningless in the context of creating and enjoying art.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Amircito-Antonio-Palma/777253992 Amircito Antonio Palma

    Slayer’s gonna get this one.

  • RockOutWithMy…YouKnow

    Mettalica is just happy Jethro Tull didn’t put out a new album!

    /Behind the Music’d

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Tom-Campagna/40702766 Tom Campagna

      dammit and right after i posted my comment there was another Tull reference

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Tom-Campagna/40702766 Tom Campagna

    yea grammys are the most useless of major awards with the Oscars being the creme de la creme. I love how a friend of mine bitches when Mariah Carey doesn’t win or when Kanye West doesn’t Kanye loses his shit. Too bad there isn’t a truly good forum for metal awards like this and i forget the show that tried really hard to be one i think it was on Spike TV last year. and i agree with I killed a Dunky about Metallica should be ashamed of that nom. Remember when they lost to Jethro Tull for best metal song i believe back in 1989 and the Tull had the balls to say ” Well a flute is a metal instrument” what a complete and utterly unfunny joke

    • http://myspace.com/duckbillz Duck Billz

      The real joke is how you concede that the Grammys are bullshit, and then you get bunged up at Jethro Tull for not taking bullshit seriously and making a brilliant, anti-humor joke about their bullshit victory.

      “Under advisement from their manager, who told them they had no chance of winning, no one from the band attended the award ceremony. In response to the criticism they received over the award, the band took out an advertisement in a British music periodical with a picture of a flute lying amid a pile of iron re-bars and the line, “The flute is a heavy metal instrument.” In response to an interview question about the controversy, Ian Anderson quipped, “Well, we do sometimes play our mandolins very loudly.”

      HILARIOUS! The joke’s on you.

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Tom-Campagna/40702766 Tom Campagna

        true it was indeed a hilarious comment but they should never have been in the category. i wish it was a more legitimate award. I do like the Tull don’t get me wrong. i just wish it required real talent to win these and the fact that Nickelback is being mentioned proves otherwise

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Brendan-Snow/514886363 Brendan Snow

    the worst part is that they usually don’t even broadcast the awards given to metal. there’s so damn many of them that when slayer won a couple years back they told you via a ticker at the bottom of the screen…they only broadcast the awards that the majority of people care about.

  • http://www.last.fm/user/groverXIII groverXIII

    Big surprise… the Grammys are still a joke. At least three of the five nominees came from actual new albums…

  • hi my name is mark

    I’m sure either Stinkin’ Park or Nickelhack will take home the Hard Rock one because the Grammy committee sure loves ‘em some corporate rock and some chicken fried p’taters. *spits in a spitoon*

  • d00shc00gr

    seriously, we are a sub-culture of counter-culture locked in a war against the mainstream. That is why all of us are here. That is an integral part of true metal. The Grammy’s are pop-culture’s “Most mainstream of the mainstream” … why the fuck should any of us care?

    • Alex_P

      It would be superior, I think, if we were forgotten by the awards entirely. That way, we would start to disappear entirely from the public eye and not be subject to any more perversions like nu-metal. A boy can dream.

  • Pahkmycah

    I hope AC/DC wins a Grammy, it takes a lot of musical skill and creativity to write the same song for 36 years.

    • Grymmbear

      Nickelback are on their way to beating that record, hence their nomination!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jason-John-Crispen/100000169530540 Jason John Crispen

    sitting on a park bench!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Kasper-Maigaard/1027001938 Kasper Maigaard

    I’d love to see Lamb win this one but I suspect it’s gonna be Slayer. Their album was just way more anticipated than the others were.

    Linkin Park is gonna win the last one. Just because they’re way too popular and the song is fucking included in Guitar Hero 4.
    It might suck but it’s just been out longer soo… Yeah…. And it’s the theme for Transformers 1.

  • blah

    dont forget deftones won over maiden, manson, pantera and slipknot, so its not necessarily always the most well known. would be nice to see LOG get it.

  • Anthony

    Metallica’s been nominated in the Hard Rock category before, and last year they were in the Metal category for “My Apocalypse”, so it all depends on the song. In fact, they’ve been nominated in both categories in the same year. As have Slipknot (in 2005 or something).

    But I hope Alice in Chains and Lamb of God win.

  • attackmole

    I wonder how many years in a row they can nominate Ministry before realizing they broke up.

  • http://infinitybasement.wordpress.com Jon L.

    Out of all the tracks on DM, I liked Unforgiven III the least.

    • Kult Black Metaller

      That’s funny, I hated that song the most.

  • Jebus

    wow the grammys arent a complete fukn joke this year! im really impressed with selection of nominees, Slayers gotta win this 1! every metalhead on the face of the earth got that fukin album, and its about time slayer was given credit or a condolence outside of the metal world, and if metallica gets an award for bein the biggest tamest washed out peice o shit band again, im squeezing the trigger.

    • stu1

      Dude, first off, not every metal head got that record. Second, Slayer won a grammy last year. They’ve been nominated a bunch of times and won one before last year as well.

      • cosk!

        I for one, sure as hell didnt get that record.

        lamb of god for the win.

        • Sambo

          I personally hate Slayer as well so Lamb of God is going to take my vote!

  • SHOCKTROOP

    i love how the grammy’s nominate slayer every year and give them the award just because they think it earns them street cred with the metal community. since slayer is generally regarded as possibly the most metal of all metal bands, and they are usually the first band that pops into a non metal heads brain when they think of extreme metal. that’s why the grammy’s always includes them. let’s be real, nobody in that bullshit academy is listening to any metal. they just pick out a famous well known metal band and hell; make it slayer, it makes us look like we know what we’re talking about!

  • Facebook User

    i sincerely hope lamb fo god wins it. they’ve done so much for metal…. which would be exactly why they wouldnt win it.

  • Kuranes

    When I was in high school I used to get very worked up about who was going to win at the Grammys. Some years they would have “Best Metal Performance” and some years they would not – they’d have “Best Hard Rock” or something, as if the Grammy people couldn’t figure out whether metal was actually a genre or just a phase of some kind. Then one year I just decided “fuck this” and I haven’t watched since.

    The best acceptance speech ever was when Guns N’ Roses won on the American Music Awards and Slash kept dropping f-bombs in primetime until they prematurely cut to commercial.

    • Kuranes

      And why do they keep nominating live versions of old songs? IIRC one year Black Sabbath won for a live version of “Paranoid”, as if there were no good new songs that year.

  • bobovdeath

    what do they just pick a song at random and go “yeah,fine just nominate that one”? i mean “hate worldwide”? wtf thats the stupidest song out of the bunch. i mean its STUUUUUUUUPIIIIIIIIID..kerry king couldnt get any stupider with his dumbass corny macho lyrics than that.

    but i sure as fuck hope smegmabreth doesnt win,cuz dave mustaine is a pompous asshole face and he should never win shit except a douchebag of the year award

  • Trux

    I agree with the comment that Ministry is out..

    I also dont see Lamb of God winning this thing.

    Slayer has won twice, and I dont see they win for a third time..

    So, its between Priest and Megadeth…

    And my guess is that Megadeth is going to take the grammy home….sorry Axl.

  • http://www.myspace.com/sciomancy hater_guy

    who gives a fuck about a grammy

  • Sammy

    Sadly, Linkin Park is the highest selling musical act since 1/1/00. And that includes all pop, country and rock acts.

    As for the Grammys, this award being a joke is not a new development. It was a joke in the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s too. Probably before that, as well.

  • SourDeez

    I wish the Grammys were a person, so I could put my balls in their mouth after not showering for a month.

  • Caspar Colderson

    I don’t any of these bands should be nominated, except for Lamb Of God. Not because they aren’t good, but because they simply aren’t relevant anymore. They should’ve had bands like Mastodon nominated. I’d almost rather see Attack! Attack! nominated, mainly because there’s no goddamn chance they’d beat LoG.

    I really hope you get what I’m talking about here.

    • Sambo

      I would honestly give the Grammy’s a cookie just by having the balls to nominate Attack! Attack! haha.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Guinness-Wolf/1416679109 Guinness Wolf

    “I gotta say, though: it is HILARIOUS that even the Grammys recognize that Metallica is no longer a metal band, but, rather, a hard rock band. I guess even old white dudes know “not metal” when they hear it.”

    Of course, the Metal in metallica has been killed in the plane crash since 1990.

    “I’m sure Dave Mustaine is DYING to be recognized, which is why I hope Megadeth lose.”

    *laughs!*

  • Deathdrop

    ‘Hate Worldwide’ is probably the worst song off World Painted Blood, likely because Kerry King wrote it with his fifth grade mindset. If they were going to nominate a Slayer song, it should’ve been ‘Psychopathy Red.’

  • metalguy

    Wow they couldn’t even find a fifth recognizable metal act so they put up a live song? at least its not like that time megadeth got an award for covering paranoid
    ohh yah ministry sucks

  • krunkulor5000

    grammys do suck, but i’m surprised its actually decent real metal bands rather than just some Numetal bullshit

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Daniel-Guzmn/570745539 Daniel Guzmán

    “I’m sure Dave Mustaine is DYING to be recognized, which is why I hope Megadeth lose” xD

  • Discipleofthewatch

    I read an article about the Grammys in the newspaper today, and didn’t see any mention of the metal or hard rock categories, so I thought that they didn’t even have those kinds of nominations. I only saw silly pop, hip hop, and country music nominations. Seems irrelevant!

  • lol

    Wow, can you say biased?

    The dude who wrote this must be a 40-year old fatass eating Cheetos in his mom’s basement, still crying because ‘Metallica’s not tr00 anymore’. Get a life, they certainly kick more ass than the other nominees in the hard rock category.