YouTube Predicts Tool Will Win Best Metal Performance Grammy

Opinions on who will win the Best Metal Performance award at tonight’s Grammys seem to unanimously point in the direction of Tool, whose song “7empest,” from their 13-years-in-the-making album, Fear Inoculum, has been nominated for the award. The category pegs Tool’s track against Killswitch Engage’s “Unleashed,” Death Angel’s “Humanicide,” Candlemass & Tony Iommi’s “Astorolus – The Great Octopus” and I Prevail’s “Bow Down.”

MetalSucks readers, MetalSucks editorial, Las Vegas odds makers and now streaming titans YouTube are all pegging Tool as the frontrunner. YouTube’s pick utilized the simplest and most direct methodology possible: they looked at global YouTube views of songs and artists for the period between October 1, 2018 and August 31, 2019, and found that Tool edged out the other nominees, presumably by a very wide margin.

That methodology has its flaws, namely that the panel of Grammy voters does not look at popularity alone to chose winners, with less popular artists have beating out more popular ones in this category as recently as last year when High on Fire topped off Trivium, Between the Buried and Me, Deafheaven and Underoath. Still, given the history of Grammy voters awarding this category to popular acts, and the fact that many of the voters know nothing about metal, there’s a good chance the YouTube prediction proves correct.

This year’s Grammy Awards will air tonight, January 26, at 8pm EST / 5pm PST. The Best Metal Performance category will not be shown on the main broadcast, but viewers can tune in to a pre-show ceremony streamable at Grammy.com.

[via Loudwire]