The 67th Annual Grammy Awards are taking place this Sunday (Feb. 2) and we asked Loudwire’s readers who should win two of the most significant rock and metal categories – Best Rock Album and Best Metal Performance. Will the Grammys get it right? Let’s see who Loudwire’s readers feel should win the two big categories.
Who Do Loudwire Readers Think Should Win the Best Rock Album Grammy?
When the Grammy nominations were revealed back in early November, the Best Rock Album was populated primarily with veteran rock bands. There was a resurgence this year for some of rock’s ’90s era heroes with Pearl Jam‘s Dark Matter, The Black Crowes‘ Happiness Bastards and Green Day‘s Saviors all receiving recognition.
The category also included one of rock’s pioneering bands, The Rolling Stones, who returned over the past year with Hackney Diamonds. Meanwhile, two up-and-coming international bands, Fontaines D.C. and IDLES, were rewarded with nominations for their Romance and Tangk albums respectively.
READ MORE: Grammys Best Rock Album By Year – Who Won + Who Should’ve Won
Green Day actually had the most voted on album in our poll, but we asked fans to rank each of the albums. The band that received the best ranking among all the nominees was Pearl Jam, whose Dark Matter had a cumulative ranking of 7.24 on a scale of 1 to 10. Green Day placed second at 6.75 for Saviors while The Black Crowes finished a close third with a 6.13 ranking for Happiness Bastards.
The results show a primarily positive response to Pearl Jam winning for Dark Matter, which would now seem to be the favorite (at least amongst Loudwire readers) to take home the Grammy gold.
“Dark Matter, 100 percent,” declared one fan commenting on the poll on the X social media platform. Others shouted out The Rolling Stones and Fontaines D.C. (“The Fontaines album is baller AF.”)
The rankings can be seen below:
Loudwire Reader Rankings for the Best Rock Album Nominations
Pearl Jam, Dark Matter 7.24
Green Day, Saviors 6.75
The Black Crowes, Happiness Bastards 6.13
The Rolling Stones, Hackney Diamonds 5.72
Fontaines D.C., Romance 5.47
IDLES, Tangk 4.62
Pearl Jam, “Dark Matter”
Who Do Loudwire Readers Think Should Win the Best Metal Performance Grammy?
The Best Metal Performance category was a pretty diverse one this year. It was filled with iconic Rock and Roll Hall of Famers in Metallica (“Screaming Suicide”) and Judas Priest (“Crown of Horns”), the French metal outfit Gojira having their moment at the Olympics (“Mea Culpa (Ah! Ca Ira!)”) and two of metal’s brightest rising stars in Spiritbox (“Cellar Door”) and Knocked Loose Featuring Poppy (“Suffocate”).
This category had a more defined favorite and drove plenty of discussion on social media.
“Performance? Gojira. It was the performance of the century. In terms of stage, relevance, reach, it’s just untouched. It was historic. Gojira, unquestionably,” remarked one person on our Facebook post. “I’m not even a Gojira fan and I can admit they should get this award without a doubt,” added another.
“If it’s not Gojira there is no point to this. That was one of the most metal things at a mainstream event ever,” proclaimed a third person. “Ngl GOJIRA should win this. That performance on that stage was glorious,” add yet another person.
There were also shoutouts for Judas Priest (“You aren’t a metal fan if you don’t think their album is the best this year”) and plenty of chatter for Knocked Loose (“Knocked Loose. Hands down,” “”Suffocate is such a great song”) as well as those feeling the fix was in for the most popular band in the category, Metallica (“Am I the only one assuming Metallica will win ‘cause the voting members won’t recognize anyone else?”, “I swear to god if Metallica wins we’re storming the Grammys.”)
But in the end not only did Gojira receive the most votes, they also earned a pretty high ranking amongst those voting for the nominees. “Mea Culpa (Ah! Ca Ira!)” received an 8.33 overall ranking on a scale of 1 to 10 amongst Loudwire readers.
There was a pretty significant drop off after that, with the other four nominees in the category ranked pretty closely together. Judas Priest’s “Crown of Horns” would be the runner-up amongst Loudwire readers with a 6.97 ranking, while Spiritbox’s “Cellar Door” was right on their tail with a 6.67 ranking. The ranking totals can be viewed below.
Loudwire Reader Rankings for the Best Metal Performance Nominations
Gojira, “Mea Culpa (Ah! Ca Ira!)” 8.33
Judas Priest, “Crown of Horns” 6.97
Spiritbox, “Cellar Door” 6.67
Knocked Loose, “Suffocate” 6.57
Metallica, “Screaming Suicide” 6.52
Gojira & Marina Viotti, “Mea Culpa (Ah! Ca Ira!)”
How to Watch The Grammy + Premiere Ceremony
The 67th Annual Grammy Awards will take place this Sunday (Feb. 2), airing live from 8–11:30PM ET / 5–8:30PM PT on CBS. The ceremony, hosted by Trevor Noah, will also stream live and on-demand via Paramount+ for viewers worldwide (live and on demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the special airs).
A majority of the rock and metal categories will also be announced during the Grammy Premiere Ceremony, which takes place prior to the Grammy CBS broadcast. This year’s Premiere Ceremony, to be held at Peacock Theater at the LA Live complex in Los Angeles, will stream live at 3:30PM ET/12:30PM PT on the Recording Academy’s YouTube channel and on live.GRAMMY.com. Justin Tranter will host.
Metal Grammys Year by Year: Who Really Should Have Won
Righting some wrongs and backing some strong picks by the Grammys!
Gallery Credit: Joe DiVita
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