The 55th Grammy Awards, which aired Sunday night, distributed more than 80 awards to music industry professionals across all genres of music—with one award dedicated to hard rock and metal. took home the Grammy for best hard rock/metal performance, which wasn’t televised.
The representation of rock n roll at the Grammys has been a hot-button issue for artists, labels and media the heavier side of rock. Which is why five years ago, stepped up to give rock its own big night—the Golden Gods Awards.
Reverb spoke with the man behind the pages of , Editor in Chief , to get his take on rock at the Grammys and the which will air May 2, 2013 from Club Nokia in Los Angeles.
What was the reason behind the inception of the Golden Gods Awards?
Geist: I mean it was a pretty obvious idea that a lot of people thought about because there was just an obvious void there—in America in particular. The U.K. alone has like three genuine hard rock and metal awards shows and the U.S. has nothing. It was an idea we had been kicking around for a while and then as the Grammys had gotten even less receptive to hard rock and metal and even getting rid of the separate “Metal Performance” category, I think the importance of the Golden Gods was even more so. But yeah, it was just something that was missing and it was time for someone to step up and do it.
What was the initial reaction like from the hard rock and metal world when Revolver stepped up?
The reception’s been great. I mean, I think everyone in the hard rock and metal world—the bands, the fans—and just the industry in general felt the void and that we needed a night to celebrate this kind of music and this sort of lifestyle.
How does Revolver choose the nominees?
Itap basically just the Revolver staff. We pick the nominees and the winners are picked by the fans. The first year of the show there weren’t even nominees, it was just a way to get the show off the ground. We, the staff, just selected award winners in various categories and then the second year is when we started the whole nomination process. So we pick the nominees—itap sort of limited to bands that put out a record over the Golden Gods calendar year (between each Golden Gods Awards). Or, in the case of “Best Live Band”—itap the bands that have toured heavily in the past Golden Gods year.
Now, the category that really stood out this year is “Best New Talent.” Itap pretty all over the place. Can you take us through how you chose the nominees for that category this year?
Yeah, the thing thatap cool about Revolver but also kind of challenging is that we cover such a wide range of music. Everything from the most underground black metal bands to pretty mainstream bands like and , even , and . There’s such a wide range of bands so we tried to get a sampling of the range of what Revolver covers and of what exists in the hard rock and metal world in just that one category.
You have pretty underground bands like and . Ghost is a Swedish band whose lead singer dresses like, what I call a satanic Pope and the rest of the band dress in Druid robes—they don’t even use their real names. They’re about as cult and underground as it gets, while Kvelertak is this sort of cool punk ‘n roll Norwegian bands that just signed to . On the more mainstreamey side you have a band like who are already pretty big in the U.K. but are just now sort of storming American rock radio. Then you have bands that fall in between like .
Itap purely off opinion then? Does Revolver consider radio spins or sales when looking at “Best New Talent”?
I mean, we consider all of that. We consider what tours bands have been on and who’s into them. Ghost is a good example of a band that probably not a lot of people have heard of but loves that band, Phil Anselmo loves that band, loves that band and loves that band. So we look at things like that—who are the fans of these bands and what bands are really on the rise? Bands who in a couple years—everyone is going to know that band. We look at tours, we obviously listen to the music and look at who’s in the band. You have a band like who haven’t released anything yet but just the fact that its David Draiman’s new band and because the level of interest and anticipation of that band is so high we just had to nominate it.
As the Editor of Revolver Magazine and man in charge over there, do you think there’s anything missing from this year’s nominees?
Oh man, let me tell you. We’re sweating and discussing the nominees right up until the second they’re announced and pretty much right as they’re announced I regret omissions. And then of course I come back to my desk the day after the press conference and my inbox is just full of people like “why aren’t we nominated?” and “is there anything we can do about this?”. I mean, you always feel bad, but there’s only like six nominees per category and you’re definitely going to miss some people who are probably very worthy of a nomination. Itap a process, ya know, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t full of regret as soon as we announce the nominees.
Going back to the Grammys, how do you feel about the way rock is represented at the Grammy Awards?
I mean, you know . On the one hand I feel like maybe I want to be somewhat diplomatic but the reality is that the Grammys’ nominees are just brutal. Itap like every year that is nominated as a rock band I just want to smash my computer. Itap like, Jesus Christ—I mean, I like the , I think they’re cool. I like and are kinda awesome but itap like c’mon man—is this really what rock ‘n roll has become? For me, rock and definitely the heavier forms of rock; but even rock in general—I mean, itap music to ***k to and music to fight to and music to party to. You can’t do any of those things to Coldplay.
I think the worst thing was when the hard rock and metal categories were combined. That was really a slap in the face to the heavier side of things and really showed that the Grammys just doesn’t give a ***k about that side of the rock genre. Itap like fine, yeah, you can award the softer kind of rock but at least give us a fair shake. Itap just not the case anymore—itap really a shame.
Back to Golden Gods, Metallica was announced as this year’s headliner and the live show bill has been set. Do you have any pre-Golden Gods shows or performances planned this year?
Last year, the night before the show the band played our pre-Golden Gods party. We’re working on a potential pre-show or pre-party for this year but the details are still being worked out.
The Golden Gods Awards will be broadcast worldwide from Club Nokia in Los Angeles, CA on May 2, 2013 at 7:30 PST. The awards show will feature performances by , , , , the and Grammy winners for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance, .
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Paige Montgomery is a Denver-based freelance writer. Check out more of her work on Ի.
