The nominations for the 61st annual Grammy Awards were announced this morning (December 7th). While the Recording Academy has been accused of being out of touch when it comes to the metal and rock categories in the past, this time those fields include an intriguing mix of acts, both up-and-coming and established.
Best Metal Performance nominees include Between the Buried Me (“Condemned to the Gallows”), Deafheaven (“Honeycomb”), High on Fire (“Electric Messiah”), Trivium (“Betrayer”), and Underoath (“On My Teeth”).
Meanwhile, Best Rock Song features heavier bands like Greta Van Fleet (“Black Smoke Rising”), Ghost (“Rats”), and Bring Me the Horizon (“Mantra”) competing against alternative acts like St. Vincent (“Masseducation”) and Twenty One Pilots (“Jumpsuit”).
Over in the Best Rock Performance category, nominations went to Greta Van Fleet (“Highway Tune”), The Fever 333 (“Made An America”), Halestorm (“Uncomfortable”), Arctic Monkeys (“Four Out of Five”) and the late Chris Cornell (“When Bad Does Good”).
And the Best Rock Album category also celebrates heavier music, with Alice in Chains (Rainier Fog), Greta Van Fleet (From the Fires EP), and Ghost (Prequelle) alongside Weezer (Pacific Daydream) and Fall Out Boy (M A N I A).
The attention didn’t stop there for Greta Van Fleet, who also received a nod for Best New Artist, earning them four nominations overall.
And while the metal and rock categories did a nice job of representing heavier bands, the big general categories like Album of the Year, Record of the Year, and Song of the Year completely shut out rock music, instead sticking with mostly pop and hip-hop releases.
The 61st Grammy Awards will air live on CBS on February 10th from the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
