Source: Official Logo
Let’s get it out of the way, I have no problem with Tenacious D, they’re fantastic, they’re funny, they’re charming, they put on a fantastic show, but they are 100% NOT a metal band. I don’t know if National Academy in America are afraid of metal music, or just simply don’t understand it, but Tenacious D, metal they are not, and should not have won ‘Best Metal Performance’ at this year’s Grammys.
Let’s have a quick look at the other nominations. First up you have Anthrax, one of the founders of the genre, and one of the Big 4 of Thrash metal. We have Mastodon, who put out one of the best metal albums of 2014 in Once More ‘Round The Sun, overlooked. Motorhead, a band that keep on telling others that they’re a rock and roll band and not metal, but continue to be placed within the same sphere as the likes of Judas Priest or Black Sabbath. Finally, we have Slipknot, a band that have captured the minds of so many metal fans that their arena tour of the UK sold out almost instantaneously. All of these bands were overlooked for this award and quite arguably all of which were more deserving of it.
Tenacious D may not be metal, but the track certainly is. It has been far too long for people to recognise Ronnie James Dio as the musical mastermind that he was, but still that doesn’t save the fact that the cover from the D wasn’t even that fantastic.
Source: Official Promo
So, are we still living in a world where metal music is looked down upon by those high up producers who would rather listen to a factory made boy band than an organic piece of music? Or are they just a little misinformed about what metal music is, and confusing it as something that is a lot grander than what it really is.
This isn’t the first time the likes of record producers are confused about what metal, or even rock music can be. Let’s take the X Factor for example, every year they quite rightly have a rock week to highlight a different area of these people’s talents, but some of the tracks that these people are given can hardly be called even rock music. Elton John or Taylor Swift, are they rock? Hardly. Just because an individual plays with a guitar live on stage does not make them rock, and just because Tenacious D played a metal track, does not make their cover metal. The same goes for the likes of the Punk Goes Pop series of albums, once these bands take the tracks and put their mark on them, they are no longer pop tracks, they are whatever the band has turned them into.
Let’s act like we’re a metal version of Kanye West for a moment here. Tenacious D you may be good at what you do, and your songs may be fun, but Christ did you not steal this award from a more deserving band like Slipknot or Mastodon, bands who live and breath metal music. It’s not the fault of your own I admit, it is the fault of The National Academy of Recording Arts in the US who clearly don’t have the foggiest on what metal music should be. I may have complained before that genres are becoming far too numerous, but metal is a broad genre, and you ended up hitting the barn ten miles to the north of the one you were aiming at.
