HRD Radio Report – Week Ending 1/23/16

HRD RADIO REPORT 

The HRD Radio Report showcases the weekly Active Rock Mediabase Charts (compiled by AllAccess.com), and appears every Tuesday on HardRockDaddy.com.  The HRD Radio Report digs deeper into the weekly Active Rock charts, providing commentary, reviews, recommendations and predictions.  It also features opinion pieces on chart action and the music business in general.

Many of the artists featured on the Active Rock charts have already been reviewed on HardRockDaddy.com.

Click on the hyperlinked song titles to read song reviews, and the hyperlinked artist names to read album reviews.

The following is the Active Rock Mediabase Chart for the week ending 1/23/16.  All exclusive HRD content is featured below the chart:

TOP 135 HARD ROCK SONGS 2015

TOP 50 ACTIVE ROCK SONGS (by spins) OF 2015

TOP 30 OCTANE BIG ‘UNS COUNTDOWN SONGS OF 2015

CHART	CHART	ARTIST	SONG TITLE	RADIO
POSITION	POSITION			SPINS
THIS WEEK	LAST WEEK			THIS WEEK
1	1	FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH	“Wash It Away”	2036
2	3	SHINEDOWN	“State Of My Head”	2008
3	2	DISTURBED	“The Light”	1817
4	4	SEETHER	“Save Today”	1425
5	6	POP EVIL	“Ways To Get High”	1410
6	8	FOO FIGHTERS	“Saint Cecilia”	1169
7	9	NOTHING MORE	“Here’s To The Heartache”	1107
8	7	THREE DAYS GRACE	“Fallen Angel”	1100
9	11	HIGHLY SUSPECT	“Bloodfeather”	1036
10	5	HALESTORM	“I Am The Fire”	1036
11	14	MUSE	“Reapers”	841
12	12	TRIVIUM	“Until The World Goes Cold”	829
13	13	THEORY OF A DEADMAN	“Blow”	759
14	15	CAGE THE ELEPHANT	“Mess Around”	704
15	16	SAINT ASONIA	“Let Me Live My Life”	622
16	17	PARKWAY DRIVE	“Vice Grip”	558
17	20	BRING ME THE HORIZON	“Happy Song”	553
18	44	3 DOORS DOWN	“In The Dark”	548
19	18	ARANDA	“We Are The Enemy”	535
20	19	FROM ASHES TO NEW	“Through It All”	513
21	21	SHAMAN’S HARVEST	“In Chains”	499
22	22	ALL THAT REMAINS	“Victory Lap”	435
23	26	RED SUN RISING	“Emotionless”	418
24	27	PAPA ROACH	“Falling Apart”	379
25	24	ESCAPE THE FATE	“Alive”	355
26	25	THE STRUTS	“Kiss This”	332
27	32	ADELITA’S WAY	“Bad Reputation”	274
28	29	FAILURE ANTHEM	“Paralyzed”	261
29	31	STITCHED UP HEART	“Finally Free”	249
30	46	DISTURBED	“The Sound Of Silence”	226
31	28	NATHANIEL RATELIFF / NIGHTSWEATS	“S.O.B.”	224
32	34	TYLER BRYANT & THE SHAKEDOWN	“Loaded Dice & Buried Money”	219
33	33	TRANS SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA	“Forget About The Blame”	216
34	38	ANDREW WATT	“Ghost In My Head”	213
35	36	DROWNING POOL	“By The Blood”	212
36	39	SLIPKNOT	“Goodbye”	198
37	37	LACEY STURM	“Impossible”	181
38	51	MEGADETH	“Dystopia”	151
39	42	PUSCIFIER	“The Remedy”	130
40	35	TURBOWOLF	“Rabbits Foot”	112
41	41	TWENTY ONE PILOTS	“Stressed Out”	108
42	48	WAYLAND	“Bloody Sunrise”	107
43	43	STONE SOUR (f. LZZY HALE)	“Gimme Shelter”	96
44	47	BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE	“Venom”	94
45	52	FOALS	“Mountain At My Gates”	88
46	50	BARONESS	“Shock Me”	85
47	49	I PREVAIL	“Crossroads”	85
48	45	GODSMACK	“Inside Yourself”	77
49	53	MOTORHEAD	“Sympathy For The Devil”	74
50	119	DEVOUR THE DAY	“Lightning In The Sky”	65

 
 

PUBLISHER’S PICK OF THE WEEK (by Adam Waldman)

DISTURBED – “The Sound Of Silence”

Unbridled emotion goes a long way towards defining David Draiman’s vocal style.  The Disturbed frontman is known for channeling his aggression and delivering his message with great intensity (even on cover songs such as “Land Of Confusion” by Genesis).  This time around, with a cover version of Simon & Garfunkel’s classic – “The Sound Of Silence” – Draiman and company venture in a much darker, solemn direction.  The angst and piss and vinegar that has become synonymous with Draiman, is replaced with a soul-searching melancholy that is so intense that it makes the original sound almost joyful.  It’s not just the vocals that wash over you like a wave of sadness; it’s the hauntingly theatrical keyboards and tortured beauty of the acoustic guitars as well.  This is anything but what you would expect from Disturbed, so it does take some getting used to, but ultimately, it moves you in a visceral way.  There are moments of signature Disturbed tastefully woven into a song that has been covered numerous times over the past 50+ years, but at its core, this version offers something truly unique that grows on your more with each listen.

 
 

HRD SPIN CONTROL (by Adam Waldman and Jon Loveless)

Each week, we will share the songs that we think should be added to rotations, alongside the songs that we feel should be dropped from rotations, either because they are a bad fit for the format, or because they have run their course and it’s time for a new single from the artist.

SPIN IT…

SMASHING SATELLITES – “Gamblin Man”

BOBAFLEX – “A Spider In The Dark”

VEER UNION – “Defying Gravity”

EVANS BLUE – “iGod”

CILVER – “I’m America”

UGLY KID JOE – “She’s Already Gone”

SEPTEMBER MOURNING – “Eye Of The Storm”

ADAKAIN – “Hey Girl”

 

DROP IT…

Foals – “Mountain At My Gates”

Twenty One Pilots – “Stressed Out”

Nate Rateliff & The Nightsweats – “S.O.B.”

Cage The Elephant – “Mess Around”

The Struts – “Kiss This”

Trans-Siberian Orchestra – “Forget About The Blame”

Halestorm – “I Am The Fire”

 
 

THE BREAKDOWN by Jon Loveless

KING OF THE HILL

By a slim margin, Five Finger Death Punch remains at #1 on the Mediabase Active Rock airplay chart for a second straight week with “Wash It All Away,” holding off Shinedown’s “State Of My Head” for the top spot.  The narrowing of the gap (just 28 monitored spins separated the two songs) was largely due to a sizable increase by the runner-up.  Disturbed hangs on to the #3 position with their recent chart-topping single, but a decline was inevitable as their next single has already cracked the published chart.
 
 

NOTABLE CHART MOVEMENT

Highly Suspect provides the only song to break into the Top 10 this week with “Bloodfeather”…

3 Doors Down rapidly arrives in the Top 20 with their airplay nearly quadrupling over the previous week with their latest single, “In The Dark”…

Three songs break into the Top 30 again this week, led by Adelitas Way…

“Big Four” icons Megadeth, who barely missed the chart a week ago, lead a pair of new arrivals into the Top 40 with “Dystopia” (the title track from their latest album)…

Three other new songs make their Top 50 debut, including “Sympathy For The Devil” (a Rolling Stones cover from the final album by Motorhead).

 
 

THREE UP & THREE DOWN

MOVING UP

Shinedown – “State Of My Head”

Pop Evil – “Ways To Get High”

3 Doors Down – “In The Dark”

 

DROPPING DOWN

Disturbed – “The Light”

Halestorm – “I Am The Fire”

Turbowolf – “Rabbits Foot”

 
 

FUTURES REPORT

It’s hard not to feel a bit of a time warp effect with the chart debuts for songs from both Megadeth and Motorhead this week.  The feeling will be even stronger if the latest single from Anthrax – one of their most radio friendly tracks in recent memory – can make it onto the chart before either of these drop off.  While I’m no stranger to criticism of the format, I’ll credit radio at large for being willing to acknowledge the quality work done by several true rock legends.

 

WRAP-UP

That’s all for this week.  Tune in to HardRockDaddy.com every Tuesday for the HRD Radio Report. \m/