HRD Radio Report – Week Ending 1/20/18

HRD Radio Report – Week Ending 1/20/18

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. The following is the Active Rock Mediabase Chart for the week ending 1/20/18. All exclusive HRD content is featured below the chart:

CHART	CHART	ARTIST	SONG TITLE	RADIO
POSITION	POSITION			SPINS
THIS WEEK	LAST WEEK
1	1	ROYAL BLOOD	“I Only Lie When I Love You”	1892
2	2	SEETHER	“Betray And Degrade”	1606
3	6	PAPA ROACH	“Born For Greatness”	1396
4	7	POP EVIL	“Waking Lions”	1321
5	5	FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH	“Trouble”	1273
6	3	THEORY OF A DEADMAN	“Rx”	1258
7	11	METALLICA	“Spit Out The Bone”	1171
8	9	10 YEARS	“Novacaine”	1171
9	12	GRETA VAN FLEET	“Safari Song”	1157
10	4	FOO FIGHTERS	“The Sky Is A Neighborhood”	1154
11	13	STONE TEMPLE PILOTS	“Meadow”	1024
12	8	MARILYN MANSON	“KILL4ME”	936
13	14	STONE SOUR	“Rose Red Violent Blue (This Song Is Dumb And So Am I)”	921
14	10	THIRTY SECONDS TO MARS	“Walk On Water”	879
15	16	ASKING ALEXANDRIA	“Into The Fire”	773
16	21	BREAKING BENJAMIN	“Red Cold River”	679
17	18	I PREVAIL	“Lifelines”	587
18	19	BUSH	“This Is War”	552
19	20	IN THIS MOMENT	“Roots”	527
20	25	NOTHING MORE	“Do You Really Want It?”	518
21	17	A PERFECT CIRCLE	“The Doomed”	491
22	15	AVENGED SEVENFOLD	“Wish You Were Here”	453
23	31	RISE AGAINST	“House On Fire”	412
24	23	THROUGH FIRE	“Where You Lie”	380
25	24	ALL THAT REMAINS	“The Thunder Rolls”	350
26	27	RED	“Still Alive”	298
27	26	TRIVIUM	“Heart From Your Hate”	288
28	29	MOTIONLESS IN WHITE (f. JONATHAN DAVIS)	“Necessary Evil”	262
29	69	RED SUN RISING	“Deathwish”	251
30	33	AVATAR	“The King Wants You”	235
31	22	FALLING IN REVERSE	“Superhero”	220
32	30	BLACK LABEL SOCIETY	“Room Of Nightmares”	218
33	32	WITHIN REASON	“Invictus”	209
34	56	THEORY OF A DEADMAN	“Straight Jacket”	189
35	36	MYLES KENNEDY	“Year Of The Tiger”	180
36	37	FOZZY	“Painless”	165
37	47	FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH	“Gone Away”	159
38	28	GARY CLARK JR	“Come Together”	153
39	38	DEADSET SOCIETY	“Automatic”	142
40	35	TOM KEIFER (f. Lizzy Hale)	“Nobody’s Fool”	133
41	39	ADELITAS WAY	“Notorious”	113
42	34	DEAD GIRLS ACADEMY	“I’ll Find A Way”	105
43	62	OF MICE & MEN	“Money”	97
44	41	CHRIS STAPLETON	“Midnight Train To Memphis”	95
45	54	A DAY TO REMEMBER	“Same About You”	90
46	55	JUDAS PRIEST	“Lightning Strike”	88
47	44	BLACKLITE DISTRICT	“Cold As Ice”	87
48	67	MESSER	“Make This Life”	86
49	42	KOBRA AND THE LOTUS	“Light Me Up”	86
50	45	TOOTHGRINDER	“Let It Ride”	82

 

 

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

BAD WOLVES – “Zombie”

Hearing a cover of “Zombie” on SiriusXM’s Octane so soon after Dolores O’Riordan’s passing, I was surprised that a band was able to do such a professional interpretation and get it out so quickly as a tribute.  It wasn’t until I started reading more about the cover of the quintessential song from The Cranberries singer that I realized that this had been planned for some time.  In fact, O’Riordan liked the interpretation of the song so much that she was scheduled to provide guest vocals on the track on the day of her tragic passing.  Sadly, it wasn’t meant to be.  With no more reason to wait to release the song, “Zombie” hit the airwaves to a great deal of enthusiasm.  The band has stated that all proceeds from the song will be donated to O’Riordan’s three children. (see full story).

The release of “Zombie” has to feel bittersweet to the members of Bad Wolves, a group that features former members of God Forbid, DevilDriver and In This Moment.  After receiving the ultimate form of validation from the writer of the song, and coming so close to having her provide guest vocals, their powerful interpretation must feel somewhat incomplete.  It shouldn’t, however.  While it would have been interesting to hear what O’Riordan would have added to the song, Bad Wolves’ cover of “Zombie” is outstanding in its own right.

Inspired by IRA bombings during the Irish Rebellion, the original lyrics of “Zombie” make reference to the year that it took place (1916), and bemoaned the fact that the fighting was still going on.  Bad Wolves changed the lyric in the song from 1916 to 2018.  According to singer Tommy Vext, O’Riordan was excited about the lyric change because “the nations may have changed, but we’re still fighting the same battles today.  Humanity is still fighting to assert itself despite all the conflicts. The reasons may change, but there’s still collateral damage with people’s struggle for power and freedom.”

Doing an inspired cover of any song requires an artist to make it their own.  Bad Wolves has certainly done that with “Zombie,” just as Disturbed did with “The Sound Of Silence” a few years back.  Hopefully, Bad Wolves will achieve the same success as Disturbed with a hauntingly powerful interpretation of a song that takes on an even greater meaning in light of the tragedy surrounding it.

 

 

PUBLISHER’S PREDICTIONS (By Adam Waldman)

With Seether starting to decline this week, Royal Blood now has around a 500-spin lead over the next likely challenger (Papa Roach’s “Born For Greatness”).  As long as they continue to rise, or even remain relatively flat for that matter, it will take several weeks for Royal Blood to be dethroned.  However, gravity eventually topples all chart-toppers.  Once songs start to fall from the top, they tend to fall pretty quickly.  Still, even if they started dropping next week, it doesn’t look like Royal Blood is in any danger of losing their #1 position in the next few weeks.
 

 

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…

BAD WOLVES – “Zombie”

ANOTHER LOST YEAR – “Call It Like It Is”

BOBAFLEX – “Long Time Coming”

KIRRA – “My Disease”

DED – “Hate Me”

JOSH TODD & THE CONFLICT – “Story Of My Life”

BLACK VEIL BRIDES – “The Last One”

RANDOM HERO – “Running”

 

DROP IT…

Adelita’s Way – “Notorious”

Marilyn Manson – “KILL4ME”

Thirty Seconds To Mars – “Walk On Water”

Bush – “This Is War”

Falling In Reverse – “Superhero”

Gary Clark Jr. – “Come Together”

Foo Fighters – “The Sky Is A Neighborhood”

Theory Of A Deadman – “Rx”

 

 

THE BREAKDOWN (by Jon Loveless)

NOTABLE CHART MOVEMENT

Metallica and Greta Van Fleet both enjoy solid increases in airplay, moving both into the Top 10 this week…

Breaking Benjamin and Nothing More have even larger increases in spins and find themselves in the Top 20…

Rise Against swiftly moves into the Top 30, but their thunder is stolen a bit by the exceptionally high debut for the new single from Red Sun Rising…

Under normal circumstances, Theory Of A Deadman would have claimed the highest chart debut of the week, entering the chart in the Top 40…

Four other songs make their published chart premiere this week, including the first single from the upcoming new album by Judas Priest.
 

 

THREE UP & THREE DOWN

RISING
Nothing More – “Do You Really Want It?”
Breaking Benjamin – “Red Cold River”
Red Sun Rising – “Deathwish”

 

FALLING
Thirty Seconds To Mars – “Walk On Water”
Theory Of A Deadman – “Rx”
Marilyn Manson – “KILL4ME”
 

 

 TRENDS AND OBSERVATIONS

Six new songs between #29 and #48 is a relatively positive sign that (perhaps) the long winter doldrums at Active Rock radio are lifting a bit.

 

WRAP-UP

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