HRD Radio Report – Week Ending 2/17/18

 HRD Radio Report – Week Ending 2/17/18

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	PAPA ROACH	“Born For Greatness”	1854
2	2	GRETA VAN FLEET	“Safari Song”	1785
3	3	POP EVIL	“Waking Lions”	1718
4	4	ROYAL BLOOD	“I Only Lie When I Love You”	1450
5	5	METALLICA	“Spit Out The Bone”	1375
6	7	STONE TEMPLE PILOTS	“Meadow”	1262
7	6	10 YEARS	“Novacaine”	1256
8	8	BREAKING BENJAMIN	“Red Cold River”	1236
9	12	THREE DAYS GRACE	“The Mountain”	1069
10	11	STONE SOUR	“Rose Red Violent Blue (This Song Is Dumb And So Am I)”	981
11	14	NOTHING MORE	“Do You Really Want It?”	902
12	16	FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH	“Trouble”	886
13	13	ASKING ALEXANDRIA	“Into The Fire”	815
14	17	RISE AGAINST	“House On Fire”	739
15	15	IN THIS MOMENT	“Roots”	732
16	18	I PREVAIL	“Lifelines”	717
17	20	RED SUN RISING	“Deathwish”	652
18	19	BUSH	“This Is War”	574
19	22	THEORY OF A DEADMAN	“Straight Jacket”	470
20	24	BAD WOLVES	“Zombie”	444
21	21	THROUGH FIRE	“Where You Lie”	393
22	26	FOZZY	“Painless”	384
23	28	JONATHAN DAVIS	“What It Is”	371
24	23	RED	“Still Alive”	349
25	25	AVATAR	“The King Wants You”	321
26	40	A PERFECT CIRCLE	“The Doomed”	258
27	30	A DAY TO REMEMBER	“Same About You”	251
28	35	JUDAS PRIEST	“Lightning Strike”	239
29	32	MYLES KENNEDY	“Year Of The Tiger”	230
30	33	CHRIS STAPLETON	“Midnight Train To Memphis”	204
31	34	OF MICE & MEN	“Money”	194
32	29	MOTIONLESS IN WHITE (f. JONATHAN DAVIS)	“Necessary Evil”	194
33	27	FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH	“Gone Away”	185
34	36	BLACK VEIL BRIDES	“The Last One”	172
35	31	A PERFECT CIRCLE	“TalkTalk”	150
36	38	DEADSET SOCIETY	“Automatic”	148
37	39	DED	“Hate Me”	143
38	47	SHAMAHN’S HARVEST	“The Devil In Our Wake”	120
39	42	IMAGINE DRAGONS	“Whatever It Takes”	111
40	43	ZERO THEOREM	“Area”	97
41	41	MESSER	“Make This Life”	93
42	55	FROM ASHES TO NEW	“Crazy”	83
43	48	DOROTHY	“Flawless”	79
44	0	MUSE	“Thought Contagion”	73
45	46	KILLERS	“Run For Cover”	62
46	53	JIBE	“Release”	61
47	51	FEVER 333	“Walking In My Shoes”	58
48	57	MACHINE HEAD	“Bastards”	56
49	49	BLACKLITE DISTRICT	“Cold As Ice”	55
50	44	CANE HILL	“Lord Of Flies”	52

 

 

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

FACING FIRE – “Filthy Life”

After gaining traction as an independent DIY band, Facing Fire has just released their first EP since being signed to Pavement Entertainment.  These Ohio rockers offer a lot of what you like about bands that are typically featured on Active Rock radio, but it’s their unique approach that makes them most intriguing.

“Filthy Life” has an intense, dirty groove at the outset, but quickly shifts into a more atmospheric meets industrial sound for the verse.  The transition between pulsating rhythms and subtle verses are pulled together with a memorable hook in the melodic chorus.  At times, “Filthy Life” lands right in the sweet spot of Active Rock radio, but the way that Facing Fire cleverly paints outside the lines with interesting nuances throughout the song makes this track stand out in a meaningful way.

The more that you listen to “Filthy Life” and peel back the layers, the more the song grows on you.  Showcasing the kind of cohesiveness that Facing Fire does as a newer band is impressive.  Hopefully, Active Rock radio programmers will recognize what makes this band special, and add this song to their playlists sooner rather than later.

 

PUBLISHER’S PREDICTIONS (By Adam Waldman)

As predicted last week, the three-way battle at the top has come to fruition.  Papa Roach holds on to the top spot this week, but both Greta Van Fleet and Pop Evil are within 130 spins of the leaders.  The only threats to this trio are still trailing by at least 500 spins, so unless something drastic happens (always a possibility), these three bands will be jockeying for the top position for at least the next several 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…

FACING FIRE – “Filthy Life”

WAYLAND – “Ghost”

BOBAFLEX – “Lights Out”

HEAVEN & EARTH – “Hard to Kill”

BLACK WATER RISING – “The Payback”

THE LAZYS – “Nothing But Trouble”

ANOTHER LOST YEAR – “Call It Like It Is”

COUNTERFEIT – “You Can’t Rely”

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

 

 

DROP IT…

Imagine Dragons – “Whatever It Takes”

The Fever 333 – “Walking In My Shoes”

Muse – “Thought Contagion”

Bush – “This Is War”

Chris Stapleton – “Midnight Train To Memphis”

Royal Blood – “I Only Lie When I Love You”

Through Fire – “Where You Lie”

10 Years – “Novacaine”

 

 

THE BREAKDOWN (by Jon Loveless)

NOTABLE CHART MOVEMENT

Three Days Grace climbs into the Top 10, while Stone Sour backs into the highest tier of the chart as well, up one spot despite a fractional decline in spins…

A decidedly different sound for Theory Of A Deadman reaches the Top 20, joined there by a Bad Wolves cover effort…

Three songs enter the Top 30 this week, including the first single from the Myles Kennedy solo project…

Three songs are also new to the Top 40 this week, including one from Zero Theorem, a song that actually debuted briefly in December before falling off the published chart for more than a month prior to the more substantial rise…

Five new songs make their chart debut this week, led by the latest release by From Ashes To New.
 

THREE UP & THREE DOWN

RISING
A Perfect Circle – “Talk Talk”
Three Days Grace – “The Mountain”
Five Finger Death Punch – “Gone Away”

 

FALLING
Five Finger Death Punch – “Trouble”
Royal Blood – “I Only Lie When I Love You”
A Perfect Circle – “The Doomed”
 

 TRENDS AND OBSERVATIONS

Entry into the Top 50 this week required an almost shockingly low number of spins, providing further evidence of the ever-tightening playlists in the Active Rock format.  Fewer and fewer stations seem willing to take the initiative to break new songs, leaving an awful lot of influence in the hands of the more courageous outlets, a number that has dwindled steadily and might now only be in the single digits.

 

WRAP-UP

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