HRD Radio Report – Week Ending 5/12/18

 HRD Radio Report – Week Ending 5/12/18

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 5/12/18. All exclusive HRD content is featured below the chart:

CHART	CHART	ARTIST	SONG TITLE	RADIO
POSITION	POSITION			SPINS
THIS WEEK	LAST WEEK
1	1	BAD WOLVES	“Zombie”	2115
2	2	SHINEDOWN	“DEVIL”	1952
3	3	GODSMACK	“Bulletproof”	1918
4	4	THREE DAYS GRACE	“The Mountain”	1485
5	6	JONATHAN DAVIS	“What It Is”	1316
6	7	GHOST	“Rats”	1230
7	8	FOZZY	“Painless”	1089
8	9	RED SUN RISING	“Deathwish”	1055
9	13	MUSE	“Thought Contagion”	919
10	5	FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH	“Gone Away”	909
11	12	THEORY OF A DEADMAN	“Straight Jacket”	847
12	14	ROYAL BLOOD	“Hole In Your Heart”	838
13	11	PEARL JAM	“Can’t Deny Me”	812
14	15	FEVER 333	“Walking In My Shoes”	810
15	16	FROM ASHES TO NEW	“Crazy”	734
16	10	NOTHING MORE	“Do You Really Want It?”	696
17	36	GUNS N’ ROSES	“Shadow Of Your Love (2018)”	657
18	17	BREAKING BENJAMIN	“Red Cold River”	641
19	18	DOROTHY	“Flawless”	523
20	19	SEVENDUST	“Dirty”	482
21	22	PARKWAY DRIVE	“The Void”	456
22	21	STONE TEMPLE PILOTS	“Roll Me Under”	455
23	28	FOO FIGHTERS	“The Line”	426
24	23	UNDEROATH	“Rapture”	422
25	26	ESCAPE THE FATE	“Broken Heart”	379
26	27	BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE	“Over It”	361
27	25	SHAMAN’S HARVEST	“The Devil In Our Wake”	352
28	24	A PERFECT CIRCLE	“TalkTalk”	320
29	20	RISE AGAINST	“House On Fire”	308
30	35	FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH	“Sham Pain”	307
31	31	IN THIS MOMENT (f. Rob Halford)	“Black Wedding”	286
32	30	IMAGINE DRAGONS	“Whatever It Takes”	271
33	32	MESSER	“Make This Life”	248
34	34	STONE SOUR	“St. Marie”	225
35	33	TRIVIUM	“Endless Night”	211
36	62	ALICE IN CHAINS	“The One You Know”	192
37	39	TREMONTI	“Take You With Me”	188
38	37	SKINDRED	“That’s My Jam”	178
39	38	ASKING ALEXANDRIA	“Alone In A Room”	164
40	42	BLACKTOP MOJO	“Dream On”	138
41	40	RED	“Gone”	130
42	41	BLACK STONE CHERRY	“Bad Habit”	118
43	45	GRETA VAN FLEET	“Black Smoke Rising”	100
44	47	THE DEAD DASIES	“Rise Up”	99
45	46	VYCES	“Thin Luck”	79
46	65	POP EVIL	“A Crime To Remember”	78
47	44	LETTERS FROM THE FIRE	“Comfort You”	75
48	48	NATHANIEL RATELIFF/NIGHTSWEATS	“You Worry Me”	65
49	49	PANIC! AT THE DISCO	“Say Amen (Saturday Night)”	63
50	58	THE RECORD COMPANY	“Life To Fix”	61

 

 

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

IN THIS MOMENT (f. Rob Halford) – “Black Wedding”

For the most part, there is a line of delineation between legacy hard rock/metal artists and those of the modern day variety.  The exception to the rule seems to be Rob Halford.  Five years after the Judas Priest frontman delivered a memorable duet with Ivan Moody on Five Finger Death Punch’s “Lift Me Up,” Halford is back doing a duet with Maria Brink on In This Moment’s “Black Wedding.”  It’s commendable that Halford is involved with current artists, even if it is only with the biggest names in the genre.

“Black Wedding” has a throwback element to it that many young metal fans are probably unaware of.  Back in 1982, Billy Idol (with the help of MTV) had a smash hit with “White Wedding.”  The chorus of Idol’s song contained the line… “it’s a nice day for a white wedding.”  The darker version of the song keeps the melody line, but changes the lyrics to “it’s a nice night for a black wedding.”  That is the only similarity, but still, this song will bring back some nostalgic memories for those who grew up on MTV (and Judas Priest).

Like Halford, Brink’s vocals are always intense, sometimes too intense for those who don’t love growling and guttural screams.  Though “Black Wedding” has an underlying darkness to it, for the most part, the song is filled with melodic moments with an industrial vibe.  As you might expect with these two personalities, this song also features a healthy dose of theatricality.

 

 

PUBLISHER’S PREDICTIONS (By Adam Waldman)

Bad Wolves remains on top of the chart despite a slight decline in spins.  Shinedown also had a slight decline in spins, but remains in the #2 position.  We’ve seen trend reversals in recent times, so it’s too soon to say that these songs are on their way down.  However, we’ve also seen songs start to drop significantly after peaking at #1.  We’ll see next week which way the trend is heading.  If both songs begin to decline in a meaningful way, Godsmack is likely to be the beneficiary of good timing.  Their latest single “Bulletproof” is well within striking distance of taking over the top spot should Bad Wolves and Shinedown drop, and they currently enjoy a nearly 700-spin lead of the next likely challenger (“Rats” by Ghost).  If Godsmack tops the chart in the next week or two, they should be positioned to have a multi-week run at #1.
 

 

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…

STONE BROKEN – “Worth Fighting For”

WAYLAND – “Ghost”

BOBAFLEX – “Lights Out”

ROYAL BLISS – “Devil With Angel Eyes”

NO RESOLVE – “What You Deserve”

KOBRA AND THE LOTUS – “Velvet Roses”

THE STANDSTILLS – “Wild”

SAM COFFEY & THE IRON LUNGS – “Tough”

 

DROP IT…

Panic At The Disco –“Say Amen”

Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats – “You Worry Me”

Imagine Dragons – “Whatever It Takes”

The Fever 333 – “Walking In My Shoes”

Muse – “Thought Contagion”

Pearl Jam – “Can’t Deny Me”

Red  – “Gone”

Theory Of A Deadman – “Straight Jacket”

 

 

THE BREAKDOWN (by Jon Loveless)

NOTABLE CHART MOVEMENT

The only song breaking into the Top 10 this week is the latest from Muse…

Predictably, Guns N’ Roses quickly climbs into the Top 20, the week’s only new arrival the tier…

Five Finger Death Punch breaks into the Top 30 by nearly doubling their spin count from the week before…

Alice In Chains scores the week’s highest debuting single, starting out in the Top 40.  Blacktop Mojo rides a cover song into the tier as well…

The bottom section of the published chart includes a pair of other debuting songs, the latest single from Pop Evil and the lead single from a new upcoming album by The Record Company.
 

 

THREE UP & THREE DOWN

RISING
Guns N’ Roses – “Shadow Of Your Love”
Ghost – “Rats”
Five Finger Death Punch – “Sham Pain”

 

FALLING
Five Finger Death Punch – “Gone Away”
Nothing More – “Do You Really Want It?”
Three Days Grace – “The Mountain”
 

 

 TRENDS AND OBSERVATIONS

Among the little things that caught my eye in this week’s chart is the relatively lukewarm radio response for Asking Alexandria’s second single “Alone In A Room.”  Seventh week on the published chart sees the song actually slip a spot back to #39, despite gaining spins.   That’s mostly interesting to me because of how much stronger the response for the lead single “Into The Fire” was.  At the same point on the chart, it was sitting at #20.   Then again, that rapid rise ended with a plateau, as the song lingered for another sixteen weeks, but never reached the Top 10.   Given how artist-centric (rather than song-centric) rock radio seems to have become – if you have the right name, you can apparently release almost anything and get it played – it’s a little unpredictable to see the newer song following such a different path so far.