HRD Radio Report – Week Ending 5/26/18

 HRD Radio Report – Week Ending 5/26/18

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 5/26/18. All exclusive HRD content is featured below the chart:

CHART	CHART	ARTIST	SONG TITLE	RADIO
POSITION	POSITION			SPINS
THIS WEEK	LAST WEEK
1	2	SHINEDOWN	“DEVIL”	1972
2	3	GODSMACK	“Bulletproof”	1909
3	1	BAD WOLVES	“Zombie”	1861
4	4	GHOST	“Rats”	1456
5	5	JONATHAN DAVIS	“What It Is”	1378
6	9	GUNS N’ ROSES	“Shadow Of Your Love (2018)”	1155
7	6	THREE DAYS GRACE	“The Mountain”	1110
8	8	RED SUN RISING	“Deathwish”	1058
9	7	FOZZY	“Painless”	1039
10	10	MUSE	“Thought Contagion”	964
11	11	FEVER 333	“Walking In My Shoes”	944
12	12	FROM ASHES TO NEW	“Crazy”	920
13	15	FOO FIGHTERS	“The Line”	821
14	13	ROYAL BLOOD	“Hole In Your Heart”	818
15	17	DOROTHY	“Flawless”	574
16	23	STONE TEMPLE PILOTS	“Roll Me Under”	570
17	24	FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH	“Sham Pain”	556
18	20	SEVENDUST	“Dirty”	535
19	22	PARKWAY DRIVE	“The Void”	523
20	21	UNDEROATH	“Rapture”	518
21	18	BREAKING BENJAMIN	“Red Cold River”	465
22	25	ESCAPE THE FATE	“Broken Heart”	448
23	27	BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE	“Over It”	408
24	14	THEORY OF A DEADMAN	“Straight Jacket”	401
25	28	IN THIS MOMENT (f. Rob Halford)	“Black Wedding”	394
26	16	FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH	“Gone Away”	389
27	19	PEARL JAM	“Can’t Deny Me”	339
28	32	ALICE IN CHAINS	“The One You Know”	313
29	39	POP EVIL	“A Crime To Remember”	283
30	29	SHAMAN’S HARVEST	“The Devil In Our Wake”	256
31	31	IMAGINE DRAGONS	“Whatever It Takes”	255
32	30	MESSER	“Make This Life”	239
33	33	STONE SOUR	“St. Marie”	237
34	36	ASKING ALEXANDRIA	“Alone In A Room”	228
35	34	SKINDRED	“That’s My Jam”	219
36	35	TREMONTI	“Take You With Me”	207
37	37	A PERFECT CIRCLE	“TalkTalk”	182
38	54	BREAKING BENJAMIN	“Torn In Two”	156
39	41	BLACKTOP MOJO	“Dream On”	150
40	43	THE DEAD DASIES	“Rise Up”	126
41	46	LETTERS FROM THE FIRE	“Comfort You”	123
42	56	LIKE A STORM	“The Devil Inside”	116
43	45	GRETA VAN FLEET	“Black Smoke Rising”	115
44	44	BLACK STONE CHERRY	“Bad Habit”	102
45	49	SHIM	“Hallelujah”	91
46	53	LEDGER	“Not Dead Yet”	89
47	47	THE RECORD COMPANY	“Life To Fix”	88
48	42	RED	“Gone”	85
49	64	10 YEARS	“Burnout”	83
50	48	VYCES	“Thin Luck”	75

 

 

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

SHIM – “Hallelujah”

When I saw that former Sick Puppies frontman Shimon Moore (Shim) was back with new music, I was interested to check it out right away.  Although I’m a big fan of cover songs, I have to admit that I was a bit reluctant to listen to another interpretation of the Leonard Cohen classic – “Hallelujah.”  With the current cover song trend, it was easy to assume that this was another cover, but I was wrong.  The title is the same, but this version of “Hallelujah” is a Shim original.  An original song with a familiar title wasn’t the only surprise.

If you’re expecting to hear something similar to Sick Puppies, you’re likely going to be (pleasantly) surprised.  Shim’s “Hallelujah” has a nice edge to it, kind of makes me think of a modern-day Cheap Trick if Robin Zander’s voice was more angst-ridden.  Being unceremoniously removed from Sick Puppies in 2014 (and finding out via social media) gives Shim a legitimate reason to be pissed.  But here’s the thing.  If you just listen to “Hallelujah,” you’ll catch the edge, but if you watch the video (which I highly recommend), you’ll see a creative bit of comedic genius.  If you’re a fan of The Muppets, you’ll really appreciate the video for this very cool tune.

If you thought that the Cheap Trick comparison is a bit out of left field, you’ll really be surprised by the guitar comparison.  Though “Hallelujah” is a fairly straightforward, big riff rocker through the early verses and choruses, Shim lets his solo rip Eric Clapton style.  He keeps a subtle Clapton nuance flowing underneath the slower, more moody break.  For the most part, “Hallelujah” is an upbeat, energetic rocker with big hooks, but the lyrics that stand out the most (for me) is the more resolute, bittersweet…“stuck in the life I designed, I can’t rewind, I’m going out of my mind…if you feel me sing hallelujah.”

It’s been a long wait for Shim to return to the scene, but if “Hallelujah” is any indication of what’s to come, it will have been worth the wait!

 

 

PUBLISHER’S PREDICTIONS (By Adam Waldman)

Part of the prediction business is getting things absolutely wrong.  Such is the case this week.  Based on last week’s trend, Godsmack looked primed to jump into the #1 position this week from #3 last week.  Both Bad Wolves and Shinedown had started to decline, while Godsmack was showing strength.  It looked like a no-brainer.  Well, it wasn’t.  Bad Wolves started to drop significantly, but Shinedown reversed course and gained spins.  Surprisingly, Godsmack hit the wall and started dropping as well.  Still, because of Bad Wolves’ decline, “Bulletproof” moved up one spot to #2.  Will they reverse course like Shinedown to reach the top, or will they continue to decline and peak at #2?  The only prediction that I can make with confidence is that these two songs will still be at the top next week, and that the songs to keep an eye on for an upcoming battle at the top are from Ghost, Guns N’ Roses, and (possibly) Jonathan Davis.
 

 

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…

THE LAZYS – “Nothing But Trouble”

DEAD GIRLS ACADEMY – “No Way Out”

LIGHT THE TORCH – “Die Alone”

NO RESOLVE – “What You Deserve”

WAYLAND – “Ghost”

KOBRA AND THE LOTUS – “Velvet Roses”

THE STANDSTILLS – “Wild”

STONE BROKEN – “Worth Fighting For”

 

DROP IT…

The Fever 333 – “Walking In My Shoes”

Imagine Dragons – “Whatever It Takes”

Muse – “Thought Contagion”

Pearl Jam – “Can’t Deny Me”

Red  – “Gone”

Theory Of A Deadman – “Straight Jacket”

Royal Blood – “Hole In Your Heart”

Breaking Benjamin – “Red Cold River”

 

 

THE BREAKDOWN (by Jon Loveless)

NOTABLE CHART MOVEMENT

No changes in the composition of this Top 10 this week…

Stone Temple Pilots and Five Finger Death Punch both move into the Top 20 on solid growth this week.  Parkway Drive also cracks the Top 20 despite a slight loss in airplay…

New to the Top 30 this week are Alice In Chains and Pop Evil…

The week’s highest debuting song premieres in the Top 40, that’s the latest from Breaking Benjamin.   They’re joined in that tier by The Dead Daisies and the reappearance of Blacktop Mojo who had been in the mid-30s with their Aerosmith cover more than a month ago…

Three other songs also make their official chart debuts this week, including new music from Like A Storm, the solo debut of Ledger (aka Jen Ledger of Skillet), and the next single from 10 Years.
 

 

THREE UP & THREE DOWN

RISING
Guns N’ Roses – “Shadow Of Your Love”
Pop Evil – “A Crime To Remember”
Foo Fighters – “The Line”

 

FALLING
Bad Wolves – “Zombie”
Theory Of A Deadman – “Straight Jacket”
Three Days Grace – “The Mountain”
 

 

 TRENDS AND OBSERVATIONS

The holiday weekend seems to have led to the usual reduction in spins for a lot of songs on the chart, thanks to special programming, holiday weekend “greatest of all-time” countdowns, and such.   Not a week where declining spins can be taken as a solid indication that a song has peaked.