HRD Radio Report – Week Ending 6/30/18

 HRD Radio Report – Week Ending 6/30/18

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 6/30/18. All exclusive HRD content is featured below the chart:

CHART	CHART	ARTIST	SONG TITLE	RADIO
POSITION	POSITION			SPINS
THIS WEEK	LAST WEEK
1	2	GHOST	“Rats”	1986
2	1	GODSMACK	“Bulletproof”	1895
3	3	SHINEDOWN	“DEVIL”	1743
4	6	FOO FIGHTERS	“The Line”	1267
5	7	FROM ASHES TO NEW	“Crazy”	1243
6	4	BAD WOLVES	“Zombie”	1214
7	5	GUNS N’ ROSES	“Shadow Of Your Love (2018)”	1203
8	8	FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH	“Sham Pain”	1071
9	11	HALESTORM	“Uncomfortable”	924
10	13	DOROTHY	“Flawless”	914
11	9	FEVER 333	“Walking In My Shoes”	852
12	14	ALICE IN CHAINS	“The One You Know”	770
13	16	POP EVIL	“A Crime To Remember”	725
14	20	BREAKING BENJAMIN	“Torn In Two”	689
15	15	STONE TEMPLE PILOTS	“Roll Me Under”	641
16	18	ESCAPE THE FATE	“Broken Heart”	600
17	24	THREE DAYS GRACE	“Infra-Red”	556
18	19	PARKWAY DRIVE	“The Void”	550
19	21	IN THIS MOMENT (f. Rob Halford)	“Black Wedding”	542
20	17	SEVENDUST	“Dirty”	534
21	25	BADFLOWER	“Ghost”	528
22	22	BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE	“Over It”	516
23	12	MUSE	“Thought Contagion”	479
24	26	NOTHING MORE	“Just Say When”	450
25	23	UNDEROATH	“Rapture”	415
26	27	ASKING ALEXANDRIA	“Alone In A Room”	397
27	28	SKINDRED	“That’s My Jam”	341
28	29	LIKE A STORM	“The Devil Inside”	306
29	37	GRANDSON	“Blood/Water”	245
30	36	SMASHING PUMPKINS	“Solara”	195
31	35	THE RECORD COMPANY	“Life To Fix”	193
32	33	THRICE	“The Grey”	189
33	31	BLACKTOP MOJO	“Dream On”	183
34	43	SEETHER	“Against The Wall”	181
35	32	TREMONTI	“Take You With Me”	181
36	49	BAD WOLVES (f. DIAMANTE)	“Hear Me Now”	178
37	41	IVORY BLUE	“Ready Get Set”	178
38	38	10 YEARS	“Burnout”	171
39	40	THE DEAD DASIES	“Rise Up”	151
40	30	SHAMAN’S HARVEST	“The Devil In Our Wake”	150
41	39	LEDGER	“Not Dead Yet”	146
42	48	THE STRUTS	“Body Talks”	120
43	46	NO RESOLVE	“What You Deserve”	120
44	44	MOTIONLESS IN WHITE	“Voices”	117
45	42	DEAD GIRLS ACADEMY	“No Way Out”	116
46	45	SHIM	“Hallelujah”	114
47	53	THEORY OF A DEADMAN	“Wicked Game”	90
48	50	ROYAL BLISS	“Devil With Angel Eyes”	85
49	55	KOBRA AND THE LOTUS	“Velvet Roses”	72
50	52	ADELITA’S WAY	“Still Hungry”	72

 

 

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

KOBRA AND THE LOTUS – “Velvet Roses”

There are a few rock bands in recent memory that had the balls to release a double (or two-part) album in the current climate.  What was once more common is now something of a unicorn.  If anything, more bands are choosing to release EPs or singles with more frequency to stay top of mind.  You can see where Five Finger Death Punch and Stone Sour would have the confidence to pull off a double album, but for a lesser known artist to do it…that takes a healthy dose of confidence.  Of course, Kobra And The Lotus is not your typical Active Rock band, which makes their sound that much more appealing.

Fronted by vocalist Kobra Paige, this four-piece unit out of Canada is more in the wheelhouse of European metal than typical Active Rock.  “Velvet Roses” may have a delicate title, but the song (delivered by a fierce female vocalist) is anything but.  “Velvet Roses” is a high octane, energetic rocker with heavy riffs, a chugging pace, soaring vocals, and shredding guitar leads (courtesy of Jasio Kulakowski) that take you back in time to the glory days of hard rock and metal.  The theatrical quality of the song also helps it to stand out from most of what’s played on radio today.

When bands like Kobra And The Lotus get played on Active Rock radio, it gives me hope for a format that seems to have lost its way, straddling the fence between generic and maddeningly alternative.  Will there be a glut of bands copying Kobra And The Lotus if they become mainstays on Active Rock radio?  Not likely.  This kind of sound is not easy to replicate, which makes it that much more special.

 

 

PUBLISHER’S PREDICTIONS (By Adam Waldman)

As predicted, Ghost has taken over the top spot on this week’s chart, knocking off Godsmack after a nice run at the top.  “Rats” has no immediate challengers on the horizon.  Based on recent trends, it looks like the song still has some room to gain spins.  Even if they plateaued next week, they would still be positioned for a multi-week run, given that they have a 700+ spin lead over both Foo Fighters and From Ashes To New (the only two bands near the top that are still on the rise).  On the horizon, there are three other bands showing strength (Five Finger Death Punch, Halestorm, and Dorothy), but they all trail Ghost by around 1000 spins.
 

 

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…

AVATAR – “King Welcomes You To Avatar Land”

NONPOINT – “Chaos & Earthquakes”

ONCE AROUND – “Ghost”

FRAMING HANLEY – “Puzzle Pieces”

MONSTER TRUCK – “Evolution”

DEE SNIDER – “Tomorrow’s No Concern”

THE PROTEST – “What Else You Got”

STONE BROKEN – “Worth Fighting For”

 

DROP IT…

The Fever 333 – “Walking In My Shoes”

Muse – “Thought Contagion”

Grandson – “Blood/Water”

Smashing Pumpkins – “Solara”

Ivory Blue – “Ready Get Set”

The Struts – “Body Talks”

Theory Of A Deadman – “Wicked Game”

Bad Wolves – “Zombie”

 

 

THE BREAKDOWN (by Jon Loveless)

NOTABLE CHART MOVEMENT

Triple digit spin increases are enough to move both Halestorm and Dorothy into the Top 10…

Three Days Grace reaches the Top 20 with momentum (spins up more than 33% from last week), while In This Moment gets to the Top 20 with the exact same spins as a week ago…

Smashing Pumpkins ride their name into the Top 30, though with relatively little growth, as one of two new arrivals in the tier…

Same trio of songs that debuted last week in the bottom part of the chart all rise into the Top 40 this week, again led by Seether…

Two songs debut in the Top 50 this week, including new Kobra & The Lotus…Adelita’s Way re-enters the published chart after an eight week absence.
 

 

THREE UP & THREE DOWN

RISING
Three Days Grace – “Infra-Red”
Ghost – “Rats”
Badflower – “Ghost”

 

FALLING
Sevendust – “Dirty”
Bad Wolves – “Zombie”
Muse – “Thought Contagion”
 

 

 TRENDS AND OBSERVATIONS

The return to the chart of “Still Hungry” from Adelitas Way pleases me a fair bit, not only because I think it’s one of the better singles of 2018 so far, but also because it’s a veritable case study in perseverance.   The song appeared at #48 back in the last week of April and vanished from the Top 50 the following week, but has remained a steady presence on both satellite and terrestrial radio, just not quite enough spins to get back into the chart.  The return could be a short one, but it’s sort of rewarding for the stations that had confidence in pretty consistent performers that have earned some loyalty.