HRD Radio Report – Week Ending 7/28/18

 HRD Radio Report – Week Ending 7/28/18

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 7/28/18. All exclusive HRD content is featured below the chart:

CHART	CHART	ARTIST	SONG TITLE	RADIO
POSITION	POSITION			SPINS
THIS WEEK	LAST WEEK
1	1	GHOST	“Rats”	1898
2	2	GODSMACK	“Bulletproof”	1633
3	4	FROM ASHES TO NEW	“Crazy”	1520
4	5	FOO FIGHTERS	“The Line”	1448
5	3	SHINEDOWN	“DEVIL”	1363
6	6	HALESTORM	“Uncomfortable”	1335
7	7	FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH	“Sham Pain”	1312
8	9	BREAKING BENJAMIN	“Torn In Two”	1115
9	11	THREE DAYS GRACE	“Infra-Red”	1044
10	10	POP EVIL	“A Crime To Remember”	1029
11	12	ALICE IN CHAINS	“The One You Know”	966
12	13	BADFLOWER	“Ghost”	879
13	14	ESCAPE THE FATE	“Broken Heart”	772
14	15	IN THIS MOMENT (f. Rob Halford)	“Black Wedding”	706
15	16	NOTHING MORE	“Just Say When”	694
16	17	BAD WOLVES (f. DIAMANTE)	“Hear Me Now”	652
17	30	GRETA VAN FLEET	“When The Curtain Falls”	609
18	18	ASKING ALEXANDRIA	“Alone In A Room”	554
19	22	SEETHER	“Against The Wall”	495
20	21	LIKE A STORM	“The Devil Inside”	444
21	24	TWENTY ONE PILOTS	“Jumpsuit”	442
22	23	SKINDRED	“That’s My Jam”	391
23	20	BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE	“Over It”	370
24	19	GUNS N’ ROSES	“Shadow Of Your Love (2018)”	360
25	25	THRICE	“The Grey”	328
26	29	THE RECORD COMPANY	“Life To Fix”	319
27	28	GRANDSON	“Blood/Water”	319
28	33	10 YEARS	“Burnout”	281
29	31	SMASHING PUMPKINS	“Solara”	276
30	35	KULICK	“Ghost”	251
31	40	MOTIONLESS IN WHITE	“Voices”	250
32	38	LEDGER	“Not Dead Yet”	200
33	37	THE STRUTS	“Body Talks”	200
34	27	PARKWAY DRIVE	“The Void”	199
35	39	SHIM	“Hallelujah”	187
36	36	SEVENDUST	“Dirty”	185
37	32	STONE TEMPLE PILOTS	“Roll Me Under”	183
38	43	THEORY OF A DEADMAN	“Wicked Game”	181
39	26	FEVER 333	“Walking In My Shoes”	176
40	41	NONPOINT	“Chaos And Earthquakes”	171
41	42	DEAD GIRLS ACADEMY	“No Way Out”	170
42	75	THE GLORIOUS SONS	“S.O.S.”	154
43	0	BEARTOOTH	“Disease”	128
44	44	ADELITAS WAY	“Still Hungry”	128
45	51	FOZZY	“Burn Me Out”	124
46	0	SLASH f. MYLES KENNEDY	“Driving Rain”	116
47	36	IVORY BLUE	“Ready Get Set”	91
48	48	LIVE	“Love Lounge”	90
49	47	KOBRA AND THE LOTUS	“Velvet Roses”	84
50	45	NO RESOLVE	“What You Deserve”	82

 

 

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

SLASH f. MYLES KENNEDY & THE CONSPIRATORS – “Driving Rain”

The rock music world lost their collective minds when Guns N’ Roses reunited after many years.  I had two thoughts when the reunion was announced.  The first was that it wasn’t truly a reunion because there was no Izzy Stradlin or Steven Adler.  The next was that the reunion could have meant the end of one of my favorite bands – Slash f. Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators.   Thankfully, despite dominating the music scene in recent times, the GNR reunion has not stopped Slash and Kennedy from writing new material.

While the GNR reunion wasn’t a big deal for me personally, one of the interesting things to come from it is the classic GNR guitar sound on Slash/Myles’ latest single, “Driving Rain.”  There’s an edgy swagger to Slash’s riff and the driving rhythm that harkens back to the Appetite For Destruction days.  Unlike Axl Rose’s gritty delivery that sits right in the pocket of this sound, Kennedy’s beautiful, soaring, melodic vocals offer a brilliant contrast to the heaviness of the music.

As much as I love classic GNR, Alter Bridge, and Kennedy’s solo work, there is something special about this duo that grabs me every time.  “Driving Rain” (like most of the music from Slash’s other project) is likely to get some attention at radio, but not nearly as much as it deserves.  Rumors of new music from GNR has generated a lot of buzz lately, but for my money, songs like “Driving Rain” (and any new material from Slash/Kennedy) is even more exciting.

 

 

PUBLISHER’S PREDICTIONS (By Adam Waldman)

Ghost declined this week, but then again, so did the rest of the top 5, with the exception of From Ashes To New (who picked up a handful of spins).  As a result, Ghost has a commanding lead of just under 400 spins by the next likely challenger.  Based on this week’s trends, it looks like Ghost will have to have at least two weeks of significant declines to be dethroned.  Should that happen without a significant gain by any of the artists in the top 10, the new leader will top the charts with a relatively meager amount of spins.  Of course, we’ve seen recently that songs can flat-line, even decline a bit, and then surge.  Short of a seismic shift this week, Ghost will hold the top spot next week as well.
 

 

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 – “The King Welcomes You To Avatarland”

FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH – “Blue On Black”

MONSTER TRUCK – “Evolution”

FAREWELL TO FEAR – “Underneath My Skin”

SILENT THEORY – “Watch Me Burn”

ARMORED DAWN – “Sail Away”

UNDEROATH – “ihateit”

CROWN THE EMPIRE – “20/20”

 

DROP IT…

Twenty One Pilots – “Jumpsuit”

The Fever 333 – “Walking In My Shoes”

Grandson – “Blood/Water”

Smashing Pumpkins – “Solara”

Ivory Blue – “Ready Get Set”

Theory Of A Deadman – “Wicked Game”

Kulick – “Ghost”

Glorious Sons – “S.O.S.”

 

 

THE BREAKDOWN (by Jon Loveless)

NOTABLE CHART MOVEMENT

Three Days Grace slips into the Top 10…

Greta Van Fleet rockets into the Top 20 this week, with Seether and Like A Storm joining them there…

Leading a trio of new arrivals into the Top 30 is 10 Years…

Theory Of A Deadman breaks into the Top 40, while Nonpoint inches back up despite relatively flat airplay…

Four songs make their published chart debut this week, including what looks to be the third straight hit from Fozzy and something brand new from Slash f. Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators.
 

 

THREE UP & THREE DOWN

RISING
Breaking Benjamin – “Torn In Two”
Greta Van Fleet – “When The Curtain Falls”
Twenty One Pilots – “Jumpsuit”
 

FALLING
Fever 333 – “Walking In My Shoes”
Shinedown – “DEVIL”
Guns N’ Roses – “Shadow Of Your Love”
 

 

 TRENDS AND OBSERVATIONS

Radio, or at least the published chart, finally lets go of Dorothy’s “Flawless” some 25 weeks after it first appeared in the Top 50.  The song had remarkable longevity when you consider that officially peaked at #8 and spent only four of those weeks in the Top 10.