HRD Radio Report – Week Ending 12/1/18

HRD Radio Report – Week Ending 12/1/18

Each week 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 12/1/18. All exclusive HRD content is featured below the chart:

CHART	CHART	ARTIST	SONG TITLE	RADIO
POSITION	POSITION			SPINS
THIS WEEK	LAST WEEK
1	1	SHINEDOWN	“GET UP”	1930
2	2	DISTURBED	“Are You Ready”	1836
3	3	BAD WOLVES (f. DIAMANTE)	“Hear Me Now”	1773
4	4	GODSMACK	“When Legends Rise”	1600
5	5	THE GLORIOUS SONS	“S.O.S. (Sawed Off Shotgun)”	1456
6	8	PAPA ROACH	“Who Do You Trust?”	1293
7	7	GHOST	“Dance Macabre”	1293
8	9	BRING ME THE HORIZON	“MANTRA”	1208
9	11	AVENGED SEVENFOLD	“Mad Hatter”	1036
10	12	BEARTOOTH	“Disease”	972
11	13	FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH	“When The Seasons Change”	944
12	6	GRETA VAN FLEET	“When The Curtain Falls”	906
13	14	RIVAL SONS	“Do Your Worst”	802
14	15	FROM ASHES TO NEW	“Broken”	732
15	17	HALESTORM	“Do Not Disturb”	700
16	10	SLASH F/MYLES KENNEDY	“Driving Rain”	675
17	16	UNDEROATH	“ihateit”	658
18	19	SLIPKNOT	“All Out Life”	581
19	18	JONATHAN DAVIS	“Basic Needs”	524
20	20	FEVER 333	“Made An America”	520
21	22	POP EVIL	“Be Legendary”	500
22	25	THREE DAYS GRACE	“Right Left Wrong”	485
23	23	ATREYU	“The Time Is Now”	469
24	24	THE BLUE STONES	“Black Holes (Solid Ground)”	390
25	26	MUSE	“Pressure”	370
26	27	A PERFECT CIRCLE	“So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish”	329
27	21	IMAGINE DRAGONS	“Natural”	325
28	28	CHEVELLE	“Sleep Walking Elite”	324
29	30	HYRO THE HERO	“Bullet”	320
30	29	P.O.D.	“Listening for The Silence”	305
31	41	GRETA VAN FLEET	“You’re The One”	273
32	31	THE DIRTY NIL	“That’s What Heaven Feels Like”	261
33	46	DIAMANTE	“Haunted”	196
34	35	MESSER	“Save Myself”	193
35	34	BLACK MOODS	“Bella Donna”	190
36	37	DOROTHY	“Who Do You Love”	182
37	32	PRETTY VICIOUS	“Move”	173
38	38	TWENTY ONE PILOTS	“Jumpsuit”	143
39	39	MEMPHIS MAY FIRE	“The Old Me”	139
40	40	ROYAL TUSK	“Aftermath”	131
41	42	TWENTY ONE PILOTS	“My Blood”	122
42	44	DOSE	“Vervain”	108
43	45	PALAYE ROYALE	“You’ll Be Fine”	97
44	43	BASEMENT	“Disconnect”	96
45	50	ROYAL BLISS	“Hard And Loud”	93
46	47	ICE NINE KILLS	“A Grave Mistake”	89
47	48	STONE HORSES	“End Of The World”	86
48	49	HANDS LIKE HOUSES	“Monster”	75
49	53	LIGHT THE TORCH	“The Safety Of Disbelief”	68
50	52	SMASHING PUMPKINS	“Silvery Sometimes (Ghosts)”	64

 

 

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

METALLICA – “Halo On Fire”

It’s somewhat surprising to see an album these days that can produce numerous songs that get meaningful airplay.  Six is unheard of, especially when the sixth song is over eight minutes long.  Of course, when you’re Metallica (arguably the biggest rock band in the world), it becomes a bit less surprising.  Even though Hardwired…To Self-Destruct just celebrated the two-year anniversary of its release, strong albums like this have a longer life cycle when it comes to releasing singles.  Realistically, this is probably the last bit of mileage that Metallica will get out of their most celebrated album in several years.

If “Halo On Fire” is the last hurrah off of Hardwired, it is a hell of a way to close out the cycle.  Many would probably argue, but in my opinion, they saved the best for last.  It’s not that the song takes you back in time to the band’s thrash heyday the way that some of the other songs do, but it does have some of the same elements that made “Fade To Black” an all-time classic and fan favorite.  Like some of their other epic pieces, “Halo On Fire” has multiple parts, but they blend together smoothly rather than giving you whiplash as they slam on the breaks and change direction.

Metallica is predominantly an influential band, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t write songs that seem to pay homage to other artists.  In the beginning of the song, the dual guitar assault that transitions to a slower, moody tempo is a similar approach that Judas Priest took on “Victim Of Changes.”  To be fair, “Halo On Fire” – while lengthy – is more accessible to the average listener than the Priest classic.  The hook and the chorus fall more in the realm of radio-friendly songs.

About halfway through the song, there is a nice guitar riff transition that acts as a bridge to the second half of the song where some unlikely influences can be heard.  At times, you’ll be reminded of Thin Lizzy’s “Jailbreak.”  On one small guitar picking part – Queensryche’s “Anybody Listening.” Shades of a mixture between The Guess Who’s “No Time” and John Cougar Mellancamp’s “I Need A Lover” shine through in the melodic guitar parts that seem to sing a vocal melody.  The jamming at the end of the song sounds like the lovechild of Metallica and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Freebird.”

Metallica has shown different sides of themselves throughout their illustrious career, but it’s hard to think of a song that shows more diversity than “Halo On Fire.”  It’s definitely my favorite song off of the band’s latest album, and in due time, I can see it becoming one of my favorites in their entire catalog.

 

 

PUBLISHER’S PREDICTIONS (By Adam Waldman)

Mentioned as a possibility last week, Bad Wolves reversed their slight downtrend with moderate uptick in spins this week.  Shinedown suffered a modest decline, but remained firmly in the #1 position.  Bad Wolves has the edge right now to be the next #1, but Godsmack is hot on their heels, and could provide stiff competition in the coming weeks.  If Shinedown has another modest decline, they could hold on to the #1 position for another week.  However, if they start to drop with momentum, either of the aforementioned artists has the potential to rise to the top.
 

 

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…

METALLICA – “Halo On Fire”

SUNFLOWER DEAD – “Victim”

EVE TO ADAM – “No Easy Way Out”

FIGHT THE FURY – “My Demons”

MONSTER TRUCK – “Denim Danger”

SHVPES – “Afterlife”

WITHIN TEMPTATION (f. JACOBY SHADDIX) – “The Reckoning”

DEVOUR THE DAY – “Faithless”

 

DROP IT…

Twenty One Pilots – “Jumpsuit”

Twenty One Pilots – “My Blood”

Imagine Dragons – “Natural”

Glorious Sons – “S.O.S.”

Pretty Vicious – Move”

Basement – “Disconnect”

Muse – “Pressure”

Fever 333 – “Made An America”

 

 

THE BREAKDOWN (by Jon Loveless)

NOTABLE CHART MOVEMENT

Beartooth now has a Top 10 single on virtually the same airplay that was good for #12 the week before…

No changes in the composition of the Top 20 nor the Top 30, only changes in the order of the songs…

The latest Greta Van Fleet single is the only new member in the Top 40 this week…

Light The Torch is the highlight of the debuting songs that fill out the bottom two spots of this published chart.
 

 

THREE UP & THREE DOWN

RISING
Godsmack – “When Legends Rise”
Diamante – “Haunted”
Three Days Grace – “Right Left Wrong”

 

FALLING
Slash f. Myles Kennedy – “Driving Rain”
Greta Van Fleet – “When The Curtain Falls”
Imagine Dragons – “Natural”

 

TRENDS & OBSERVATIONS

Definitely feels like the holiday season slowdown at radio is underway.