2023 Grammys Nominations – The Academy Get a Little Crazy Again!

The Grammy nominations are out and whilst the “popular” awards once again aren’t of much interest to us at Wall of Sound, there’s some curiosities among the Best Metal Performance and Best Rock Performance nominees. There’s every chance we might be able to add to our Grammy Winners that sound like April Fool’s Jokes list.

Here are the categories we will keep an eye on, along with our thoughts on potential winners.

Best Metal Performance

For new vocal or instrumental solo, duo/group or collaborative metal recordings.

• ‘Call Me Little Sunshine’ – Ghost
• ‘We’ll Be Back’ – Megadeth
• ‘Kill Or Be Killed’ – Muse
• ‘Degradation Rules’ – Ozzy Osbourne Featuring Tony Iommi
• ‘Blackout’ – Turnstile

Muse? Really? Make no mistake, Muse love a gnarly riff and ‘Kill or Be Killed’ has that for sure. But Metal? Nope. Jamey Jasta gets it:

Did Muse cover Biohazard ☣️ or is the song name just a coincidence lol

— Jamey Jasta (@jameyjasta) November 15, 2022

Surely Ghost should win this right? We gave Impera 10/10 upon release (our review) and ‘Call Me Little Sunshine’ is a catchy lead single. I’m not convinced Megadeth will nab their second after winning for previous release ‘Dystopia’ and Turnstile is likely there as a nice nod (and aren’t really metal either). Ozzy might actually be the favourite after his nostalgic performance at the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony and the fact he is a name the voters will know for sure.

Best Rock Performance

For new vocal or instrumental solo, duo/group or collaborative rock recordings.

• So Happy It Hurts – Bryan Adams
• Old Man – Beck
• Wild Child – The Black Keys
• Broken Horses – Brandi Carlile
• Crawl! – Idles
• Patient Number 9 – Ozzy Osbourne Featuring Jeff Beck
• Holiday – Turnstile

What a cluster mess this one is! So Ozzy teams with Tony and it’s Metal but nabs Jeff Beck and it’s rock. Right. Also Turnstile turn up again, which is a nice sign that someone in the Academy likes them. Bryan Adams hasn’t been nominated in 24 years (last time was Best Pop Vocal Collaboration for this). I would take any of Ozzy, Idles or Turnstile for the win but it seems fairly likely it will be Beck.

Best Rock Song

A Songwriter(s) Award. Includes Rock, Hard Rock and Metal songs. A song is eligible if it was first released or if it first achieved prominence during the Eligibility Year. (Artist names appear in parentheses.) Singles or Tracks only.

• Black Summer
  Flea, John Frusciante, Anthony Kiedis & Chad Smith, songwriters (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
• Blackout
  Brady Ebert, Daniel Fang, Franz Lyons, Pat McCrory & Brendan Yates, songwriters (Turnstile)
• Broken Horses
  Brandi Carlile, Phil Hanseroth & Tim Hanseroth, songwriters (Brandi Carlile)
• Harmonia’s Dream
  Robbie Bennett & Adam Granduciel, songwriters (The War On Drugs)
• Patient Number 9
  John Osbourne, Chad Smith, Ali Tamposi, Robert Trujillo & Andrew Wotman, songwriters (Ozzy Osbourne Featuring Jeff Beck)

Chili Peppers would cap off a great return to form with a Best Rock Song win. Ozzy and Turnstile get nominated again and one of them might just go home empty handed entirely.

Best Rock Album

For albums containing greater than 50% playing time of new rock, hard rock or metal recordings.

• Dropout Boogie – The Black Keys
• The Boy Named If – Elvis Costello & The Imposters
• Crawler – Idles
• Mainstream Sellout – Machine Gun Kelly
• Patient Number 9 – Ozzy Osbourne
• Lucifer On The Sofa – Spoon

Nice to see MGK get a nod for punking it up, but it seems likely either The Black Keys or Ozzy take this out.

If you’re looking for metal among the other awards, Stranger Things: Soundtrack from the Netflix Series, Season 4 (Vol 2), featuring Metallica’s ‘Master of Puppets’, is nominated for Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media (unlikely to beat out Encanto for the award). Underoath’s Voyeurist have also been nominated for Best Recording Package, which would do to art director Tnsn Dvsn.

The Grammys take place on February 5th, 2023. Stay tuned to Wall of Sound for the winners coverage soon after. You’ll find out our picks for best albums and releases in the coming weeks so keep an eye on the socials and subscribe to our newsletter.