While many heavy music fans have had a contentious and skeptical view of the Grammy Awards over the years, there’s still a morbid curiosity towards how the music industry’s biggest mainstream award show views and honors the metal community. And today (November 8th), the Grammy voters officially unveiled their picks for the Best Metal Performance of the year.
A full nominee rollout for the 67th annual Grammys took place this morning, which naturally included Best Metal Performance. To clear things up, “performance” refers to a single song rather than a full-length album. And the class of 2025 is a reasonably diverse roster of talent.
This year, the nominees include Gojira’s big Olympics anthem (“Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça ira!)”), as well as a bigtime hardcore crossover between Knocked Loose and Poppy (“Suffocate”), Spiritbox’s second Grammy nomination (“Cellar Door”), a track from Judas Priest’s Invincible Shield (“Crown of Horns”) and a 72 Seasons cut from perennial Grammy nominees Metallica (“Screaming Suicide”).
Occasionally, metal bands will slip into other categories, including Best Rock Album or Best Rock Song. This year’s nominees in those categories didn’t quite hit mega-heaviness, but UK post-punk group IDLES, who just appeared at Deftones’ Dia de los Deftones concert last weekend, did manage to nab a trio of nominations, putting them in competition with veteran acts including Pearl Jam, Green Day, the Rolling Stones and even the Beatles.
You can see the info on those categories down below, while the rest of the Grammy nominees are up on the Grammy Awards website. The 67th annual Grammy Awards will take place February 2nd, 2025, at the Crypto.com Arena in L.A.
Best Metal Performance
Gojira, Marina Viotti & Victor Le Masne – “Mea Culpa (Ah! Ça ira!)”
Judas Priest – “Crown of Horns”
Knocked Loose feat. Poppy – “Suffocate”
Metallica – “Screaming Suicide”
Spiritbox – “Cellar Door”
Best Rock Album
The Black Crowes – Happiness Bastards
Fontaines D.C. – Romance
Green Day – Saviors
IDLES – TANGK
Pearl Jam – Dark Matter
The Rolling Stones – Hackney Diamonds
Jack White – No Name
Best Rock Performance
The Beatles – “Now and Then”
The Black Keys – “Beautiful People (Stay High)”
Green Day – “The American Dream Is Killing Me”
IDLES – “Gift Horse”
Pearl Jam “Dark Matter”
St. Vincent – “Broken Man”
Best Rock Song
The Black Keys – “Beautiful People (Stay High),”
St. Vincent – “Broken Man”
Pearl Jam – “Dark Matter”
Green Day – “Dilemma”
IDLES – “Gift Horse”