The Metal Bar

05/12/2025

This week there's new from Plague Of The Fallen & Beastwars Band, inspired from & drop a new slab of goodness.

There's News & Tunes from Megadeth God Forbid Slipknot & plus Irish Psykosis Thrash Metal over

We'll also spin Shepherds Reign & Just One Fix 🤘

03/12/2025

That’s 2pm NZT🤘 - The Metal Bar on the airwaves in the USA

On The Metal Bar tonight - new Plague Of The Fallen out of Christchurch, the latest single from Rob Zombie 'The Great Satan' album, there's out of Denmark in the form of MØL, from Stellar Circuits plus The Halo Effect provide the 'Like a Version'. There's News & Tunes from & Katatonia & we'll spin some & 5PM Pacific / 8PM Eastern

28/11/2025

On the show this week new Plague Of The Fallen out of Christchurch, the latest single from Rob Zombie 'The Great Satan' album, there's out of Denmark in the form of MØL, from Stellar Circuits plus The Halo Effect provide the 'Like a Version'.

There's News & Tunes from & Katatonia & we'll spin some &

27/11/2025

Let’s charter a plane 🤘or hope that Anthrax do some kiwi shows 🤘
Double bill with Alien Weaponry anyone 🤘🔥🤘🔥🤘🔥

17/11/2025

All Hail Lisa from Muzic.NZ who has been on this Crusade for some time 🤘🤘🤘

Aotearoa Music Awards Update:

It official, Metal will be included in the 2026 Aotearoa Music Awards!

How will this look?

The Best Rock Artist category is going to be renamed as Best Rock / Metal Artist. This will be officially announced by the AMA's when nominations open this Thursday.

The description and Te Reo translation of the category will also be updated to reflect this.

Why doesn't Metal get it's own category?

Award categories must be viable, meaning:
• Enough nominations for judges to select a top 5.
• At least 3 finalists to ensure a competitive field.

Right now, it’s unclear if Metal alone would generate sufficient entries - largely because many Metal acts haven’t entered the awards due to the lack of a dedicated category. By expanding Rock to include Metal, organisers can gauge interest and viability before considering a separate category.

What's next?

We will revisit this in a couple of years time to see how things are going. If Metal proves strong enough to sustain its own category, the push will be made to establish Best Metal Artist as a standalone award.

So, what can you do?

If you have released new music from 1 January 2025 - 31 December 2025, please, please, please nominate yourself in the Best Rock / Metal Artist category. The more nominations, the more chance we have of securing Metal its own standalone category.

To be eligible you only need to release at least 3 singles via legitimate physical or digital channels in NZ, including streaming.

The nomination fee is $46 per category.

Judges

The AMA organisers are expanding the judging panel for the Best Rock / Metal Artist category to ensure fair representation of both genres.

If you’re passionate about Rock or Metal and would like to be considered as a judge for the Aotearoa Music Awards, let me know and I’ll pass your interest over to them.

Last words

While this may not be what everyone was hoping for, it is definitely a step in the right direction - for the first time ever, Metal will be officially included in the Aotearoa Music Awards.

Thank you for your support 🤘

14/11/2025

On the show this week there's new Megadeth & Skindred plus discover BEAST EAGLE - if you're a fan of Mastodon and you'll love these guys. There's also my favourite track from the new Beastwars Band album & King Ultramega deliver a killer version of 'The Day I Tried To Live'.
There's news & tunes from Slayer & plus we'll spin some Lacuna Coil Deftones & Hate Eternal
.eagle

10/11/2025

If you need a Metallica ticket …

07/11/2025

On the show this week there's a heap of headlined by new Band - their latest album The Ship//The Sea has just dropped - expect to hear Leave The Dead Alien Weaponry Just One Fix & Blindfolded and Led to the Woods from the Land of the Long White Cloud as well.

There's also new Death Angel Kreator Despised Icon & Korpiklaani cover Anthrax

Checkout news & tunes from Lamb of God Exhorder & Overkill as well.

31/10/2025

On this week there's a new album you need to hear! From Head Lock Grave out of Auckland, it'll kick your arse from here til Xmas.

There's also new tracks from Soulfly Conjurer & act Stellar Circuits

Plus The Halo Effect cover Glenn Hughes band - there's also News & Tunes from Metallica Chimaira Children Of Bodom & Trivium

Conjurer Stellar Circuits

24/10/2025

This is a great version of ‘St Vitus Dance’ by Black Sabbath done by Moonic Productions with the legendary Matt Pike of High On Fire & Sleep smashing the vocals 🤘

https://youtu.be/45HkemEPtsA?si=E1pfKCWQdSlq0xG

Quite an opportunity to work with Matt Pike. Thanks so much to Shea of Woodbine Guitars, RiQ from our band Kaiser, Jeff Matz and of course the mighty Matt Pi...

24/10/2025

On the show this week Testament cover Metallica plus there's new Despised Icon Hellripper Paleface Swiss & Auckland band Monolith drop a banger as well.

There's news & tunes from Nonpoint Mastodon Parkway Drive & Sacred Reich and we'll spin some classic & Dark Angel Official

Despised Icon

17/10/2025

Miss out on a Metallica concert ticket for the Auckland show?
A mate needs to sell a Golden Circle ticket - $317 is face value.
Hit me up if you’re keen to buy, 🤘