Heavy Metal Added to Juno Awards

Ceremony will feature ritual slaughter of a bat, a miniature Stonehenge, quadruple-necked guitars, and black. Lots and lots of black.

The Juno Awards have finally decided that heavy metal is worthy of its own little statuette, as the Canadian music awards group will add a new category next year for best metal/hard music album. The new category will cover all types of hard music, from the manifold strains of metal to hardcore to plain ol' hard rock. Considering that the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences already bestows awards upon such esoteric categories as world music, children's music, and best CD/DVD packaging, it's about time headbangers got their due, too. (Heck, the seminal animated film Heavy Metal, which is just about the best Canadian film ever made, came out three decades ago this year. Granted, this is the same awards ceremony that didn't have an award for best hip-hop album until 2003, so yeah, currency isn't exactly their forte.) Nevertheless, we look forward to Fucked Up claiming the first ever metal/hard music Juno once the ceremony is held in Ottawa on April 1.