The Faction Radio Introduces The Hardest 100 Countdown

15 February 2018 | 1:50 pm | Alex Sievers
Originally Appeared In

Heavy music's own Hottest 100 countdown is coming in March, all thanks to The Faction.

Heavy music's own Hottest 100 countdown is coming in March, all thanks to The Faction.



Another year is underway, and yet another Hottest 100 has gone down, with the same crowds not realising that heavy music hasn't been Triple J's focus for quite some time now (other than the odd feature album, Short.Fast.Loud, and The Racket, the Hottest 101-200 is where most alternative and heavy bands enter in). With the same people also seemingly missing the memo that the countdown is a public vote of songs from the previous year only.

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Last month also brought us the bone-headed, tone deaf and rather comedic move from Triple M in the shape of Ozzest 100 (there's a lawsuit in there somewhere), in what was just the usual rock playlist from Triple M minus the inclusion of the usual international artists like Nickelback, Foo Fighters, Nirvana and so on, as they solely focused on Aussie-only bands. Hell, Stevie Wright's 'Evie' made up three of the 100 songs in the list, for Christ's sake.

Either way, if both of those polls left you warning, you're into heavier music and you aren't apart of the Triple J Tradie crowd that only hears new heavy bands when they score a weekly feature album (Polaris, Ocean Grove, etc.) then there is indeed hope yet! Introducing: The Faction and the digital radio stations newest countdown, Hardest 100.

This is all the brainchild of Tim Price - publicist at Collision Course and SGC Media - who launched the digital heavy music station last year. This March heavy music countdown from the new digital radio group will coincide with the 50th anniversary of artists like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple; who are all pretty much the founders of heavy metal.

Price and The Faction had the idea for their own poll planned months before Triple J revealed this year's Hottest 100 in January. “The idea was to make hits for heavy music in the same way commercial radio make hits for mainstream music by playing those songs on rotation because there aren’t that many outlets for this sort of music in Australia", says Price. "There is a weird thing where the fans do kind of thrive on this music being the outsider to the mainstream but there are hundreds of bands out there who always land in the top 5 whether it’s Metallica or Amity Affliction or Parkway Drive.”

For those who don't know, The Faction Radio streams 24/7, delivers news from the best heavy outlets around the world (even including us, the fuckin' darlings) and have some very cool offers and discounts regarding new music, shows, and tours etc. Check it out and go have your say:



Voting is open now via themusic.com.au and the countdown will broadcast via The Faction's website and app on March 17th. To enter the draw for a stacked list of prizes, voters must download the free The Faction app and access the code from the "OFFERS" section to enter into the voting form.