9 Times The Grammy Awards Chose Its Metal Poorly

To hoist Deftones above any other accomplished artists from that year, especially above those actually nominated, is absurd.

Iron Maiden were diving headlong into a career renaissance and although “The Wicker Man” is not among their strongest tracks, it was what the band needed to get themselves back on the ball. Pantera followed their longest downtime between albums with Reinventing the Steel, the lead single of which being an unabashed reminder of the band’s confidence and power.

Marilyn Manson was practically an elder statesmen of the alternative metal scene by this time, though he was still embroiled in every level of controversy imaginable while the up-and-coming Slipknot had spent the year prior turning waves into tsunamis with their energy and aggression.

While one could argue that White Pony was the Deftones’ most ambitious album to that point, presenting elements that would become more commonplace as the band evolved, I don’t agree with the notion that this was their time.