DREAM THEATER, MEGADETH, MASTODON Members Looking Forward To This Weekend's GRAMMY AWARDS

DREAM THEATER, MASTODON and MEGADETH are among the nominees for the 54th annual Grammy Awards, which will be held on Sunday, February 12, 2012 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

The nominees in the "Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance" category are as follows:

* DREAM THEATER - "On The Backs Of Angels"
* FOO FIGHTERS - White Limo"
* MASTODON - "Curl Of The Burl"
* MEGADETH - "Public Enemy No. 1"
* SUM 41 - "Blood In My Eyes"

"We're ecstatic," James LaBrie, lead vocalist for DREAM THEATER, told Grammy.com. "Personally, I've already got the cleats on the bottom of my dress shoes so I can run up on the stage." He adds, "This is [about] getting a nod, getting the recognition from the industry itself [and] giving us a little bit more of a platform as far as public awareness."

"We were shocked when we heard about the nomination because we never imagined it would be in the realm of possibility that this might happen," said MASTODON drummer Brann Dailor. "We never saw our music as commercially viable in any way. We'd never expected The Recording Academy to notice that we'd even existed. The fact that we've been nominated is nice to begin with."

"Kenny G came up to us a little while ago — he's got the same manager that I do — and he said, 'Don't feel bad, I've had [17] nominations and only won once,'" said MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine. "I still really appreciate the fact that my peers are voting me as a nominee. That's an accomplishment in itself. This year would be great to win it."

When asked if it's "really metal" to win a Grammy, Dailor replied, "I'm not concerned with being 'metal.' I'm a musician first and foremost, and if we did win it would be validation for all our hard work that we put into writing and recording music."

"I think when you're doing stuff that is notoriously 'black sheep kid in the family,' to have people pick you shows you're doing something right," said Mustaine.

"I think so," replied LaBrie. "If they're going to label it as such, then I'm taking it."

To be eligible for nomination, an artist's work must have been released between October 1, 2010 and September 30, 2011.

Nominations for the 54th annual Grammy Awards were announced on November 30, 2011 by The Recording Academy and reflected an eclectic mix of the best and brightest in music over the past year, as determined by the voting members of The Academy. For the fourth year, nominations for the annual Grammy Awards were announced on primetime television as part of "The Grammy Nominations Concert Live!! — Countdown To Music's Biggest Night", a one-hour special broadcast live on CBS from Nokia Theatre at L.A. Live.

The 54th annual Grammy Awards will be held on "Grammy Sunday," February 12 at Staples Center in Los Angeles and once again will be broadcast live in high-definition TV and 5.1 surround sound on CBS from 8 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. (ET/PT).

For a complete list of nominees, go to this location.

In an effort to continuously evolve its Grammy Awards process, The Recording Academy announced in April 2011 that it had restructured the Grammy categories across all genres and fields, bringing the total number of categories to be recognized at the 54th Grammy Awards in 2012, to 78 from 109. As a result, instead of separate "Best Metal" and "Best Hard Rock" performance prizes, there is now a single "Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance" award.

"Every year, we diligently examine our Awards structure to develop an overall guiding vision and ensure that it remains a balanced and viable process," said Portnow. "After careful and extensive review and analysis of all categories and fields, it was objectively determined that our Grammy categories be restructured to the continued competition and prestige of the highest and only peer-recognized award in music. Our Board of Trustees continues to demonstrate its dedication to keeping The Recording Academy a pertinent and responsive organization in our dynamic music community."

For 53 years, The Recording Academy has recognized musical excellence with the Grammy Awards — the most prestigious and only peer-recognized award in music — and the awards have grown from 28 categories in 1959, to awards in 109 categories for the most recent 53rd Grammys. This growth springs from a tradition of honoring specific genres and/or subgenres within a field, and it has basically been approached one category at a time without a current overall guiding vision and without consistency across the various genre fields. In 2009, The Academy initiated a first-ever comprehensive evaluation of its awards process, which led to a desire for change. A transformation of the entire awards structure would ensure that all fields would be treated with parity. Diligent research, careful analysis, and thoughtful discussion of all fields resulted in an overarching framework and a restructuring of categories to 78, and ensures that every submission continues to have a home.

In addition to the restructuring of categories, two rule changes have been established and four fields have been renamed. It is now expected that each category shall have at least 40 distinct artist entries, up from 25. If a category receives between 25 and 39 entries, only three recordings would receive nominations that year. Should there be fewer than 25 entries in a category, that category would immediately go on hiatus for the current year — no award given — and entries would be screened into the next most logical category. If a category receives fewer than 25 entries for three consecutive years, the category would be discontinued, and submissions would be entered in the next most appropriate category.

The second rule change is regarding voting. Previously, voting members were allowed to vote in up to nine genre fields plus the general field on the first ballot and eight genre fields plus the general field on the second ballot, including every category within each chosen Field. Now, on each ballot, voters may vote in up to 20 categories in the genre fields plus the four categories of the general field — which includes "Record Of The Year", "Album Of The Year", "Song Of The Year", and "Best New Artist".