Twelve Foot Ninja Clear Up Controversy Over King Gizz ARIA Win Comments

Melbourne-prog metal outfit Twelve Foot Ninja have attempted to clear up comments they made about King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard's contentious ARIA Award win last week and have backed growing calls for the voting system to be revamped. 

After Brisbane's The Amity Affliction blasted ARIA last week for awarding the Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal award to King Gizz, Twelve Foot Ninja lead guitarist Steve "Stevic" MacKay took to TFN's Facebook page last night to address the controversy. 

"I was asked to provide a comment about the result before any articles were published," MacKay's post reads.

"I explained I found it irritating that the only band who didn't fit into the category won it… and that any other band would have made more sense. This appears to be the consensus from fans and bands alike. It's not a jab at King Gizzard.

"The fact that Twelve Foot Ninja were nominated was amazing! We actually thought Amity would win because it was their fourth nomination or maybe Hellions because their album got a great response.

"We honestly never thought King Gizzard would win for the simple reason that they're a psych-rock band...no other reason. That statement does not infer Gizz are not a hardworking band or that they're not great at what they do… These attributes are evident in their reputation."

read more 

• The Amity Affliction Blast Aus Music Industry "Fat Cats" Following ARIAs Loss
• The Amity Affliction Still Seething After Awards Loss: 'We Hate The ARIAs As Much As They Hate Us'
• EXCLUSIVE: Calls Grow For Changes To ARIAs Voting System Following The Amity Affliction Uproar

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MacKay further suggests even King Gizz would admit their win was unexpected, but insists there is no bad blood between the two bands, while he also distanced TFN from comments made by The Amity Affliction frontman Ahren Stringer, who said, "We hate the arias as much as they hate us".

"I want to distance Twelve Foot Ninja from the Amity fella going apeshit on Twitter," the post continues.

"That's not our vibe. We actually loved the experience of the Aria's and don't want to be tarred with the same brush as getting all weird Kanye about this. I was asked to comment, I did."

Mackay added that he hopes the controversy surrounding the category will lead to changes being made to the ARIAs voting process. 

"I maintain there was a bit of a malfunction with the voting criteria and hopefully the parameters around what is Hard Rock/Metal and what is Rock are tightened as a result of this saga of fucking minuscule proportions!"

Check out the full statement here.