What a semifinals that we just had and while it didn’t set records as compared to some numbers from the Pedal To The Metal March Madness Tournament, it definitely set Pedal Cup records considering this is the first tournament. The most talked about match was the one between Japan’s BABYMETAL who had been blazing a path through the tournament taking on surprise semifinalist Moonspell of Portugal. Moonspell for the most part had been leading the match for maybe half of it until BABYMETAL’s fans showed up when it counted and took the match decisively. The other semifinal match featured two titans of their respective sub-genre’s of Metal in Poland’s Behemoth and Florida’s own Morbid Angel. Behemoth took the early decisive lead and just never looked back on their way to victory. Now, Behemoth has a tough task on hand as they challenge BABYMETAL for the first ever Pedal Cup crown, but with fan voting it’s anyone’s ball game. Also in the third place match, Moonspell will take on Morbid Angel because that is traditionally what the World Cup does. Check out he box scores below:
It is here, the moment you have all been waiting for when we separate the men from the boys. Two bands are one step closer to realizing their goal of winning the pedal to the metal championship which has seen the likes of Motley Crue, Judas Priest (2013 & 2014), Kreator, and Destruction (defeated Iron Maiden to win championship) all win the pedal to the metal championship. I was wondering heading into this tournament if we would finally see someone other than Judas Priest go back to back, but after three rounds of fan voting, we are going to once again have a brand new champion. In fact, all four bands in the final four have never been this far in the tournament which makes it even more exciting and this is also the first time in three years that not a single member of the Big Teutonic Four are in the final four. For Lamb Of God and Amon Amarth, this is the first time these two bands have been in the tournament so it’s a win no matter the result for both these bands. For tournament veterans Queensryche and Megadeth, this is a chance for both bands to finally win the championship that has been alluding them both since 2011 when the tournament started. You have until March 28 at 11PM ET to vote for who you want to see in the finals. I want to remind people that without the bands sharing the tournament, there is no tournament. This is a fan base vs fan base tournament so vote for the band you love and show your unity. If you forget how it works then follow this 
Our last match of the Elite 8 round was the most interesting one because it was so darn close right up until the end. Tournament newcomer, Amon Amarth took on 2015 champion (who defeated Iron Maiden to win the championship) Kreator in our last match of the elite 8 round. These two bands were separated by a couple of votes for almost the whole entire round. It was quite an amazing site to see, but in the end Amon Amarth pulled off the win by only seven votes (710-703). I will be setting up the matches real soon so stay tuned. I also wanted to express how excited I was at the turn out for the tournament and where you guys are coming from because we have reached nations like Singapore, Mexico, Netherlands, Finland, Argentina, Bulgaria, Thailand, Israel, Peru, Lithuania, Taiwan, Cayman Islands, Faroe Islands, Vietnam, Macedonia, and an island named Jersey just to name a few. There were way too many nations to list, but to me that is exciting and that is what this is all about. I just hope that we can get more and more countries involved in this tournament and that Iron Maiden fans stop being so salty over this.
A couple of weeks ago, we started this tournament with 32 bands from all sorts of genres of rock and metal and now we are down to two. Along the way, we’ve seen some major upsets and we even saw the defending champion taken down. I do want to remind all of you out there that if it wasn’t for you, this wouldn’t be possible at all because you voted for your favorite bands. In the final four, we had Ghost taking on Iron Maiden in one match while Testament took on Destruction. One band made it a close match after it almost looked over while another band blazed their way through the match much like they did in the tournament. In our first match up, it looked as if for a while that Iron Maiden had the match in their pocket until a late run saw Ghost almost make the comeback of a lifetime (it’s one of the best comebacks for a band that lost a match). Unfortunately, Ghost lost the match by only 19 votes meaning that Iron Maiden is in the finals for a second year in a row. In our other match, Destruction, a band whose fans have come out in droves since the tournament started didn’t let the band down at all. The band defeated Testament by a 105 votes meaning that they will take on Iron Maiden in the finals. Stay tuned for an opportunity to vote in the finals.
Here it is the moment you have all been waiting for as The Final Four of the 2016 Pedal To The Metal Tournament is now live and open. This year’s tournament has been full of surprises as we’ve seen some upsets along the way. Ghost is one of those bands that has had some of those upsets as they’ve beaten giants like Black Label Society and even Alice Cooper before beating Avenged Sevenfold (who also beat some giants) to get to this point. They’ll look to do the same as they take on Dio Division winners Iron Maiden who have made the final four for the second year in a row. Last year, Iron Maiden took out AC/DC to get into this finals and now they’ll have to contend with Ghost. In our other final four match, we have two titans of thrash squaring off against each other. If there was ever an argument as to who to make a member of the Big Five of Thrash Metal (if they decided to add one more member), Testament would definitely be that band. On the road to the final four, they took care of business defeating Anthrax, Death Angel, and Megadeth to get here. Last year, Testament was one match away from making it to this point before they were bounced out, but now they look to make the best of it against Big Teutonic Four member Destruction. Destruction’s road to the championship included victories over Venom, Entombed A.D. and Defending champions Kreator. Now the band looks to complete the success by defeating Testament. Whose fans will rise to the occasion, only time will tell. You have until March 31ST to decide.
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