Uh oh. That starts with the letter U and also perfectly depicts my feelings for how the rest of this year’s article series on an alphabet themed playlist is likely to pan out. How many bands can start with the letters U, V, W, X, Y or Z?

Not too many I suspect. For now, let’s see how many U bands I managed to find. This could be a short and simple read for you. Or for U.

I’ll just get straight to it. Tool finally released a new album. So, yes … Tool is in my fortnightly series of bands that start with the same letter. But, and I know it’s poor form to start a sentence with the word but, is the track that’s chosen for Tool from the latest album? Well, you’re going to have to read a few more paragraphs to find out.

Or scroll down to the list. You could always do that.

This fortnight’s entry in the alphabet playlist of metal is a cracker. It seems that the letter S is another good one when it comes to selecting band names in the rock or metal genres. This means good things for my drives to and from work for the next two weeks.

When I’m playing Scrabble, I generally feel pretty good about picking up the letter R. There will be plenty of words I’ll be able to make with that letter. It seems metal and rock bands don’t play a lot of Scrabble, because there were not as many popular bands as I’d have thought that start with the letter R.

After a bit of digging, I ended up with a decent list though. There’s certainly enough to keep me occupied on my drives to and from work. Thank goodness the Q playlist can be put to rest now.

Quick. That’s what I think this fortnight’s entry in the alphabet playlist of metal will be. There just aren’t a lot of bands that I’m aware of that start with the letter Q.

P is for playlist. No, that’s a stupid way to start this entry to the alphabet playlist of metal. I know … Today’s episode is brought to you by the letter P. Nope. I’m pretty sure there’s a children’s television show that has done that before.

It’s the P fortnight because last fortnight was all about the letter O and this is how the alphabet works. Nope, this just isn’t going to get any better. Psorry—the P is silent.

Oh, this will be a disappointing fortnight of variety. The M fortnight seemingly ruined everything and set the bar way too high. Don’t get me wrong, there’s some awesome music in this fortnight’s article. There’s just not as much as when M rocked the house.

I always suspected that last week’s entry in the alphabet playlist of music was going to be hard to top. Sorry N … you’ve proved my suspicions to be warranted. This seems to be a fortnight of slim pickings.

Not trying to take away from the bands that make up this list—there are some exceptional entries here—there just aren’t enough of them. Is that due to my own limited playlist building abilities? Probably. But going through the catalogue of music I listen to, there don’t seem to be a lot of heavy bands I can easily recall that start with the letter N.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm … Not only is that a satisfying word to say/type, but it’s also an accurate count of how many M bands are in this fortnight’s edition of the alphabet playlist of metal.

There are 23 Ms for those of you who don’t feel like counting.

I’m still playing catch-up. Why? Well, I’m slack. Another reason is that I’m easily distracted. My recent blog post about my ten most influential guitar duos for example got me thinking about what a list of my ten most influential bands with one guitarist would look like.

One band from today’s list would absolutely be in such a list. I’ll have to put that list together. Soon. But not before I finish this article.