The CMT Music Awards were last night, with some great performances and some big wins – including Blake Shelton taking home two trophies for Male and Video of the Year for “I’ll Name The Dogs.” But to me, the most fun was had BETWEEN the performances and awards.

Just the opener got several laughs. Dustin Lynch, Jake Owen, and Jon Pardi dressed for a bridal shower? CHECK. Darius Rucker as the Queen of England? Yep. The guys in Midland taking over a party barge and kissing… each other? It’s all here, along with Florida Georgia Line dressed as Princes Harry and William, driven in a horse-drawn carriage by Trace Adkins. You’re not dreaming. It happened.

The show was hosted by Little Big Town, and for some reason one of Karen Fairchild’s costume changes included… pajamas. Seriously.

My favorite moment was when Carly Pearce won Breakthrough Video of the Year for “Every Little Thing,” a song she wrote about a breakup. Her shout to her ex at the end of this emotional acceptance speech was probably the best thing ever. On behalf of every woman who’s ever had her heart broken (which is like all of us, right?) I so hope he sees it.

Also amazing:  Darius Rucker, Charles Kelley (of Lady Antebellum), Jason Aldean, and Luke Bryan as “The Troublemakers” singing “Straight To Hell,” and Sam Hunt’s performance of “Downtown’s Dead” while walking from one bar to another in downtown Nashville, and finally walking to the stage in the middle of the street. I don’t know how they choreographed that, I don’t know how he could hear himself, and I have no idea how they kept that huge crowd of people out of the way, but it worked.

Well done, CMT. Let’s do it again next year.

Especially this new one I found.

My fascination with Japanese commercials dates back to the dawn of youtube, where it was the wild west of who knows what you could find. My favorite discoveries after hours of random kanji were the Japanese commercials. For me, these commercials were more than odd spectacles of nonsense, no, they were windows to a culture that fascinated me and had me applaud their guts to push a products using inventive methods.

Now, I can hear already… “Aidan, this is cool and all, but where is the metal?”

Well my delightful friend, I got you! Japanese noodle company Nissin has rolled out a really well done and also very metal commercial for their product. The commercial features a noodle-eating chicken devil, summoning noodle snake from the ground, and the eventual destruction of all.

Anime News Network breaks it down perfectly!

“According to the story in the magazine, the statue seen at the beginning is a being called "Akuma no Kimura." Hiyoko-chan participates in rituals to the demon to satisfy its desire for perfection and obtain what is missing to achieve that desire. The description goes on to say that the demon isn't really an external entity, but more of a representation of a demon-like thing that exists within human beings that cannot be destroyed.

The ad repeats the phrases "Sugu oishii, sugoku oishii" (immediately delicious, super delicious). This repetition is supposed represent that the phrase itself no longer has meaning outside of being a spell to access the subconscious. Eventually the phrase transforms into "jigoku oishii" (hellishly delicious). The change happens naturally to the point where the listener doesn't notice until both "delicious" and "hell" coexist.

After Hiyoko's transformation, he becomes a devil named "Caym," a reference to the apocryphal demon also known as Camio that has a bird-like appearance. The demon is well known in Japan because of artist M.L. Breton's depiction in Collin de Plancy's Infernal Dictionary.”

Soooo yeah, THAT IS SO METAL FOR A COMMERCIAL! All this lore in a ramen commercial really makes me wish Cannibal Corpse would make a cameo in a children cereal commercial or something. Actually, I need to make some calls to make that happen now.