''The Racket'' (formerly ''3 Hours of Power'' and ''Full Metal Racket'') is an Australian heavy metal radio show airing on alternative youth broadcaster

Triple J Triple J (stylised in all lowercase) is a government-funded, national Australian Radio in Australia, radio station intended to appeal to listeners of alternative music, which began broadcasting in January 1975. The station also places a greate ...

. The show currently airs between 9pm and 11pm on Tuesday nights and is hosted by

Lochlan Watt Lochlan Watt (born 1987) is an Australian radio announcer, journalist, record label owner and musician from Samford, Queensland. He is currently based in Melbourne. Career He has hosted Triple J's heavy music show The Racket since Februar ...

. The name was an allusion to the popular

Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...

war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about naval, air, or land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle scenes means that war fi ...

Full Metal Jacket ''Full Metal Jacket'' is a 1987 war drama film directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Michael Herr and Gustav Hasford. The film is based on Hasford's 1979 novel ''The Short-Timers'' and stars Matthew M ...

''. A notable, now former segment of the program is the 'Corpse Classic' - three songs played throughout the show off a pre-1987 heavy metal vinyl. Bands featured on this segment have been: Bathory, Suicidal Tendencies, Mötley Crüe, Spinal Tap, Iron Maiden among others. The 'Corpse Classic' was replaced with the similarly themed 'Heavy Metal Troopers' in 2008 because of 'running out of vinyl'. Heavy Metal Troopers involved playing songs by a band that had put out 6 or more albums, regardless of their activity. Artists to be featured included

Deicide Deicide is the killing (or the killer) of a god. The concept may be used for any act of killing a god, including a life-death-rebirth deity who is killed and then resurrected. Etymology The term deicide was coined in the 17th century from m ...

Death Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

and Australian figureheads

Alchemist Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscience, protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in Chinese alchemy, C ...

. Other regular segments on the show were "Metal Gods" and "Living After Midnight - Priest Salute". Metal Gods (named after the song by

Judas Priest Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band formed in Birmingham in 1969. They have sold over 50 million albums and are frequently ranked as one of the greatest metal bands of all time. Despite an innovative and pioneering body of work in th ...

and using the chorus from the song as its intro) is a trivia segment, where callers must correctly answer three questions to be crowned "Metal God". The all-time champion of Metal Gods is Chris Dare of Brisbane. Living After Midnight, also named after Judas Priest, occurs as the name suggests around midnight each week, and simply involves a Judas Priest track played. It replaced the similarly themed "

2 Minutes to Midnight "2 Minutes to Midnight" is a song by the British heavy metal band Iron Maiden, featured on their fifth studio album, ''Powerslave'' (1984). It was released as the band's tenth single, and first from the album on 6 August 1984. It rose to numb ...

" (an

Iron Maiden Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. While fluid in the early years of the band, the lineup for most of the band's history has consisted of Harri ...

salute).

Hosts

Hosts of the show include: *

Helen Razer Helen Razer is a Melbourne-born and Canberra-raised radio presenter and writer. She is the author of four non-fiction books and a columnist with the Australian version of ''The Big Issue'', Melbourne newspaper ''The Age'' and contributor to the m ...

Francis Leach Francis Leach (born 1968) is an Australian radio announcer, sports editor and journalist. Career Leach began his career at Triple J in the early 1990s hosting the ''Three Hours of Power'' show, the weekly late night heavy metal show. Later on he ...

* Costa Zouliou (?-2001) * David McMillan (2001-2002) *

Andrew Haug Andrew Haug'is a radio announcer and heavy metal musician from Melbourne, Australia. He is one of the most prominent figures in Australia's largely underground heavy metal scene. Haug started his radio career doing the heavy metal music prog ...

(2002-2011) *

(2012-current)

Interviews

The program broadcasts pre recorded interviews by Andrew Haug with members of leading international bands. Major interviews that have aired in recent years on the show are: Arch Enemy - Mike Amott (13/10/2006)
Blind Guardian - Hansi Kürsch (05/09/2006)
Black Label Society - Zakk Wylde (21/09/2006)
Celtic Frost - Tom G Fischer (02/07/2007)
Cannibal Corpse - Alex Webster (13/10/2006)
Dark Tranquillity - Mikael Stanne (21/09/2006 & 10/05/2007)
Fear Factory - Raymond Herrera (21/09/2006)
Killswitch Engage - Adam Dutkiewicz (24/10/2006)
Lamb of God - Randy Blythe (24/10/2006)
Megadeth - Dave Mustaine (24/10/2006)
Nevermore - Jeff Loomis (24/10/2006)
Nightwish - Tuomas Holopainen (22/03/2005)
Psycroptic - Dave Haley (28/03/2007)
Slayer - Dave Lombardo (13/10/2006) & Kerry King (24/04/2007)
Sebastian Bach - Sebastian Bach (05/09/2006)
Satyricon - Frost (13/12/2006) & Satyr (25/11/2008)
The Haunted - Anders Bjorler (24/11/2006)
Testament - Chuck Billy (13/02/2007)
Virgin Black - Rowan London (25/07/2007)
Within Temptation - Sharon Den Adel (25/05/2007)

External links

Triple J - ''Full Metal Racket'' site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Racket (radio program) Triple J programmes