On the third Battle Round of The World’s Best, the final acts go head-to-head for a chance to advance to the Championship Round. Two American acts will compete against each other: Liliac Band aka “The First Family of Rock” vs. Vonnie Lopez & The High Praise Choir. They couldn’t be more different. The members of the Liliac Band are five siblings with long blond hair who jam and head-bang to heavy metal covers. When they performed the 1983 Iron Maiden song “The Trooper” on The World’s Best, judge Drew Barrymore called Liliac Band “badass, raw and talented.” Host James Corden joked “I’ve always wondered what an angry Hanson would look like.”
The big problem Liliac and heavy metal fans have with The World’s Best is airtime. Liliac’s “Trooper” set was cut from three minutes to about 10 seconds. Sure they made it to the Battle Round but viewers at home didn’t get to see them in all their heavy metal glory. Fans on YouTube are leaving comments including: “Wish CBS had shown the whole set instead of just a few seconds” and “you got ripped off” and “what a total sadness on lack of air time on CBS.”
Liliac has a big following on YouTube where their cover of Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” has more than 2 million views, same goes with their version of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman.” The World’s Best airs Wednesdays at 9 pm on CBS, right after Survivor. [NOTE: Stream any CBS show through Amazon Prime or CBS ALL-ACCESS. Both options offer free trials.]
