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Metal Storm Awards 2010


 
Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen. The Metal Storm members made it happen. Here are the results of the annual Metal Storm Awards. The circle will now be complete.

The biggest and most pleasant surprise here for us at the Metal Storm HQ is just how many people took their time to vote in our ever-growing awards this year. We think we are well on our way to becoming the definitive metal awards in the world and we have our members to thank for it. We have also noticed from discussions in the forum and the shoutbox that many people took their time and listened to all the nominees before voting this year. Well done! We couldn't have done it without you and we appreciate all the effort and intelligent voting!

This year's biggest winners are Blind Guardian, Enslaved, Anathema, Agalloch and Scorpions, all of which managed to get over 500 votes each. Meanwhile, Wintersun seems to be annoying the highest amount of people by taking their sweet time to release their new album titled, uh, Time. It's about time to release this, too much hype can be a bad thing.

The closest battle occured in the Best Debut category, where Barren Earth valiantly fought against Triptykon only to finally win by... 1 vote! The post-Celtic Frost project also fared well in the Avantgarde category by securing second place behind Alcest (but by a larger margin).

But why are we rambling on about all of this? The results are now visible and we welcome you to check out all of them. You are definitely in for some surprises! Make sure you also discuss them in the forums and in this thread.

We are also very happy that so many people voted in the Clandestine Cuts category. This section still needs time to grow in popularity but this is a good start. Finally, no write-in vote has yet managed to win any category. This must mean our staff is pretty good at nominating the right albums. For our staff picks, please check back in a week or so!



The Best Alternative Metal Album



The Best Black Metal Album



The Best Death Metal Album



The Best Doom Metal Album



The Best Extreme Doom Metal Album



The Best Gothic Metal Album



The Best Grindcore Album



The Best Hard Rock Album



The Best Hardcore / Metalcore / Deathcore Album



The Best Heavy Metal Album



The Best Industrial Metal Album



The Best Melodeath/Gothenburg Metal Album



The Best Pagan/Viking/Folk Metal Album



The Best Post-Metal/Avantgarde Metal Album



The Best Power Metal Album



The Best Progressive Metal Album



The Best Sludge/Stoner Metal Album



The Best Symphonic Metal Album



The Best Thrash Metal Album



Clandestine Cut Of The Year

1. Rising - Legacy Of Wolves 83
2. Phosphorus - Crepuscule 56
3. Disintegrated - This Is Art 49
4. Catuvolcus - Terres De Sang 43
5. Apsis - Demonstration 33
  Ancestor's Revenge - Heretical Halitosis 33


The Best Cover Song

1. Dimmu Borgir - Perfect Strangers (Deep Purple cover) 263
2. Shining [NOR] - 21st Century Schizoid Man (King Crimson cover) 111
3. The Foreshadowing - Russians (Sting cover) 67
4. Klone - Army Of Me (Björk cover) 52
5. Pathfinder - Moonlight Shadow (Mike Oldfield cover) 41
6. Helstar - Heavy Metal Thunder (Saxon cover) 37
7. Blind Guardian - You're The Voice (John Farnham cover) 28
8. Tarja - Still Of The Night (Whitesnake cover) 21
9. Necrodeath - Raise The Dead (Bathory cover) 18
10. Kalmah - Cold Sweat (Thin Lizzy cover) 12
11. Vangough - The Killer Instinct (Killer Instinct cover) 11


The Best Debut Album



The Best DVD



The Best Video

1. Iron Maiden - The Final Frontier 155
2. Rammstein - Haifisch 139
3. Porcupine Tree - Bonnie The Cat 82
4. White Wizzard - Over The Top 67
5. Heaven Shall Burn - Combat 64
6. Sólstafir - She Destroys Again 39
7. Destrage - Jade's Place (feat. Mattias IA Eklundh) 33
8. Kylesa - Tired Climb 29
9. Immortal - All Shall Fall 24
10. Jaldaboath - Hark The Herald 21
11. Kamelot - The Great Pandemonium 20
  Behemoth - Alas, Lord Is Upon Me 20
13. Dimmu Borgir - Gateways 19
14. Eluveitie - Thousandfold 12
  Finntroll - Under Bergets Rot 12
  Tarja - Until My Last Breath II 12


The Biggest Letdown

1. Wintersun - Time (for not being released yet) 123
2. Iron Maiden - The Final Frontier 66
3. Kamelot - Poetry For The Poisoned 46
4. Dimmu Borgir - Abrahadabra 38
5. Dio - The death of RJD 26
6. Therion - Sitra Ahra 23
7. Angra - Aqua 21
8. Nevermore - The Obsidian Conspiracy 19
9. Dark Tranquillity - We Are The Void 15
10. Atheist - Jupiter 14


The Biggest Surprise



No Drama

The biggest drama of 2010 is that... there was no drama.

2010 proved to be a fairly undramatic year in metal. Mike Portnoy quit the world's most popular progressive metal band to play poppy metalcore... only to quit poppy metalcore to play in his Beatles cover band. Some "artists" tried to capitalize on the death of a fellow brother-in-metal... Such events are pretty lame compared to previous years' drama of the year nominees. Besides, they were far overshadowed this year by what makes 2010 by far one of the darkest years in metal history. We lost a lot of comrades in 2010.


  • On April 14, Type O Negative front-man Peter Steele died at age 48.
  • May 15, Juhani Palomäki of Yearning and Colosseum passed away at 32.
  • On May 16, Ronnie James Dio died of stomach cancer at the age of 67.
  • Also on May 16, influential thrash and death metal manager Debbie Abono died of cancer at the age of 80.
  • On May 25, Slipknot bassist Paul Gray died at age 38.
  • On August 1, Early Graves vocalist Makh Daniels died in an automobile accident.
  • On October 2, we lost Sweet Savage founding guitarist Trevor Fleming.
  • On October 5, Gotthard singer Steve Lee died.
  • On November 25, Saint Vitus' ex-drummer Armando Acosta passed away.

    Let us use this opportunity to salute these fallen and those who we might have missed with a glass of our best lager. Let them remain in our memory. At the same time, in 2010 two famous metal musicians underwent life-threatening procedures. Adam "Nergal" Darski of Behemoth endured chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant to conquer leukemia, while King Diamond underwent a successful triple-bypass surgery. Let us take solace in the knowledge that some warriors still remain victorious and hope that 2011 will be a much better year for all of us.

    Let us continue fighting the good fight in honour of our fallen.