It was no surprise to us that 2008 was the year of the big names: Opeth, Testament, Moonspell, AC/DC and Metallica all released new albums and they all won in their respective category without much competition at all. Out of these bands only Opeth had two big competitors, Ayreon and Enslaved, but still they took the trophy with a difference of almost 300 votes. However, the most convincing victory was for Amon Amarth's "Twilight Of The Thundergod". By winning the category with almost 60% of the votes and 500 votes more than the runner-up Scar Symmetry, they re-defined the meaning of "crushing the competition".

A few other things we noticed was that Virgin Black proved that it does help to have a loyal fan base, as they were the doomed runner-up behind Mar de Grises, but after posting a news bulletin the votes for their " Requiem - Fortissimo" album sky-rocketed and they ended up with almost twice the amount of votes. Metallica almost pulled a "Nightwish" (i.e. winning both The Biggest Letdown and The Biggest Surprise), but they had to give in to In Flames' "A Sense Of Purpose" in The Biggest Letdown category. Our guess is that they're not too sad about that.

The neck-by-neck race of '08 took place in the Sludge/Stoner Metal category, where the long-lasting tie between Ufomammut and Black Mountain was broken on the last day, in favour of the Italians of Ufomammut. '08 also brought a new treble forward, after Angtoria's success in '06's (winning the Best Atmospheric/Symphonic, Best Debut and Best Cover Song categories). This time the honour befell to the one and only Opeth, winning not only the Best Progressive Metal category, but also the Best Cover song and Best DVD categories.

Metal Storm won an award too, for Best Drama, concerning our little feud with Wikipedia. Congratulations dear readers, you have proven your own insanity as clearly, Metal Storm does not exist and neither are you actually reading this. It's all a big conspiracy, that's what we say.