Written by SoUnDs LiKe PoP on 12.02.2018 at 09:50

You're over-complicating the matter. In terms of which album is objectively more generic, straight-forward power metal, it's the Nocturnal Rites album. You can agree with that and still think it is the better album, but it is without argument a more generic sounding album,.

Just to clarify, I wasn't trying to be a dick. To be honest, I'm also conflicted over this matter. We can all agree that an opinion over something that is open to interpretation, like music, is subjective, right? But does that mean it's automatically invalid? If we take it too far, could we really say that Beethoven was a better composer than Lil Wayne?

Written by M C Vice on 12.02.2018 at 09:59

Someone was asking for that a year or 2 ago. Along with a brutal death category. I think the answer was something along the lines of death shouldn't be split into more than 2 catagories since none of the others (black, power, doom, etc) are.

The problem is we have too many cats as it is, there is a fuckload of work, nominees, etc to be done as it is. And while this year we cranked it out (thanks to those who did a lot more work than I) and were ready to go about 48 hours in advance, and I didn't have to extol the virtues of a generic power metal band I couldn't stand at two minutes to midnight to avoid a blank space (I have in the past) , just asking for more headaches.

As it is we're spread thin, and too focused on some genres (by innate preferences) and think it bad to keep spreading.

Written by IBlackened on 12.02.2018 at 17:05

Written by SoUnDs LiKe PoP on 12.02.2018 at 09:50

You're over-complicating the matter. In terms of which album is objectively more generic, straight-forward power metal, it's the Nocturnal Rites album. You can agree with that and still think it is the better album, but it is without argument a more generic sounding album,.

Just to clarify, I wasn't trying to be a dick. To be honest, I'm also conflicted over this matter. We can all agree that an opinion over something that is open to interpretation, like music, is subjective, right? But does that mean it's automatically invalid? If we take it too far, could we really say that Beethoven was a better composer than Lil Wayne?

Right, and that's my point. Some people may fundamentally disagree with me, but I think objectivity in music has its limits, especially whenever we are assessing something like technicality, originality, etc. And that's where my disappointment comes from, that the NR album--which just honestly sounds like dozens of old school power metal albums before it--got the nomination over what I'd consider to be, objectively, a much more innovative and interesting album within the power metal genre. Now, if the Pyramaze album contained shit songwriting, that'd be one thing. But I don't think there are many people here who would argue that, and so I'm not sure what the criteria were for nominations.

Written by Cynic Metalhead on 12.02.2018 at 13:19

Written by 7charly7 on 12.02.2018 at 11:23

HI peope, when will finished voting???? im waiting for result

28th Feb.

Result on 1st March.

Thanks ) lats wait

In symphonic, I'm voting for The Dark Element, barracking for Edenbridge, and predicting a win to Septicflesh.
Edit: Should probably say cheering, since most of the world doesn't use the word barracking like that.

Written by SoUnDs LiKe PoP on 13.02.2018 at 06:06

Right, and that's my point. Some people may fundamentally disagree with me, but I think objectivity in music has its limits, especially whenever we are assessing something like technicality, originality, etc. And that's where my disappointment comes from, that the NR album--which just honestly sounds like dozens of old school power metal albums before it--got the nomination over what I'd consider to be, objectively, a much more innovative and interesting album within the power metal genre. Now, if the Pyramaze album contained shit songwriting, that'd be one thing. But I don't think there are many people here who would argue that, and so I'm not sure what the criteria were for nominations.

Power metal is not my cup of tea, but from what I see Pyramaze's album still doesn't have a single write-in vote. And this is an objective observation. However, I have to agree with you that it is better than Phoenix but I am not the best person to judge since I find this genre boring 9 times out of 10.

Not here to defend power metal but there's still a few great releases every year. You can say it's generic or original sure but it's still worthy stuff.

There's a few new bands coming up keeping it interesting and also bands like Orden Ogan and Iced Earth releasing great stuff.

It's not a dying genre by any means.

Written by BitterCOld on 12.02.2018 at 23:20

Written by M C Vice on 12.02.2018 at 09:59

Someone was asking for that a year or 2 ago. Along with a brutal death category. I think the answer was something along the lines of death shouldn't be split into more than 2 catagories since none of the others (black, power, doom, etc) are.

The problem is we have too many cats as it is, there is a fuckload of work, nominees, etc to be done as it is. And while this year we cranked it out (thanks to those who did a lot more work than I) and were ready to go about 48 hours in advance, and I didn't have to extol the virtues of a generic power metal band I couldn't stand at two minutes to midnight to avoid a blank space (I have in the past) , just asking for more headaches.

As it is we're spread thin, and too focused on some genres (by innate preferences) and think it bad to keep spreading.

Yeah, we're not that interested in fragmenting metal further. Genres are mostly split when we notice the audiences drift, or there's a major chasm in the sound of the subgenres but pretty much everyone who'd vote for a tech death band or brutal death band also loves old school death metal.

Written by BloodTears on 12.02.2018 at 13:38

Written by chomskeet on 10.02.2018 at 21:06

Could we please have a tech death category next year, I didn't see a place to vote for Archspire anywhere

Archspire was considered but didn't make the cut. They released a good album though, I like it

I'd say death metal is a good place to vote for them.

Hmmmm, it seems a little sad that it's number 5 of the entire year for all genres based on user reviews yet a multitude of other artists are in the awards that certainly didn't get voted that way by users. Also, melodic black metal has its own category (quite a small genre which I love and am excited to have its own category) but tech death doesn't? Sorry, fav genre is tech death........

Written by nikarg on 13.02.2018 at 12:21

Written by SoUnDs LiKe PoP on 13.02.2018 at 06:06

Right, and that's my point. Some people may fundamentally disagree with me, but I think objectivity in music has its limits, especially whenever we are assessing something like technicality, originality, etc. And that's where my disappointment comes from, that the NR album--which just honestly sounds like dozens of old school power metal albums before it--got the nomination over what I'd consider to be, objectively, a much more innovative and interesting album within the power metal genre. Now, if the Pyramaze album contained shit songwriting, that'd be one thing. But I don't think there are many people here who would argue that, and so I'm not sure what the criteria were for nominations.

Power metal is not my cup of tea, but from what I see Pyramaze's album still doesn't have a single write-in vote. And this is an objective observation. However, I have to agree with you that it is better than Phoenix but I am not the best person to judge since I find this genre boring 9 times out of 10.

I'm not saying the new Pyramaze is a 10/10 (their previous album was better IMO), but check out songs like A World Divided or Starmen and then compare it to cliche-drivel like "Lawbreaker" off the Nocturnal Rites album and tell me that there is not a substantial difference. To me it seems obvious that NR was only nominated because it a bigger name, which defeats the purpose of these awards.

Written by chomskeet on 14.02.2018 at 00:16

Also, melodic black metal has its own category (quite a small genre which I love and am excited to have its own category) but tech death doesn't? Sorry, fav genre is tech death........

They only got separated from black a couple of years ago. There was a blackgaze/metalgaze award one year before it, too. Meloblack seems to be where a lot of the symphonic black and blackgaze go.

Written by SoUnDs LiKe PoP on 14.02.2018 at 03:41

I'm not saying the new Pyramaze is a 10/10 (their previous album was better IMO), but check out songs like A World Divided or Starmen and then compare it to cliche-drivel like "Lawbreaker" off the Nocturnal Rites album and tell me that there is not a substantial difference. To me it seems obvious that NR was only nominated because it a bigger name, which defeats the purpose of these awards.

You still harping on that? Take a chill pill man. It's MS awards, not Nobel Prize.

Written by Daniell on 14.02.2018 at 10:00

Written by SoUnDs LiKe PoP on 14.02.2018 at 03:41

I'm not saying the new Pyramaze is a 10/10 (their previous album was better IMO), but check out songs like A World Divided or Starmen and then compare it to cliche-drivel like "Lawbreaker" off the Nocturnal Rites album and tell me that there is not a substantial difference. To me it seems obvious that NR was only nominated because it a bigger name, which defeats the purpose of these awards.

You still harping on that? Take a chill pill man. It's MS awards, not Nobel Prize.

Nah, just carrying on a conversation at the rate of a post every few days - I don't think that's so bad. I post significantly less than you, for example.

Old user starting over...
I've always liked the awards, I get to discover some new music. Thanks for that.
I voted in a few categories, I'll try to listen to a few things and vote again.

BTW, funniest thing I saw here is that people write-in votes for albums that are nominated.

Hmm, Vuun or Night Viper for biggest letdown?

Alright, here are my votes if anyone cares:
https://imgur.com/a/YQA1l

A few comments.
So yes, I actually listened to all nominees. I was doing that whenever I could. When I was working. On my way when I was going out. When I was playing video games. And yes, I did have some time for social interactions in the evenings/weekends, somehow. I didn't listen to the ones I had already listened to before, otherwise I wouldn't have made it

Anyway, about my write-ins.
Avant-garde - I already made 2 butthurt posts about how Diablo Swing Orchestra didn't get nominated while some hipster bands (which I can proudly say are in my opinion much worse - hey, I've listened to them all!) did. This is such a fun album. Actually it's my favorite from 2017, along with Ulver.
Djent/math - I'm not a fan of the genre and I don't know if one could call Disperse djent/math (they do have influences though) but I saw someone had already nominated them so what the hell.
Doom - this genre had actually quite a few strong nominees (Hallatar, Paradise Lost, Sorcerer) but I liked Dread Sovereign most of all. And I was the first one to vote for them, that's sad. Anyway, give it a listen, it features Primordial vocalist and it's just a really solid doom album. Avatarium was better but is it heavy enough to be considered doom?
Stoner/sludge - Dvne - again, not sure why they got skipped. Some very good albums were nominated (Elder, Ufommammut) but some of the albums were simply boring. That's just my opinion, though

Alternative metal - like I had already said, I don't see how Lunatic Soul is metal at all. It got nominated so I voted. Wasn't sure if I should vote for LS or miss Wolfe, patriotism won. Patriotism (hell, I don't even like my country too much) has also won with post metal - Amenra and Katla have recorded albums just as good.
I'm not a fan of -core genres, however both Wolfbrigade and Lock Up were fun. Power metal is also not my cup of tea (even though I started listening to metal with Rhapsody many years ago), there are still few bands that I like - Iced Earth is one of them and their album was surprisingly good. No other real contenders for me there.
Same with symphonic metal - oh boy, that was the biggest chore. I'm still not convinced if Septicflesh should be placed there instead of death metal but I didn't have any troubles with picking the winner, it's a great album. Ignea was also pretty good as far as I remember, the rest I found average at best.

Other categories.
I don't watch DVDs or music videos so I skipped the category. I don't recall any outstanding covers, Enslaved's 'What Else Is There' was probably my favorite. Clandestine Cut category I don't really get - it's voting for demos? Anyway, skipped that one. The biggest letdown - honestly, I wasn't really disappointed with any band that I actually cared about. I knew Rhapsody rerecordings were going to be bad so I don't know if I should count that as a letdown... let's just say - the idea itself was a letdown.
Debut was a close call, Au-Dessus, Hallatar, Katla and Venenum are just as good (and I counted only nominees), still, my vote went to Wormwood. By the way, there was another debut last year by a band named Wormwood - doom/stoner. It's also good!

Anyway, it was fun. I discovered some of the albums, which I will be going back to and I would have skipped if it wasn't for Metal Storm (cause some of the things like Godflesh I would have listened to anwyay) - Halagard, Katla and The Algorithm (I knew the band, didn't know they had new EP out). I also somehow skipped Hallatar and Celeste but maybe I would have noticed it. Oh, and my average rating on rateyourmusic dropped a bit. It's still too high, so there's that.