Everything aside, I died from the 'Rhapsody Of Fire - Rain Of A Thousand Personalities Disorder' description. Absolutely gold metal humour, right there.

Thanks to the staff for putting this together every year! I almost had to complain that my fav album of the year from Rivers of Nihil didn't make the list, but that was only cause I couldn't find it in any of the death metal categories! Apparently its extreme prog now! Maybe a Tech Death category is needed for the future...

Definitely don't have the time to listen to every single album in all the categories but ill do my best for my favorites like melodeath and a few others. Power metal was pretty weak this year, might skip it.

The drama titles were very nice, the batshuka one specially

Some questions about where some albums go: Does Borgne - [∞] go in black or meloblack? And I assume Omit - Medusa Truth, Part 2 is doom? Are Opera IX and Mesarthim meloblack rather than black? Midnatsol gothic rather than folk?

Written by Kais on 01.02.2019 at 19:28

Everything aside, I died from the 'Rhapsody Of Fire - Rain Of A Thousand Personalities Disorder' description. Absolutely gold metal humour, right there.

It is indeed one of SSUS's greatest moments. Almost as good as the Blackwater Park review for April Fools.

Written by JoHn Doe on 01.02.2019 at 13:38

And here I thought I was done listening to 2018 albums

Just when you thought you were out...

Was very surprised that Circus of Fools - Rex was not nominated anywhere. Then realized they're not even on MS! That's such a great album, as is Raise the Curtain from a few years ago.

Written by M C Vice on 02.02.2019 at 01:32

Some questions about where some albums go: Does Borgne - [∞] go in black or meloblack? And I assume Omit - Medusa Truth, Part 2 is doom? Are Opera IX and Mesarthim meloblack rather than black? Midnatsol gothic rather than folk?

Borgne - Black
Omit - Doom
Opera IX - Meloblack
Mesarthim - already nominated in metalgaze
Minatsol - Gothic

Written by kaskadian on 02.02.2019 at 02:46

Was very surprised that Circus of Fools - Rex was not nominated anywhere. Then realized they're not even on MS! That's such a great album, as is Raise the Curtain from a few years ago.

Actually never heard of it

Written by WorpeX on 01.02.2019 at 19:33


Definitely don't have the time to listen to every single album in all the categories

One of the beauties of MSAs is you get to vote for noms in 28 days i.e. you got enough time to listen to all the nominations.

Written by RaduP on 02.02.2019 at 07:34

Written by kaskadian on 02.02.2019 at 02:46

Was very surprised that Circus of Fools - Rex was not nominated anywhere. Then realized they're not even on MS! That's such a great album, as is Raise the Curtain from a few years ago.

Actually never heard of it

Don't try to either. Friendly warning.

Written by nikarg on 02.02.2019 at 10:57

Written by RaduP on 02.02.2019 at 07:34

Written by kaskadian on 02.02.2019 at 02:46

Was very surprised that Circus of Fools - Rex was not nominated anywhere. Then realized they're not even on MS! That's such a great album, as is Raise the Curtain from a few years ago.

Actually never heard of it

Don't try to either. Friendly warning.

I should have listened to you

Written by RaduP on 02.02.2019 at 12:39

Written by nikarg on 02.02.2019 at 10:57

Written by RaduP on 02.02.2019 at 07:34

Written by kaskadian on 02.02.2019 at 02:46

Was very surprised that Circus of Fools - Rex was not nominated anywhere. Then realized they're not even on MS! That's such a great album, as is Raise the Curtain from a few years ago.

Actually never heard of it

Don't try to either. Friendly warning.

I should have listened to you

RaduP and nikarg two panty brothers.

No Arion/Borealis in power metal? And where should I put Agrypnie?

Written by Ball Fondlers on 01.02.2019 at 12:09

Written by RaduP on 01.02.2019 at 01:40

Written by fenchik on 01.02.2019 at 01:39

Surprise not to see Angelus Apatrida in Thrash nominees! and Shylmagoghnar in death melo or extreme prog nom????

Both were considered. Neither made it.

Fair enough, why would you consider two bands that were the most popular in their respective genres on this site? Might as well include a bunch of bands nobody has heard of

For me that's not the main problem. Promoting lesser known bands is a very good idea. But I think, at least in the melodeath category, the "more famous" band selection is weird. In particular At The Gates album does not belong to this list, it's a very average album.
Watching the rating distribution of To Drink From The Night Itself and Transcience just tells you which album could be consider "the best of the year" by users in general.

Also I never understood the argument "We (the staff) didn't like it enough so we didn't nominated it". Is it only the staff who votes? I though the idea was to vote for "The Best Album" (that's written in the awards titles), so not nominating the top rated albums just feels like the staff is saying in a dismissive way to a part of the users "We know better what's good, your opinion is irrelevant".

Not mentioning that Shylmagoghnar is a relatively new band so not nominating them after their second good album is a bit against the spirit of the awards (and being nominating is important, write-in albums generally get less than 30 votes, so basically no nomination = no win possible and very little visibility).

Apart from that, thank you for organizing this event, I listened to two bands I didn't know in the folk category, and it was pretty good !

Written by Maxder on 02.02.2019 at 14:45

For me that's not the main problem. Promoting lesser known bands is a very good idea. But I think, at least in the melodeath category, the "more famous" band selection is weird. In particular At The Gates album does not belong to this list, it's a very average album.
Watching the rating distribution of To Drink From The Night Itself and Transcience just tells you which album could be consider "the best of the year" by users in general.

Also I never understood the argument "We (the staff) didn't like it enough so we didn't nominated it". Is it only the staff who votes? I though the idea was to vote for "The Best Album" (that's written in the awards titles), so not nominating the top rated albums just feels like the staff is saying in a dismissive way to a part of the users "We know better what's good, your opinion is irrelevant".

Not mentioning that Shylmagoghnar is a relatively new band so not nominating them after their second good album is a bit against the spirit of the awards (and being nominating is important, write-in albums generally get less than 30 votes, so basically no nomination = no win possible and very little visibility).

Apart from that, thank you for organizing this event, I listened to two bands I didn't know in the folk category, and it was pretty good !

I understand your concearns. Given how well it was received on our website, we should have given Transcience more attention, and you make a good case that it being an upandcoming band and it amasing such a good reception yet not being nominated is quite against the spirit of the awards.

The feedback is appreciated and we'll try to take it into account to make 2019 better. Also when they release a new album Ill make sure to give it more attention. Melodeath is a category that I personally haven't been that invested in.

That being said me and others disagree that ATG's album wasnt good enough. And the staff are the ones who nominate the albums and it's been like that since the awards have been put into place. It would be quite difficult to find an award whose nominees aren't curated by a group of people. You're entirely justified to doubt and contradict our decisions. We're not professionals, we're a bunch of amateurs who write articles and reviews and keep the database updated just because we really like music. If you wish to see lists curated purely by user votes, there's plenty of ways to search for 2019 albums ranked by user ratings.

I agree that not having an album nominated kinda kills its chances to win the entire category, but ive seen writeups that habe gotten more votes that half the category itself. But since the winner is usually just the most recognizable name, it doesn't matter as much who gathers the most votes, but which band gets the most attention that they didnt have prior. I wouldve felt more guilty for dismissing Shy...ar if they didnt already do very well for theselves.

And as far as Shy..ar is concearned, I've seen them voted in multiple categories. I would advise people who want to vite for them to do so in a single category (my pick would be melodeath) to maximize the number of votes it would get.

Thanks a lot for your feedback and concearns.

Written by Maxder on 02.02.2019 at 14:45

For me that's not the main problem. Promoting lesser known bands is a very good idea. But I think, at least in the melodeath category, the "more famous" band selection is weird. In particular At The Gates album does not belong to this list, it's a very average album.
Watching the rating distribution of To Drink From The Night Itself and Transcience just tells you which album could be consider "the best of the year" by users in general.

Also I never understood the argument "We (the staff) didn't like it enough so we didn't nominated it". Is it only the staff who votes? I though the idea was to vote for "The Best Album" (that's written in the awards titles), so not nominating the top rated albums just feels like the staff is saying in a dismissive way to a part of the users "We know better what's good, your opinion is irrelevant".

Not mentioning that Shylmagoghnar is a relatively new band so not nominating them after their second good album is a bit against the spirit of the awards (and being nominating is important, write-in albums generally get less than 30 votes, so basically no nomination = no win possible and very little visibility).

Apart from that, thank you for organizing this event, I listened to two bands I didn't know in the folk category, and it was pretty good !

We didn't nominate the Dutch band because no one could spell their name right, except for Marcel perhaps

There is a limited number of people involved in the preparation of the awards. That involves listening to literally hundreds of albums every year, recommending them to each other and in the end nominating what we think is the best and take a vote among ourselves. The 10 releases that get the most votes in every category (or 5 in some categories) make it to the Awards. Albums that are in the top-20 of MS on your the left-hand column are not necessarily the best for us; at least not all of them. If we thought that your opinion is irrelevant, then there would be no awards for you to vote for. The awards are an event for you, otherwise we would just post our own lists and wouldn't spend the last two and a half months of our lives preparing what you see on the 1st of February each year.

That said, mistakes are definitely made and maybe some deserving albums do not eventually get nominated. That's why there are write-in votes. I agree with you that write-in albums will never win a category but not because of their reduced exposure but because I don't think that something so blatantly brilliant has ever been missed.

In any case, no one really has any intention of saying "fuck you" to Metalstormers and their taste and none of us of course is such a narcissistic asshole that thinks he or she has "better" taste than anyone else. It's been said a million times but I'll say it again: the Awards are a great opportunity to find out about new bands, no one should really care about who wins. So, if you think Angelus Apatrida or Shylmagoghnar are good enough to be in the Awards it means you are already quite familiar with their albums. By all means use the write-in vote and then give a chance and listen to some other albums that you might have missed. It's a win-win situation

edit: It took me a long time to write this mammoth post and then I saw that Radu was faster than me in replying (as usual).

Written by nikarg on 02.02.2019 at 20:22

then I saw that Radu was faster than me in replying (as usual).

Perks of omnipresence

Written by MeatWolf on 02.02.2019 at 14:40

No Arion/Borealis in power metal? And where should I put Agrypnie?

No Idea who Agrypnie are, but neither Arion nor Borealis released anything of value in their latest release, in my own opinion.

Why do we even need 5 positions on 'Industrial...' category? It's more that sure that everyone will vote from NIN, because of NIN.

Written by FYA on 02.02.2019 at 23:07

Why do we even need 5 positions on 'Industrial...' category? It's more that sure that everyone will vote from NIN, because of NIN.

Dont be so certain

Written by RaduP on 02.02.2019 at 23:49

Written by FYA on 02.02.2019 at 23:07

Why do we even need 5 positions on 'Industrial...' category? It's more that sure that everyone will vote from NIN, because of NIN.

Dont be so certain

So funny - Amaranthe is not listed while they hasn't changed but YET they won that award couple of years ago. It's the only serious opponent for NIN.

A big thank you to the Metalstormer who put down a write-in vote for VNV Nation in the Industrial / Cyber / Electronic Metal category (they have nothing to do with metal but it doesn't matter). I had no idea they had an album out so I checked it out and it sounds pretty good - typical VNV product. I used to be so much into them along with Apoptygma Berzerk, Covenant and other similar stuff in the late '90's, early '00s.

Written by Maxder on 02.02.2019 at 14:45


Also I never understood the argument "We (the staff) didn't like it enough so we didn't nominated it". Is it only the staff who votes? I though the idea was to vote for "The Best Album" (that's written in the awards titles), so not nominating the top rated albums just feels like the staff is saying in a dismissive way to a part of the users "We know better what's good, your opinion is irrelevant".

We vote individually to nominate our collective favorites. If going by the user ratings, why even bother with this whole endeavor? What would be the point?

Site ratings mean fuck all. There is so much bullshit going on, inflation, sandbagging, multis, that I've ignored those numbers for well over a decade. I care about what some particular users think or recommend, but the usebase as a whole? The hardest of passes.

We're the ones putting in the work. Every person scores the albums they listened to on a scale, numbers are added up, voila. If something you liked didn't make it, oh well, it means collectively we had albums we liked more. No matter HOW we score, rate or nominate, invariably some user is gonna get upset because they take the results personally, as if we broke into their house and pissed in their morning cup of coffee. Been doing this for a dozen cycles of the Awards now, and it always plays out this way.

Finally, "your opinion is irrelevant" - no it's not, we do offer write-ins. Hell, I'm staff, I have say in the voting process, and yet still will be writing in my faves to 2 or 3 of the 8 or so categories in which I vote.

Call this confusion more than anything else:

How did Haken not get chosen as one of the top 10 prog metal albums?

I'm not even saying that because it's my favorite prog album of the year (it isn't, though it's up there). Yet a quick search through 2018 albums shows that is has a higher rating than at least 5 of the albums on this list. Yet somehow didn't make top 10? Just stumped by this one.

Written by RaduP on 02.02.2019 at 12:39

Written by nikarg on 02.02.2019 at 10:57

Written by RaduP on 02.02.2019 at 07:34

Written by kaskadian on 02.02.2019 at 02:46

Was very surprised that Circus of Fools - Rex was not nominated anywhere. Then realized they're not even on MS! That's such a great album, as is Raise the Curtain from a few years ago.

Actually never heard of it

Don't try to either. Friendly warning.

I should have listened to you

Apparently not everybody here uses copious amounts of drugs. They're actually a great band.

Written by kaskadian on 03.02.2019 at 07:26

Apparently not everybody here uses copious amounts of drugs. They're actually a great band.

Could it be that you're using the wrong drugs mate?

Written by Kais on 02.02.2019 at 22:38

Written by MeatWolf on 02.02.2019 at 14:40

No Arion/Borealis in power metal? And where should I put Agrypnie?

No Idea who Agrypnie are, but neither Arion nor Borealis released anything of value in their latest release, in my own opinion.

Borealis are one of the few remaining bands in power metal that still try to play something contemporary and fresh while the majority of the others reverted back to stupid moth-eaten material of early 00s. Same applies to Arion.

Written by chella1788 on 03.02.2019 at 05:56

Call this confusion more than anything else:

How did Haken not get chosen as one of the top 10 prog metal albums?

I'm not even saying that because it's my favorite prog album of the year (it isn't, though it's up there). Yet a quick search through 2018 albums shows that is has a higher rating than at least 5 of the albums on this list. Yet somehow didn't make top 10? Just stumped by this one.

Seriously, there's like 3 people involved in the awards that have addressed this issue just above your post.

MSA is cool and all, but can we acknowledge the real star here - The staff's yearly MSA announcement (or whatever you call it)?
It's always a fun read.