Black emperor... MA has only metal bands, but do we need all demo bands from Florida, Sweden or Kosmostan. No. I maybe don't like many bands as djent, math, some core, and few suxer bands, but I do like how musclassia, radu write about them. I maybe hated non metal article, I might not like nomination, but then again I don't like my naibour or 7th dude in a shopping line or chick next to me in a local b level boozer, so what. My best mate maybe support shitiest football team in this planet, so what. Ms is open minded community what rise and grows, we need new yseers. I dont like disco, i dont go to dance bar, I hate lager, i go to craft beer bar and buy Stout. Nobody puts six shooter on your head... Its free choice to be here. I better see ms rise n grow whit more suxer bands, as be dead site whit out activity whit tr00 metal bands. Just saying.

I mean, we do kinda want racists to fuck off from the site. So yeah, that's a political direction I do try to impose on people.

Iskandr's brilliant Vergezicht, Black or Melodic Black? I won't even pretend to know the difference.

Written by Czerny Reiter on 02.02.2022 at 19:03
Iskandr's brilliant Vergezicht, Black or Melodic Black? I won't even pretend to know the difference.

Hahaha! I feel you. Been trying to figure out that distinction for over 20 years now

Written by corrupt on 02.02.2022 at 19:07

Hahaha! I feel you. Been trying to figure out that distinction for over 20 years now

I do know that Mgla's albums are usually put under "Black" around these parts and yet it's some of the most melodic blastbeating ever pressed on a record.

I'll go one further and ask about Akhenaten's Emerald Tablets of Thoth while I'm at it.

Im pretty sure that guy went "tl dr i win".
All mods have political agendas. The very position of modder is by nature political. Sometimes its bound to the very site they're modding that has already an agenda instituted. Sometimes they act on their own accord. But lets not go there.
Im pleased with the overall direction of this site and thats good enough for me.
"Oh they didnt include Archgoat", well dude there's an write in option exactly for that purpose.

Written by Czerny Reiter on 02.02.2022 at 19:03

Iskandr's brilliant Vergezicht, Black or Melodic Black? I won't even pretend to know the difference.

Black and meloblack are indeed hard to really distinguish, and we're not gonna pretend that half the reason why we even made the distinction is to have two black metal categories.

As far as Iskandr is concerned, we considered it for meloblack, but it very well could've gone in black.

Written by RaduP on 02.02.2022 at 19:34

and we're not gonna pretend that half the reason why we even made the distinction is to have two black metal categories.

Gotta focus on what's important

Written by Czerny Reiter on 02.02.2022 at 19:15

I'll go one further and ask about Akhenaten's Emerald Tablets of Thoth while I'm at it.

I'd go death

Us? Pop? Yeah, I see it. Couldn't help but notice my wife started adding Funeralium and Domkraft's newest to her AlexRainbirdMusic "Good Vibes" happy indie pop playlists she listens to on Sunday mornings while I'm still in bed sleeping off the prior night's excesses.

Written by RockwiththeDoc on 02.02.2022 at 16:25

Hi guys! in the context of MS awards, do you consider the band ERRA in the math metal or metalcore category? MS' page suggest them as Metalcore but i would submit their last album in Math Metal category, in fact that sound it's more near to this genre. What do you think?

We had them down in the djent/math category, just missed the cut

Written by nikarg on 02.02.2022 at 17:59

Thanks, but there have been times when I lost my patience and was rude, and I regret that. I mostly try to be polite because I want other people to be polite to me.

I'm half Greek with a father from Athens, are you sure you are Greek? Because that's the most ungreek thing I've ever read, especially since you also are from Athens

Written by Nejde on 02.02.2022 at 22:33

Written by nikarg on 02.02.2022 at 17:59

Thanks, but there have been times when I lost my patience and was rude, and I regret that. I mostly try to be polite because I want other people to be polite to me.

I'm half Greek with a father from Athens, are you sure you are Greek? Because that's the most ungreek thing I've ever read, especially since you also are from Athens

I hope you have same numbers then....

I´ll be honest, the metal scene has been in a huge decaying since like half a decade now. The only bands that keep delivering great music for me are Be'lakor and some prog bands (AAL, Haken and maybe BTBM). Even in the rock scene there are very few bands making good music. IMO.

Our AOTY, here in the Black Lodge, is Emptiness "Vide" and I have no idea where to put it (and that's probably why it is our AOTY). So please don't answer me that Emptiness is not metal anymore and tell me if it fits in alternative, experimental, post or whatever (maybe you should have a "whatever" category).
BTW you've done an amazing work, as always.

Written by Dark Shadow on 02.02.2022 at 15:02

*snip silliness*
Thank you for all your efforts in the past years. I am a fan of this website, so I am and I have the right to protest. I hope you understand

you certainly have the right to protest.
others have the right to point out how ludicrous your claims are.
I hope you understand.

that said, I likely responded to a troll, so I'll make my post somewhat useful

Overall, I had 6 albums that were notably better than the competition:
1. Ethereal Shroud - Trisagion
2. Veilburner - Lurkers In The Capsule Of Skull
3. First Fragment - Gloire Éternelle
4. Thy Catafalque - Vadak
5. Dormant Ordeal - The Grand Scheme Of Things
6. Fallensun - The Wake Of The Fall

I've been pretty up-to-date with my album listening this year so was reasonably ready for several categories
Avantgarde/Experimental - Thy Catafalque released possibly their best album. I considered Veilburner as well but I put Veilburner as a black metal write-in
Black Metal - this is where I put Veilburner. Otherwise, Spectral Wound or Norse would've been the pick here. Kanonenfieber was top notch as well
Death Metal - Dormant Ordeal - comfortably in first place, really blown away by that album, but several other good ones, most notably Replicant and Qrixkuor
Extreme Doom - Mortiferum topped this one, solid competition from Hooded Menace
Extreme Progressive - First Fragment ran away with this one, Atvm was the closest competition
Grindcore - Last Days Of Humanity surprised me. Entirely too much fun
Melodeath - Fallensun grabbed this one early and didn't let up. Inferi was close. I enjoyed Carcass but it was more of a death'n'roll album, and a bit of a step down from Surgical Steel
Meloblack - my overall Album of the Year was (surprisingly) placed here, Ethereal Shroud. Stormkeep, Thulcandra, and Ninkharsag are actually bands I'd consider meloblack, but there was no way I could let my AotY not get my vote
Symphonic Metal - Aquilius was the odds-on favorite, as I'm a massive fan of Griseus so I was eagerly awaiting this. I admit bias.
Thrash - I did a write in for Proscriptor McGovern's Apsû, although I was tempted to just go with either Enforced or Flotsam And Jetsam. The amazing thing here is that the cesspool of an album from Agent Steel got a write-in vote, despite being a thrash version of 6FU
Best debut - again, runaway win here for Fallensun
Biggest letdown - unfortunately, there was a huge battle here, as Iron Maiden, Gojira, Mastodon, and The Ruins Of Beverast all were surprising in their brush with (and, in some cases, envelopment by) mediocrity was quite disappointing. What really seemed to characterize these was the amount of filler that was interspersed among decent tunes. Someone needs to put a leash on Maiden and Mastodon; their albums were at least half an hour too long, and if you cut half of the songs out and/or cut several of the songs in half, the albums would've been far more listenable.

Not only Panopticon was not nominated, but I was the first one to nominate it via write-in. Come on, guys!
...unless it's in some obscure category and I missed it

So... one month until we have results???

Call me impatient but, could we have temp results like in 15 days?
That would boost the debate

Written by Evil Cooper on 03.02.2022 at 00:27

Our AOTY, here in the Black Lodge, is Emptiness "Vide" and I have no idea where to put it (and that's probably why it is our AOTY). So please don't answer me that Emptiness is not metal anymore and tell me if it fits in alternative, experimental, post or whatever (maybe you should have a "whatever" category).
BTW you've done an amazing work, as always.

Very few of us liked it, it seems. You, X-Ray Rod, me, a couple of other demented psychos.. Anyway, the reason that it wasn't considered was for not being metal. The "whatever" category seems like a good idea though.

Written by NastyHero on 03.02.2022 at 10:06

Not only Panopticon was not nominated, but I was the first one to nominate it via write-in. Come on, guys!
...unless it's in some obscure category and I missed it

It was considered for melodic black and only just did not make it.

Written by Callisto on 03.02.2022 at 10:32

Call me impatient but, could we have temp results like in 15 days?
That would boost the debate

I feel you but we obviously cannot do that because it would affect the voting.

Written by NastyHero on 03.02.2022 at 10:06

Not only Panopticon was not nominated, but I was the first one to nominate it via write-in. Come on, guys!
...unless it's in some obscure category and I missed it

Nah, you haven't missed it in an obscure category; it was in for meloblack, but narrowly missed out - I can't speak for anyone else but as the one who reviewed it, I didn't give it a more enthusiastic push for nomination because I found the production grating enough to detract from the experience of the album, and generally thought it was a bit of a step down from the likes of Autumn Eternal and Roads To The North

My votes up to now:
Alternative Metal: Wheel - Resident Human: I love every part of this album and am glad they managed to find their own sound and managed to distance themselves from being just a tool clone.

Ambient / Drone / Noise: Divide And Dissolve - Gas Lit. I have a couple of albums in noise/ death industrial camp that I like more than this, but they are not in the database and will not have any votes. Overal, it was an amazing year for the drone/ noise/ ambient genre as a whole.

Avantgarde / Experimental Metal: Five The Hierophant - Through Aureate Void. Torn between this and PG (which IMO should have gone to black metal) but I'm slut for jazzy avantgarde metal, so this one wins the race.

Black Metal: Ustalost - Before The Glinting Spell Unvests. It was pretty uneventful for BM this year, with the absence of major, breathtaking records. This is, however, one of the bests the genre offered in 2021.

Death Metal: Choir - Songs for a Tarnished World (write-in). Like BM, death metal was also a bit underwhelming this year. However, this little-known gen really kicks major ass with the accent of black and doom metal over its death metal core. I've rarely seen cavernous death metal so dynamic and alive, managing to go from portal- inspired sonic hell to quasi-prog rock softness in one song without losing the grip over quality and songwriting.

Djent / Math Metal : Frontierer - Oxidized. I love the sheer violence and chaos here.

Extreme Doom Metal : Sepulcros - Vazio. Deathy doom metal the way it should sound. Wish it was longer, though.

I will probably skip the other categories, except for industrial and maybe doom.

I feel like we should either have a separate category for EPs or exclude them from the awards categories. Especially when there are full LPs that can fill their spots. Or better yet, if you guys are feeling OCD about it, just do separate EP genre categories to vote on, that way certain LPs don't get overlooked and more quality EPs can be highlighted.

Written by Aries Rising on 03.02.2022 at 11:43

I feel like we should either have a separate category for EPs or exclude them from the awards categories. Especially when there are full LPs that can fill their spots. Or better yet, if you guys are feeling OCD about it, just do separate EP genre categories to vote on, that way certain LPs don't get overlooked and more quality EPs can be highlighted.

I really don't see any reason to do that. If some EPs get more nomination votes than some albums, I don't see why they wouldn't be nominated.

Written by Aries Rising on 03.02.2022 at 11:43

I feel like we should either have a separate category for EPs or exclude them from the awards categories. Especially when there are full LPs that can fill their spots. Or better yet, if you guys are feeling OCD about it, just do separate EP genre categories to vote on, that way certain LPs don't get overlooked and more quality EPs can be highlighted.

If an EP is more enjoyable than an LP, all the more reason to nominate it as it manages to do more with less.

Written by Netzach on 03.02.2022 at 12:00

Written by Aries Rising on 03.02.2022 at 11:43

I feel like we should either have a separate category for EPs or exclude them from the awards categories. Especially when there are full LPs that can fill their spots. Or better yet, if you guys are feeling OCD about it, just do separate EP genre categories to vote on, that way certain LPs don't get overlooked and more quality EPs can be highlighted.

If an EP is more enjoyable than an LP, all the more reason to nominate it as it manages to do more with less.

Maybe I'm a bit weird in my thinking, but to me LP = dinner and EPs = appetizers. EPs were either holdovers, leftovers, or offshoot experiments from bands while LPs were mission statements of what and where the bands were sonically at that moment. Dunno if that makes any sense or not.

I think there's limitations we should consider in terms of EP length - it's arguably harder to make 45 minutes of quality music than 2 short great songs, so it might be unfair to place them against one another in a vote or consider them equivalent. I feel there can be a sensible limit for what constitutes a sufficiently substantial EP to deserve consideration; I was very much on the fence about whether to consider the Lorna Shore EP for this reason (but ultimately was willing to as others were), but was inclined against suggesting Enshine's EP, as it was only 15 minutes of original music + an acoustic re-recording. At the same time, The Raging River, despite being classified as an EP, is longer than several full-lengths, so it would be harsh to exclude it, and in grindcore, sometimes records are classified as full-lengths despite only clocking at 15-20 minutes in total anyway. I don't think there should be a necessarily be a ban on considering EPs for categories, but at the same time we should be reasonable as to whether an EP is sufficiently substantial to merit inclusion - I would consider >20 minutes to be a reasonable threshold (which And I Return To Nothingness admittedly falls a couple of minutes short of)

I'd say the only question to ask about EPs is: does it stand on its own feet as a release?

I asked in the shoutbox but I'm being ignored I guess, but now I'm curious - What's Darkthrone doing in heavy/melodic metal? No one is bothered b that? If there is an album in the wrong place, it's this one.

I love the MS awards, always did, always discovered a few albums, take it as harmless criticism.

I got a couple more questions for some other time.

Written by JoHn Doe on 03.02.2022 at 13:04

What's Darkthrone doing in heavy/melodic metal?

Chilling.

Written by RaduP on 03.02.2022 at 13:17

Written by JoHn Doe on 03.02.2022 at 13:04

What's Darkthrone doing in heavy/melodic metal?

Chilling.

not the answer I was expecting, but ok...