Well, it's becoming a tradition that I voted for almost none of the winners... did get to discover some interesting releases, though.

You would however found me on the ground crying if Lorna Shore hadn't won.

I got so wrapped up in trying to listen to all the nominees that I missed voting in most categories. Having discovered a healthy pile of great albums, I’d say I got exactly what I always want out of these awards.

Huge thanks to the staff for the excellent work once again.

Well, only managed to agree with 4 of the eventual winners, but difference of opinion and all that! Biggest find for me was in the Ambient / Drone / Noise category with Nishaiar - Nahaxar. Thought this was excellent and deserving of a win. Also thought Seth for BM was the better entry but a relatively close third is pretty good I reckon.

Like couple of others mentioned, Volbeat winning a surprise personally, though White Void had a good chance and thought Ethereal Shroud had the better entry for Melodic BM, don't get me wrong Yoth Iria was great album and has had plenty of spins this year, guess Ethereal Shroud just connected more with me.

As others have said thanks to all the MS staff for the efforts, and at the end of the day I have found good number of artists I missed through the year and Bandcamp Friday could be an expensive one this week!

Only two of my votes match those of the plebs (black and sludge), but the important thing is I discovered around 15 albums that will stay in my rotation in the coming months. That's invaluable.

Iron Maiden has won Heavy Metal category and Biggest Letdown... what should we understand from that

Written by Fabiano on 02.03.2022 at 15:43

Iron Maiden has won Heavy Metal category and Biggest Letdown... what should we understand from that

it's been mentioned before. Maybe people voted for Iron Maiden because they are Iron Maiden. Their last album is not even that good IMO. There were some strong contenders in that category.

Biggest letdown? I didn't vote there. The only letdown for me was the last Steven Wilson album and that's not metal.

The biggest letdown was Abba - Voyage

Written by Karlabos on 02.03.2022 at 15:54

The biggest letdown was Abba - Voyage

that, too.
The most unnecessary comeback ever.

Cool awards, great work moderators!

I have won 10 correctly. Becoming better year after year...:banger2::banger2:

I guessed Gojira right, even though I don't think they deserved it TBH. But then again, none out of the top 3 did either.

I also got Thy Catafalque, even though I don't really like the genre, but they (he) seem to be the shit when it comes to ranking votes.

I got Funeral Mist, which I incidentally liked a lot, too.
The Extreme Progressive award should have gone to Rivers of Nihil, hands down. I didn't like Iotunn at all TBH.

For Melodeath, I was between Nemecic and The Absence. Be'lacor wasn't bad, but it didn't feel right.
Melo Black was destined for Yoth Iria, no question.

Vola for Math/Djent and Exodus for Thrash, made zero sense to me, but I don't really like any thrash bands other than Slayer. And I only like Djent mixed in with Prog Death.

Overall I'm really happy that in the 27 years I've been a metalhead, I still find very exciting new bands and albums every single year.

Written by Cynic Metalhead on 01.03.2022 at 07:42

Disappointing to see Domkraft losing against a fairly satisfactory record.

to be fair, i'm just happy if a few bands I unearth each year make it to the awards and break double digit votes. Domrkaft, Tarlung anda few others this year.

Fear Factory - releases an album
Award of the best industrial metal - you son of a bitch, I am in

Some people on here seem to think that this is some kind of competition. If you 'correctly' voted for the act that won its category it only means you are into popular bands as most on here clearly vote for their favourite acts - whether the album was the best or not (see Maiden, Exodus & Gojira) - and popular music is usually shit (see Ed Sheeran, Adele and Coldplay).

Written by Dylan 1974 on 05.03.2022 at 09:36

and popular music is usually shit (see Ed Sheeran, Adele and Coldplay).

Was agreeing with you up until here.

I'll let you have Ed and later era Coldplay though.

I don't think "competition" is the right word; I don't see that either in the tone of the comments or in the content. People have posted how many bands they either guessed would win (nothing competitive about that) or how many of the winners matched their own votes (nothing competitive about that either). Whether an album is "best" or not is purely objective anyway; one person's trash is another person's treasure.

Saw Mortiferum open for Imperial Triumphant and Immolation, and was reminded that I correctly added them as my winner for extreme doom.
Fantastic stuff

So let's reverse the competition: is there anyone with zero matches?

I have exactly one match, and it's in a category that has given me very little pleasure in recent years. For nostalgic reasons, and because I still like Kiske's voice quite a lot, my vote for the best power metal album went to the winner Helloween. In all other categories I have no overlap with the results and more often than not the absolute underdogs and losers way down the list were my favorites.

Or to put it another way, my taste in music is not compatible with the majority opinion and it probably sucks. What a pity.

Written by Starvynth on 05.03.2022 at 12:33

So let's reverse the competition: is there anyone with zero matches?

I had one match in the CCs category.

Written by Starvynth on 05.03.2022 at 12:33

Or to put it another way, my taste in music is not compatible with the majority opinion and it probably sucks. What a pity.

Old Bitter's avatar is always relevant:

4 matches. Oh, well.

0 matches out of 8 votes for me

I forgot to add Accept as the biggest letdown, but the fact they are not even mentioned there says a lot :/

3 matches for me: no discussion about Ruins of Beverast and LLNN, while 1914 made a hell of an album but had very tough competitors. I'm very surprised by Amenra not winning the post-metal category (and cannot understand how Cult of Luna could win it with a not very inspired EP).
In any case, many names of my top 30 + 1 didn't even get to the best 10 of their categories: why don't you take a look to them in the Black Lodge Top 30 2021 List:
https://metalstorm.net/users/list.php?list_id=7147

How Soen lost to Gojira in alternative is a mystery. Don't get me wrong, I really like Fortitude but Imperial was one of the best albums of 2021 and "Antagonist" especially is one hell of a song.

When it comes to the other categories I had 6 write-in votes (not counting ABBA in power metal just for the fun of it).
They were:
Conjuring - Universus in black
Abstract Void - Wishdream in industrial / cyber / electronic
Night Crowned - Hädanfärd in melodic black
Wazzara - Cycles in metalgaze
Maha Sohona - Endless Searcher in stoner
Arcaneblaze - Conjure Mysticism And Goblet Of Eternal Fire in thrash

Only main categories I didn't vote in was grindcore and power metal (not counting ABBA).

Also White Void's Anti is a fantastic album that's way to underrated and compared to Volbeat's Servant Of The Mind who won hard rock it's not even a competition. Jess And The Ancient Ones' and Duel's albums were also way better than Volbeat's.

When it comes to the winners I had Vola, Iron Maiden, Mastodon, Thy Catafalque, Swallow The Sun and Cult Of Luna.

So for me it's quite a mixed bag with big names that I've listened to for decades and still enjoy very much and newer totally unknown bands which make me anticipate future releases.

Just discovered that https://www.metal-archives.com/albums/Solacide/Fall_from_Eternity/966436
It should be the best of Black Metal 2021!

I got 6 matches. Surprised Archspire's Bleed the future didn't win for Death Metal

I can't understand how wasn't kanonenfieber nominated for the best debut

Written by MahoDM on 10.03.2022 at 17:53

I can't understand how wasn't kanonenfieber nominated for the best debut

several strong debuts this year, but I'd take Kanonenfieber's release over anything on that list save for maybe Stormkeep and ATVM

Written by RaduP on 05.03.2022 at 14:17

Written by Starvynth on 05.03.2022 at 12:33

So let's reverse the competition: is there anyone with zero matches?

I had one match in the CCs category.

I had Thy Catafalque. I didn't vote for any of the other winners