Thanks to everyone who participated in this year's awards! As always, the rule of 'most popular band comes first' mostly stays true, but there were a couple that surprised me, or at least enlightened me on where these acts rank in popularity against one another (Brodequin beating Nails, Jerry Cantrell having enough solo pull to overcome Julie Christmas and Wheel, Candy ousting Heriot). There were some very excitingly close races this year that weren't clear until the final days, especially in Alternative, Extreme Doom, Grindcore, X-core, Industrial, Stoner and Best Debut; there were also some expected curbstomps, including what I believe might be an unprecedented level of domination from Judas Priest in Heavy in terms of vote count combined with vote share.

We managed to get over 1000 votes more than the previous year's edition, and probably the driving factor of that was write-ins; there was plenty of discussion about the new set-up in the previous MSA news thread, and plenty of fair viewpoints were shared, but between the number of write-in nominations that 'rank' in the genre category leaderboards tripling compared with 2023 and all of the write-in-only categories getting far more engagement than in 2023, this hopefully supports out wish for the revamped write-ins to make write-ins generally more accessible to users. Admittedly, at least some of that tripling is down to Borknagar - Fall's several classifications, and we will discuss before next year's awards if there is a good strategy to avoid that level of cross-category voting to allow fans of such albums to consolidate their votes, but on the whole I feel the changes to voting have been successful.

Just want to say I appreciate that you guys let all the albums for the year come out and don't do this in like... November or something.

You should have created Best Borknagar album category.

Don’t know if y’all know what March Madness Brackets are, but it would be cool to do that style of bracket voting for the album of the year!

>round of 16 first week Feb>8 second week>4 third week>2 last week>#1 winner on awards day!

Thanks a ton for putting these together, it’s a lot of fun and I feel like it’s the most fair and legitimate picks of any metal awards I see. Y’all put a lot of work in and in the nearly 6 years I’ve been here these were the smoothest awards I can remember. I think I only voted for three winners, but I don’t think any of the winners were undeserving. There were some really good releases this year and most of the biggest bands like Blood Incantation, Opeth, Wintersun, and Judas Priest all delivered very solid albums that lived up to the fans expectations, which is great to see after years of some disappointing albums from big names.

Only complaint is that Borknagar should’ve been in more categories, and Judas Priest should’ve gotten more votes!

Thx, guys, was fun!
See you next year (or Roadburn write-up or whatever)

Thanks to all the staff for the curation! Had a great time going through so many albums... but one month is ztoo little to listen to soo much and I always end up voting in only 7 or 8 categories as it is my self set rule to only vote if I've listened to each album of a category

In a year where both Opeth and Wintersun released albums, it was the little prog death from Denver that could reigning supreme. Well played Blood Incantation.

Out of the 35 categories, only 10 of my votes got first place. I was rooting for Funeral, but it didn't make the top and Mother Of Graves was narrowly beaten. The biggest deception for me was losing Múr the best debut album category. Now what made me the most happy was the victory of Gaerea, 100% deserved.

Blood Incantation won 3 categories including best extreme progressive album against Iotunn. Even though there was a debate, I was pretty sure that Blood Incantation was the winner because it was more popular, but this was basically the fight to determine the "best metal album of the year" award.

Fair picks overall, great year for metal. I wouldn't change too much if it were up to me.

4 of my votes won this year (Extreme Progressive, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, and Power Metal) + the Drama catergory.

It's actually been one of the most engaging MS awards I've had in many years since I signed in back in 2007 (holy shit). Partially because of the write-in votes being interesting, the new set up which is incredible and just me being responsible for once and actually checking out every single album properly (or at the very least half the album).

The categories where I spent the most time trying to decide were Avantgarde, Extreme Doom, Hardcore, Industrial, Post Metal and Thrash. All these categories were easily the most consistent in quality this year and at least 3 or sometimes even half the nominees could have been my vote in each category. Plenty of stuff to keep an eye on. Each year I'm surprised at how much I'm loving the Hardcore category. It has become one of my top 5 categories of the awards easy.

I also had really fun going through my classic categories Black and Death metal. I just thought the number one was too much of an easy pick. And people saying that this was a weak year for black are wrong. (but I forgive you) .

The two categories that surprised me the most simply by the fact that I found something to enjoy at all were Power Metal and Symphonic. Not a fan of those styles nowadays but Power had Unleash The Archers and Triumpher, while symphonic had Seven Spires and Folterkammer totally blew me away.

Great year. great community. Great awards. Until next time, Metalstormers!

Now let's see how my tastes match up with my fellow staffers.

Written by X-Ray Rod on 02.03.2025 at 12:42


Now let's see how my tastes match up with my fellow staffers.

My personal preferred album in each category won precisely 0 of the categories, I've never been more out of touch (probably the winner I agree most with is Thy Catafalque, it's just Avantgarde had some strong competition between the likes of Cave Sermon and Laudare)

As always most of my picks / write-ins didn't win with the exception of 3 categories, Khirki for Hard Rock, Brodequin for Grind and Fleshgod Apocalypse for Symphonic. But I am quite happy to see that some of my write-ins got some votes! There's people of taste around here

Also c'mon guys, Pyrrhon should've won biggest surprise. I mean it was literally a surprise shadow drop album! Pfffft

Anyways! Thanks again to the staff for the awards, tons of fun and discoveries once again.

Really enjoyed the Blood Incantation and Opeth albuns but the Hauntologist for me was the real AOTY in 2024.... with an honorable mention of the Labyrinthus Stellarum

Not the best year for metal in recent years, but some good albums for sure. I’m not going to lie, this came up a little quick and I forgot to vote in a few categories. This year it might have made a difference!

Written by Boxcar Willy on 02.03.2025 at 14:52

Not the best year for metal in recent years, but some good albums for sure. I’m not going to lie, this came up a little quick and I forgot to vote in a few categories. This year it might have made a difference!

In your defense, last year was a leap year. So technically you were cheated for a day this time.

Written by Ch'ti on 02.03.2025 at 00:19

Blood Incantation won 3 categories

No idea how they got the "best album artwork" category
the other wins make sense, but that one is just bizarre when most nominations look better than that

There was no doubt that Kanonenfieber was going to win, but feels good to know that the margin is much narrower than I expected. Overall, this might have been the most predictable year to be honest, even with extreme prog there was no intrigue, really. And personally - I'm not disappointed in any winner, except for Wintersun, which is simply a testament of how weak this year was for melodeath in general.

But I've completely missed out on Hauntologist, and only thanks to MSA I'm now catching up.

You guys are the best!

Written by MadHatter on 02.03.2025 at 23:12

And personally - I'm not disappointed in any winner, except for Wintersun, which is simply a testament of how weak this year was for melodeath in general.

I personally found Sludge category to be overlooked as well. With all due respect to HoF fans(with myself being one of the fans), I don't think many would have expected to see new album to take away the category easily.

Written by Cynic Metalhead on 03.03.2025 at 09:27

I personally found Sludge category to be overlooked as well. With all due respect to HoF fans(with myself being one of the fans), I don't think many would have expected to see new album to take away the category easily.

I thought Thou might be closer since they're fairly well known by this point, but HoF are definitely the more internationally renowned (to the extent they're actual Grammy winners), so I always thought they likely to win on past reputation alone. It is a shame, as it is one of the weaker nominees in the category, and one that made the cut more through being heard more than some other potental candidates rather than particular enthusiasm towards it by anyone. It does feel for these more middling albums from big names (although I like Cometh The Storm significantly more than most records this applies to, so it might be harsh using HoF as an example here) that the main challenge they face in these awards is nomination, as if they get nominated they'll win through reputation alone; it does feel a bit silly that making it into the final 10 is more of a challenge than actually being the outright winner.

I only got three, Judas Priest, Kanonenfieber, and Hauntologist.

That deserving triumph by Judas Priest is one for the ages. I still cannot believe how perfect Invincible Shield is.

Written by musclassia on 03.03.2025 at 10:34

Written by Cynic Metalhead on 03.03.2025 at 09:27

I personally found Sludge category to be overlooked as well. With all due respect to HoF fans(with myself being one of the fans), I don't think many would have expected to see new album to take away the category easily.

it does feel a bit silly that making it into the final 10 is more of a challenge than actually being the outright winner.

Well said.

That leaves with my second thought that somewhere HoF's new album is appreciated by the staff. It made into final nominees and folk without paying much attention to other albums, voted HoF on a popularity basis. Even apart from Thou, there were 3 albums that could have scored challenged HoF's position in top #3 easily - Lord Dying - Clandestine, new Inter Arma, Mastiff - Deprecipice and Horndal - Head Hammer Man. These were all nominated albums. Some good ones were also found in "User nominations" -Ten Ton Slug, Chat Pile, Sumac etc.

Another eg that I was surprised to see in Top 10 is Benighted's Ekbom(user nominated). I do not see the fascination with an album that doesn't even resonate with Benighted's elements.

Was pulling for IOTUNN but knew it would be pretty tough to beat Blood Incantation. Both good albums though. I made the mistake of trying to get a few Black Metal albums in on Friday so I could vote and started with Paysage D'Hiver not realize it was almost 2 hours long. I finished the album but man was that a snoozfest.

Written by Bluemobius on 03.03.2025 at 15:53

I finished the album but man was that a snoozfest.

You're stronger than me, I haven't even started it yet. I genuinely liked Infestus though, the variety and care. And Dreamless Veil is just perfect gym music.

Written by Bluemobius on 03.03.2025 at 15:53
started with Paysage D'Hiver not realize it was almost 2 hours long. I finished the album but man was that a snoozfest.

Interesting. I found it to be the most exciting entry in that whole category, followed by Spectral Wound and Seth. It became my vote for Black in the end, and I still listen to it multiple times per week. Different tastes I guess

This was a blast again! ...and maybe even a bit more than usual. I really appreciate the discovery value in this project through the finely curated choice of albums.

Saying this...26 genre-related categories plus few others - it feels a bit overwhelming. This makes it 260+ of nominated albums and (just guessing) around 200 hours of listening. I understand that not everybody here has a semi-obsessive urge to go through all of them like me. But I'm a bit concerned about the effect on the representativeness of the results.

I see a risk of 2 effects in work due to this:
a) many (some?) people might vote in a specific category without actually going through all albums there, hence bringing strong bias
b) you might loose votes of those feeling obliged to listen through the whole category and if they don't manage they simply skip the voting

But again - the whole MS Awards project is very enjoyable! Thank you guys for your work!

Written by Lamahe on 05.03.2025 at 16:16

I see a risk of 2 effects in work due to this:
a) many (some?) people might vote in a specific category without actually going through all albums there, hence bringing strong bias
b) you might loose votes of those feeling obliged to listen through the whole category and if they don't manage they simply skip the voting

perfectly valid concerns - my only feeling towards point A is that even the early editions of the awards with fewer categories were still heavily weighted towards big names; I have to assume voting for the one album someone knows while not trying the others is going to be an inevitability for some participants no matter how few or many categories are included, it's almost an inevitability of open votes. But thank you for your engagement and participation in the awards!

I got 5 out of 14 votes....🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆

I managed to pick six winners this year, which I would say is fairly typical for me: Thy Catafalque, Officium Triste, Judas Priest, Wintersun, Gaerea, and Sergeant Thunderhoof. Seven, if you count Helloween for Best DVD. As I have in the last bunch of editions, I succeeded in listening to every single nominee and voting in every category, made possibly only by the fact that I know all the nominees and candidates well in advance and have most of the year to do it. Otherwise I'd never finish.

I can't complain about the winners, for the most part - Black was really tricky, and Kanonenfieber was my close second choice behind Paysage d'Hiver (with Panzerfaust a close third as well). All three are pretty high up in my 2024 overall rankings. Avant-garde was also tough; I'm glad it went to Thy Catafalque, since that was definitely top ten of the year, but Five The Hierophant was also very high up for me overall, and I would have been happy to see Cave Sermon win. I would have been fine with just about anybody winning Extreme Doom, Power, or Meloblack; I had clear favorites, but there was strong competition.

Symphonic was surprisingly strong this year, maybe even the strongest ever. It's always one of the weakest categories for me, even in years when there are memorable standouts, but this year it was one of the best. Folterkammer and Hyloxalus were excellent finds, Cathubodua, Assemble The Chariots, and Lamašhtu were interesting surprises, and Seven Spires and Fleshgod Apocalypse were characteristically great. The others I was less taken with but I still enjoyed them all. That kind of a success rate for a category is enviable, especially for one I always think of as being one of my least favorites.

It's cool to see Master Boot Record finally win Industrial, after being nominated so many times. I think every year they release something we nominate it. And this was a year with Keygen Church nominated as well, which is funny.

The only two I would say I was disappointed with are Sludge and Thrash (I can't say I'm disappointed by, say, Prog because I knew exactly what was going to happen). I did like Cometh The Storm, even though I'm not a big High On Fire fan, but Horndal was so clearly the standout for me that nobody else really came close, and even though I think I feel more positively about Cometh The Storm I think I still have to echo the above discussion that it was probably the least interesting candidate to win. Thrash I didn't find particularly consistent this year, but Dungeon Crawl and Mayhemic were great options, Adorior and Hemotoxin to a lesser extent, and Bütcher was as fun as ever; Morbid Saint was easily my least favorite of the nominees. I haven't listened to Morbid Saint since I was first getting into thrash and I wasn't impressed by Swallowed By Hell.

On the whole, though, another great year. I'm looking forward to the next one.

I cant say for every genre, as I mainly listen to Black, Death, Folk, Heavy, Power and Progressive. With that said, I try to at least give a spin on every main album on those said genres. I have just 3 problems with the results:

1) Panzerfaust was kind of stolen, they didn't deserved anything less than first place in the Black Metal category.

2) As for Ensiferum, they did not deserve their trophy in the Folk metal category, this is one of the worst albums they have put out and I'm a big fan of the band.

3) And finally, the most contested category, Melodic Black Metal, what a year. A lot of great releases, but "Gaerea - Coma" was really not it. I feel they've ridden the crest of the fame they made with their last album. Many top-quality records have been released by lesser-known or newly formed bands.

For me the categories that were big highlights last year were Extreme Progressive Metal (the top 3 albums are pretty much perfect) and Melodic Black Metal (as aways). Power Metal needs some breath of fresh air or at least a really strong release from a band that has some identity (Heavenly, hopefully).

Overall, great year for metal. Lets hope this year delivers again.