Guessed 20 winners of main categories correctly, that's not too bad (would have been 21 but I accidentaly skipped hardcore(...)). Also album artwork, debut, letdown and surprise.

Thanks, staff! See you next year!

I didn't get to every category this year, but I got pretty darn close (22 out of 26, and just barely). There's still some time before we throw up the staff picks, so maybe I'll get to finish the outliers by then. Either way, I'm proud of myself for getting through all of that, since I was far behind on my listening when we started putting the Awards together in earnest, and I got a lot of great new discoveries out of it (highlights include Fargue, Qrixkuor, Funeral, Tremonti, Khirki, Autarkh, Eternity's End, Urne, Green Lung, Obsolete, and Paranorm, as well as bands that I already liked but hadn't yet had an excuse to bring myself up to date on, such as Gojira, King Woman, Neptunian Maximalism, 1914, Carcass, Be'lakor, and Witherfall).

I never took the time to really set predictions for most categories, though I'm not at all surprised by the winners - maybe a little bit surprised by Melodeath not being a closer contest, but then, it's Be'lakor. We love Be'lakor. We're not savages. And it's nice to see my album of the year, Beast In Black's Dark Connection, take second place in Power behind Helloween (even if it's a 4-to-1 disparity).

All in all, I'm very pleased with how this turned out from our end. I hope everybody enjoyed it as much as I did.

I'm the low man so far, only 18 correctly guessed winners. I feel like so many great records were just overruled by more established bands, even if said bands put out stinkers this year. *cough Gojira *cough.

Written by Aries Rising on 01.03.2022 at 01:03

I'm the low man so far, only 18 correctly guessed winners. I feel like so many great records were just overruled by more established bands, even if said bands put out stinkers this year. *cough Gojira *cough.

Same category as your noted band...At one point in time, a release from Soen would be stronger than that from Wheel. This time around, it's another win for the band with the bigger fan base.
It's a popularity contest. That's ok. I'm just thankful for the staff picks.

I'm happy to see Dark Watcher get the number one spot in the Clandestine cuts, only three more votes of mine actually got to number one.

Written by MetalManic on 01.03.2022 at 01:29

Written by Aries Rising on 01.03.2022 at 01:03

I'm the low man so far, only 18 correctly guessed winners. I feel like so many great records were just overruled by more established bands, even if said bands put out stinkers this year. *cough Gojira *cough.

Same category as your noted band...At one point in time, a release from Soen would be stronger than that from Wheel. This time around, it's another win for the band with the bigger fan base.
It's a popularity contest. That's ok. I'm just thankful for the staff picks.

Seriously, that Wheel album was amazing and deserves way more than 40 votes.

Obviously the winners were mostly easy to pick in advance, and yet my preference has never diverged as much from the masses before. Amongst the winners I only voted for 1914 in death, and had Archspire won, as I expected, there would have been zero overlap. Usually I find myself at least voting for some 5-10 albums that eventually turn out winners, but not this time!

Having tried to listen to each album at least once (or at the very least given them a fair shot at positively capturing my attention after 10+ minutes for genres like grindcore/heavy/thrash of which I am much less fond) there were some surprises. On the positive side, there were multiple entries in symphonic that were excellent (foremost Exanimis, Ghosts of Atlantis, and Zornheym) which made the choice in that particular category difficult, usually I have trouble identifying two! On the other hand, prog was disappointingly weak, but at least Dvne put out a stellar record that after several listens even managed to dethrone my advance pick Dordeduh. Likewise, only Kanonenfieber/Fyrnask really grabbed me in black, despite typically offering several strong entries each year. Thankfully extreme prog picked up the slack with options that proved strong more or less across the board and it took some mighty brainracking before Æthĕrĭa Conscĭentĭa narrowly beat out the competition for me.

My favourite genre post-metal also proved to be a delightful selection and in particular I'm indebted for the the discovery of Ikarie whose offering managed to surpass both Amenra and Cult of Luna. This is no small feat and easily earned them my vote for best debut. Finally, what a year for melodeath! I've found myself drifting more and more away from that particular genre, but I found myself thoroughly enjoying 7/10 entries. Indeed, that stunning release of In Mourning proved to be the surprise of the year for me; having pondered whether I was even a fan anymore after failing to fall in love with any offering of theirs since Monolith, that one hit the spot!

Once again, I would like to extend my thanks to the metalstorm staff for putting these awards together and giving me the opportunity to explore great music I would otherwise have missed out on. I only really consistently drop by here around February, but boy does this make it a good month for me (current events notwithstanding).

I only voted for 1 winner (Thy Catafalque)
Slightly surprised but no real disappointments other than Ethereal Shroud not winning meloblack. Granted, Yoth Iria had literally 2x as many ratings, so I shouldn't be surprised, but voting like this is always going to be a popularity contest (see - Iron Maiden, Mastodon, and Gojira winning for downright mediocrity)

what's great is that I learned about a dozen + albums that definitely kick ass that I wouldn't have considered otherwise (I wouldn't have even known of them)

thanks a ton to Metal Storm staff for putting this on, always a pleasure to participate!

Disappointing to see Domkraft losing against a fairly satisfactory record.

Iron Maiden winning heavy metal and Mastodon winning progressive is a bit ridiculous....

Written by JoHn Doe on 01.03.2022 at 08:42

Iron Maiden winning heavy metal and Mastodon winning progressive is a bit ridiculous....

Why? They're the most popular of the bunch.

Written by RaduP on 01.03.2022 at 09:10

Written by JoHn Doe on 01.03.2022 at 08:42

Iron Maiden winning heavy metal and Mastodon winning progressive is a bit ridiculous....

Why? They're the most popular of the bunch.

Let me rephrase that.
My opinion obviously, but considering the competition there, the two albums winning here are a big surprise, unexpected for me. Also, we're judging quality here are we not, not popularity. Or Mastodon got all the votes from people that are not exactly into progressive music (and after all there are few here on MS that really do).

I actually decided not to vote this year as I just didn't find the time to listen to enough of the nominees I hadn't already heard to make a proper decision.

But the beauty of the MS Awards is that it'll keep me stocked up with recommendations of awesome music I missed last year for months to come!

Cheers to the staff again for organising as ever - and to everyone who takes part.

Solid results overall, just a couple of major disagreements like Carcass and Trivium not winning. Belakor and Gojira were painfully average albums. Amenra not winning for a CoL EP is weird too, however i
love both bands, so no harm done. Iron Maiden winning both best heavy metal & disappointment is kinda funny but expected, that album was divisive. As for progressive yeah Dordeduh was a far more interesting album than Mastodon, but i get Mastodon are a bigger name and a lot of people loved Hushed & Grim.

Written by JoHn Doe on 01.03.2022 at 09:15

Written by RaduP on 01.03.2022 at 09:10

Written by JoHn Doe on 01.03.2022 at 08:42

Iron Maiden winning heavy metal and Mastodon winning progressive is a bit ridiculous....

Why? They're the most popular of the bunch.

Let me rephrase that.
My opinion obviously, but considering the competition there, the two albums winning here are a big surprise, unexpected for me. Also, we're judging quality here are we not, not popularity. Or Mastodon got all the votes from people that are not exactly into progressive music (and after all there are few here on MS that really do).

There is one rule you can always follow for MSAs - if there's 1 much bigger name in a category compared with the other nominees, they're going to win. If there's 2 big names, a slightly smaller one that puts out a better/more positively received album may beat the slightly bigger one (e.g. Soen beating Tool in 2019), and on very rare occasions an underdog may spoil the vote (Havukruunu pipping Ensiferum and Finntroll), but you can generally bank on the bigger name still winning (such as Epica beating Metal Storm darlings Aquilus this year). I've started predicting the winners of the 28 categories with nominees before each awards month begins, and can rely on getting over 20 of them just based on reputation - the only intriguing categories are ones like sludge and stoner with no obviously huge names, or ones like gothic and melodeath with 3-4 big names. In the cases you flagged, Iron Maiden and Mastodon are far more renowned than Darkthrone and Evergrey, so were pretty much slam dunk wins.

So apparently Iron Maiden is both the best heavy metal album of the year and the biggest letdown.
Then when you say heavy metal fans only listen to the same bands and don't try anything new, they get mad

Written by Karlabos on 01.03.2022 at 13:25

So apparently Iron Maiden is both the best heavy metal album of the year and the biggest letdown.
Then when you say heavy metal fans only listen to the same bands and don't try anything new, they get mad

you got a point there

Great MS Awards this year as usual. I found many, many great bands. Here were my picks:
Alternative: Soen
Abient: Fargue (found them due to the awards).
Avantgarde: Thy Catafalque
BM: Did not vote
Death metal: Archspire
Djent: Vola
Doom: Clouds
Extreme Doom: Skepticism (How did this not win?)
Extreme Prog: First Fragment
Folk: Can Bardd (Found them due to the awards)
Gothic: Evadne (Found them due to the awards)
Grindcore: Did not vote
Hard Rock: White Void (Volbeat! Honestly?)
Hardcore: Did not vote
Heavy: Black Soul Horde
Industrial: Did not vote
Melodeath: Be'lakor
Meloblack: Untamed Land (Found them due to the awards)
Metalgaze: So Hideous
Post-Metal: Kuaun (I know it's post rock. Still, there has to be a place for these guys).
Power Metal: Did not Vote
Sludge: The Lion's Daughter.
Stoner Metal: Green Lung
Symphonic Metal: Epica
Thrash Metal: Necronomicon
Best Album Art: Archspire
Best Cover Song: Miley Cyrus: Nothing Else Matters (Yup, I'm the fool who did that. I know she's not metal, but that is a truly exceptional cover that respects the song and the genre. If you don't agree, I understand). The Pat Benatar cover was also great though.
I was disappointed to see Gojira, Iron Maiden, Mastodon, and CoL win their categories. These were utterly forgettable albums. And as for Volbeat, "uchh"......and yet sometimes I even like Volbeat because they're just so.......well..........fun! There, I said it. That's not very metal is it? Oh well, for me it was the journey, not the result.
Thanks guys. Can't wait for next year.

Those albums by Gojira, Maiden, and Exodus coming first in any category other than mediocre crap is the funniest thing I've seen this year

Should've been Soen, Black Sites and Flotsam & Jetsam respectively.

1914 winning best death metal album is also wrong. The best death metal album was Asphyx by some fucking margin - and was probably the album of the year.

Alas, it seems not everyone has my impeccable taste

My only votes that become No.1: Iron Maiden - HM / Yoth Iria - MBM
Cool bands that I didn't know until someone nominated on MS Award '21: Khirki, Moon Unit, Resinator, Vorvaň, Moriya, The Lion's Daughter

There were pretty good releases in 2021 and was quite hard for me to decide in some categories, specially extreme prog, extreme doom, folk, death, and post-metal. Went with BTBAM, Skepticism, Aztlán, Asphyx and Year of no Light, respectively.

It's no surprise that Thy Catafalque won by a landslide the Avant-garde category, but anyways I hope more people listen to the other releases, Five The Hierophant was one my favorite discoveries, enjoyed a lot their slow and jazzy style.

I'm pretty sure there must be chunk of artwork better than Helloween in 2021.

Written by Cynic Metalhead on 01.03.2022 at 16:00

I'm pretty sure there must be chunk of artwork better than Helloween in 2021.

in that category, Helloween winning is fine.

Hmm guessed 12...easy guesses... glad to see Vola getting the recognition they deserve. The rest...Maiden, Helloween...quite predictable.

I voted in 8 categories, and none of my votes actually won )
also, it is a sad state of affairs that a band grom a genre universally known for its shitty covers wins the best cover award.

Very funny that many users are proud to have guessed the winners. I seem to be very bad at this game. Although it's actually quite simple: As with the vast majority of user voting, the consensus band with the fewest rough edges wins.

I'm quite surprised that Iotunn won over Between The Buried And Me, Rivers Of Nihil and First Fragment. I thought BTBAM was gonna win ex prog quite easily. Also that Iotunn album didn't resonate with me so I gave that one a pass.

Also very disappointed that ABBA's Voyage didn't win power metal or even got a nomination from SSUS

Why can't i see the results ? i see only comments ...

Written by necros4dead on 01.03.2022 at 18:58

Why can't i see the results ? i see only comments ...

Here you go

Written by LordFezzington on 01.03.2022 at 09:18

But the beauty of the MS Awards is that it'll keep me stocked up with recommendations of awesome music I missed last year for months to come!

If you're interested in more suggestions, I saved all write-ins in this list.