When I try to vote i receive a message saying I need to log in, but I am unable to login. I lose the Login as soon as I enter the metalstorm awards site.

Ok, one last rant. Does the staff actually consider community's choices (while picking nominees) at least a little bit?
Let's take a look at Angelus Apatrida. It's currently the only thrash metal album staying at top 20 of 2018. And guess what, it's not nominated.
You might say 'but there are write-ins!'. Yeah, sure, but most people won't care about them. They'll just look at what's proposed - and even if they do listen to every nominee (which I am currently in the process of), they'll skip this particular album, cause it isn't proposed.

And don't get me wrong.
That's not the only write-in I'm (probably) going to vote for, but this one seems the most snubbed by staff (in doom metal category there are also a few snubs, like Yob, in favor of some awful Corpselium, but hey, one staff member liked it).
But that's fine.
I know you can't please everyone and there always will be someone ranting about lack of nominations for their favorite album. Even though Angelus Apatrida is currently my pick (which MIGHT change after I listen to your proposals), if it had lukewarm reaction/ratings on the site - I'd be fine with that. But come on, like I said, it's the ONLY thrash metal album in top 20. And yes, I know, top 20 is made by users, but come on - really?


Although, on the other hand, that shouldn't have surprised me at all. I remember MS'17 opening "speech" that some certain band is definitely going to win melodic death category. I was certain you meant Mors Principium Est. But when MPE did win, you were like "well, color us shocked, Arch Enemy didn't win!".
...on Metal Storm Arch Enemy's album had a pretty average score, while Mors had been sitting in top 20 for a while. Yeah, such a huge shock Arch Enemy didn't win. /s

I know I'm really nitpicking but I thought you had top 20 for a reason.

edit: on the other hand, I've noticed that last year Cradle of Filth was in top 20, while Moonspell was not, yet the latter (rightfully) win, so I guess that top doesn't matter as much as I thought.

I promised myself I wasn't going to complain this year...

... but sweet f*cking Metal Jesus how stubborn and arrogant do you have to be to NOT include Shylmagoghnar?

Written by RaduP on 01.02.2019 at 12:28

Written by Ball Fondlers on 01.02.2019 at 12:09

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

Perhaps we liked those bands nobody heard of more than the popular ones. You can still vote those popular ones and by all means you're free to do so. Though we do urge you to listen to those "nobody has heard of" ones since you mind find something you like more than what you were going to vote for. You have an entire month to vote, no need to rush with your most familiar name.

But shouldn't the purpose of "The Metalstorm Awards" be to determine Metalstorm users' favorite albums? Or has the purpose of them now become for the mods to try and convince everyone to like the bands they do? Seems kind of selfish and counter-intuitive. But hey, it's your website, your rules.

Written by SoUnDs LiKe PoP on 08.02.2019 at 16:52

But shouldn't the purpose of "The Metalstorm Awards" be to determine Metalstorm users' favorite albums?

Well it's the users who vote

My lord Judas Priest and Amorphis in the same spot

Written by nikarg on 02.02.2019 at 20:22

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

It's funny because in the different write-in categories, "Shylmagoghnar - Transience" was mispelled 4 times (black, meloblack, x progressive & biggest surprise), but only the album name (Transcience instead of Transience). I guess ctrl+c ctrl+v works fine for the band name, but then the user gets too confident in its spelling abilities for the album title

Written by Maxder on 08.02.2019 at 22:29

Written by nikarg on 02.02.2019 at 20:22

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

It's funny because in the different write-in categories, "Shylmagoghnar - Transience" was mispelled 4 times (black, meloblack, x progressive & biggest surprise), but only the album name (Transcience instead of Transience). I guess ctrl+c ctrl+v works fine for the band name, but then the user gets too confident in its spelling abilities for the album title

Yeah, Shyamagalan are not going to win next year awards, though. Their latest release Glass was rather mediocre.

Don't you just hate when 2 of your top albums are in the same genre

Melodic Black why you do dis to me

Written by EricAxel36 on 10.02.2019 at 22:57

Don't you just hate when 2 of your top albums are in the same genre

Melodic Black why you do dis to me

Necrophobic and Panopticon I presume? I have the same problem.

Arkona ins Extreme Progressive Metal? Either put it in folk or in Black metal.

Also Pig Destroyer being on Metalcore is fucked?! Like put it on DM or Grindcore but not Metalcore.

I realize not everyone have the same taste, or even opinion about the genre of some of the albums, but I can't help but think that there are some serious agendas behind both choosing in which category an album will appear, and which albums are (not) featured in the lists at all. Also there are write in votes, but very often users just pick one from the list of possible options, because it's the way humans work, so it is really unlikely that a write-in can win something... I am really all in for promoting unknown bands, and last.fm and metalstorm had helped me find at least a couple of dozens of bands that I really fucking like a lot, but this 'we go against mainstream at all costs' feel... no need for it.

Anyway, 2018 was fucking awesome, so many great albums.

Written by RhaegarTargaryen on 11.02.2019 at 11:58

we go against mainstream at all costs' feel... no need for it.

No, if you just sift through our previous MSA editions, you going to find a lot of mainstream bands sweeping a category by a big margin. It was never about projecting 'unknown bands' or discrediting 'mainstream bands' for no reasons whatsoever. It was all about voting quality records so that it can be accessible to as many fans as possible.

Written by Cynic Metalhead on 11.02.2019 at 14:06

Written by RhaegarTargaryen on 11.02.2019 at 11:58

we go against mainstream at all costs' feel... no need for it.

No, if you just sift through our previous MSA editions, you going to find a lot of mainstream bands sweeping a category by a big margin. It was never about projecting 'unknown bands' or discrediting 'mainstream bands' for no reasons whatsoever. It was all about voting quality records so that it can be accessible to as many fans as possible.

That's true, you are not against mainstream.

However, please stop writing things like "We were this close to having an actual competition in the melodeath category" or "One of these years we'll have an underdog win it. One of these years.".
You failed to nominate an actual underdog, Shylmagoghnar. A fairly new and unknown band with their sophomore album havng as of now the highest rated melodeath album of 2018.
I've come to accept your point of view (of not auto-nominating the highest rated albums) which you've written in the thread multiple times. I disagree with it, but hey, it's your site, I only come here for awards.

It's just complaining about not having a competition (while you denied the underdog a chance of winning) strikes as extremely ironic to me. Don't you think?

I haven't even heard Shylmagoghnar (though I am going to). I also don't think they would have won, had you nominated them, but now they are definitely not going to.

Written by NastyHero on 11.02.2019 at 21:29

Written by Cynic Metalhead on 11.02.2019 at 14:06

Written by RhaegarTargaryen on 11.02.2019 at 11:58

we go against mainstream at all costs' feel... no need for it.

No, if you just sift through our previous MSA editions, you going to find a lot of mainstream bands sweeping a category by a big margin. It was never about projecting 'unknown bands' or discrediting 'mainstream bands' for no reasons whatsoever. It was all about voting quality records so that it can be accessible to as many fans as possible.

That's true, you are not against mainstream.

However, please stop writing things like "We were this close to having an actual competition in the melodeath category" or "One of these years we'll have an underdog win it. One of these years.".

I think that's more of a reference to the fact that in the first 10 years of the awards, only 3 different bands won the melodeath award.

Written by NastyHero on 11.02.2019 at 21:29

Rant.

What is the rant for then if you haven't even listened to Shylmagoghnar? We did listen to it and thought there were other albums that were better. It's that simple.

It also appears that you haven't listened to any of the other nominees in the thrash category, yet you are ranting about Angelus Apatrida as well. Apart from the fact that it is not the only thrash album that was briefly in the top 20 as you say (Soulfly's Ritual was there too and it is nominated), it is also a very average thrash album. Not one song really stands out.

It's good that you mention Moonspell. Their album has a "low" rating because 10 people have rated it with "1" and 8 of them are either abusing the voting system or are the same person with multiple accounts and these 8 votes will be taken care of at some point. This is the reason why, although we do take into account the top 20, it isn't in any way indicative of what the nominations will be. If that was the case we would filter every year's albums by genre, come up with the 10 most highly rated ones in each and be done with the Awards preparation in less than a week.

I don't mind the criticism at all and as I've already said in another post we definitely make mistakes every year, but ranting without even having listened first and also admitting "I'm just here once a year for the awards and don't know much about what's going on with the website" is a bit... I don't know... you find a word for it.

Written by nikarg on 13.02.2019 at 19:45

What is the rant for then if you haven't even listened to Shylmagoghnar? We did listen to it and thought there were other albums that were better. It's that simple.

Like I said in my last post - even though I did complain about it, I've come to understand and accept that fact. But still, complaining in speech sounds like "oh no, another year when no underdog is going to win. What's that? Some band I can't pronounce the name seems to be well-received on our site? Can't hear you, damn, another year with a certain winner, so boring".
What does it matter if I listened to them? That was the point I'm trying to make, I'm but a one user and this album is well-liked by many. Even if I thought it sucked, my point would still stand. I voted for ION in black metal and I don't complain about them not being nominated, because I know they're not popular here.
If I changed my rant to "why is there no Convulsing in death metal?" would it be better? Or Yob in doom? (I'd still have voted for Chapel of Disease and Messa, though)

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It also appears that you haven't listened to any of the other nominees in the thrash category, yet you are ranting about Angelus Apatrida as well. Apart from the fact that it is not the only thrash album that was briefly in the top 20 as you say (Soulfly's Ritual was there too and it is nominated), it is also a very average thrash album. Not one song really stands out.

Actually, I did! Not all of them, true, but I will before voting. Not sure if that's what you got from my post, but if you checked my ratings - I simply haven't implemented the ratings yet. I use another site for that Here, I only rated a very small percentage of albums I know. I did rate AA though.
About AA it's subjective, in my opinion the first track and "The Die Is Cast" slay and are one of my favorite thrash metal tracks of this decade.

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It's good that you mention Moonspell. Their album has a "low" rating because 10 people have rated it with "1" and 8 of them are either abusing the voting system or are the same person with multiple accounts and these 8 votes will be taken care of at some point.

Not trying to sound like a smartass but offering some genuine advice: how about implementing a system which would abuse voting. For example, only users with a certain amount of votes will contribute to average rating. Or weighed votes. It won't be perfect, but it *might* prevent such an abuse. I wonder when "some point" is gonna be, seeing as these votes are probably over a year old

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This is the reason why, although we do take into account the top 20,

But how exactly do you take it into account? You ignore #1 albums of their respective genres, after all.

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it isn't in any way indicative of what the nominations will be. If that was the case we would filter every year's albums by genre, come up with the 10 most highly rated ones in each and be done with the Awards preparation in less than a week.

Yeah, you do have a point here. And even that could be easily manipulated, like you said, just one user with multiple accounts boosting their favorite album into the charts.
But your solution is overdoing it in a wrong way. Right now, in thrash category there is an album with a SINGLE (guess the staff doesn't rate?) vote - 6/10. And Angelus Apatrida (which ironically is not in Top 20 anymore ) has a rating of 8.1 with 147 votes.
Like someone else pointed before me, the awards are mostly for users, after all. Right now, it does seem like a case of "hey, so we did listen to this album nobody knows and we, a few people, subjectively think it's better for you than Angelus, even though it has already received a very warm response on our site and has a chance of getting a huge amount of votes, but we think it's mediocre".
And while I do see your point, there should be a middle ground. If thrash metal had plenty of excellent and well-received albums this year and you didn't nominate the most popular one - that would be way more reasonable. But like the above example shows, you chose an album with a single mediocre vote instead. Honestly, don't you see my point, even if just a little bit?

And unrelated but there is no way to undo the voting, is there? I'd change my grindcore vote to Cripple Bastards (oh no, another snubbed band ).

Written by NastyHero on 13.02.2019 at 21:18

Honestly, don't you see my point, even if just a little bit?

Believe me, I do. Absolutely. I just hope you see mine too.

The issue of voting abuse is being discussed for some time now in another thread and we are trying to figure out the best way possible to tackle the problem, which is not new by the way. Some of your suggestions have already been put on the table as well.

For what it's worth, I also thought that AA should have been nominated since thrash was indeed not particularly good last year (and not because the album is so great because it's not). And there is nothing ironic about it not being in the top 20 anymore, because the last spots of the top 20 change all the time. By the way I didn't see any of your ratings, you just wrote "Even though Angelus Apatrida is currently my pick (which MIGHT change after I listen to your proposals)" so I figured out you hadn't listened to the albums. I guess I misinterpreted.

As for the Dutch band, I find the album too long for its own good and a lot worse than their debut and I stand my ground on that (but my opinion doesn't matter anyway, because if the others thought that the album was worthy of a nomination, it would have been nominated). As a staffer said in another post even those of us involved in the awards put write-ins in some categories because the albums are nominated with each one of us voting on all the available suggestions. It's a democratic procedure. For example, I strongly believe that Varathron should have been nominated in black metal but it didn't. The same has happened with albums that other people involved in the awards liked but weren't nominated in the end.

There are more than 200 albums nominated in 25 categories. It's a lot of work man. We probably missed some, maybe 5 or even 10. Let's not generalize and say we don't give a fuck about what the users think just because one or two albums popular in the ratings did not get nominated. It's unfair and untrue.

Let's just move on, what do you think?

p.s. You can delete a vote by clicking on the red "X" before any album you have voted if you go to the main page of the awards.

The Astonishing by Dream Theater still gets votes for The Biggest Letdown.

Written by Azarath on 13.02.2019 at 23:28

The Astonishing by Dream Theater still gets votes for The Biggest Letdown.

That thing single handedly gave prog a sour taste for me and indefinitely ruined my appetite for new Dream Theater music

Written by nikarg on 13.02.2019 at 22:54

Believe me, I do. Absolutely. I just hope you see mine too.

Yes, I do. I guess there isn't a perfect solution. Honestly, I'd just nominate more albums and not limit myself, but then again, you have to draw the line somewhere.

Quote:
For what it's worth, I also thought that AA should have been nominated since thrash was indeed not particularly good last year (and not because the album is so great because it's not). And there is nothing ironic about it not being in the top 20 anymore, because the last spots of the top 20 change all the time. By the way I didn't see any of your ratings, you just wrote "Even though Angelus Apatrida is currently my pick (which MIGHT change after I listen to your proposals)" so I figured out you hadn't listened to the albums. I guess I misinterpreted.

I don't think it's great either, but close. It's just others were worse. And I meant that I had not listened to all of the nominees yet - some of them I planned to (oh, I still have a HUGE backlog of 2018, like 500 albums? Not only metal, obviously), some of them I only wishlisted because of the Awards.
By the way, out of not nominated, I also enjoyed Bonehunter and Deathstorm. Also nothing really extraordinary but both very solid releases.

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Let's just move on, what do you think?

Sure.

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p.s. You can delete a vote by clicking on the red "X" before any album you have voted if you go to the main page of the awards.

Thanks! How the hell did I even miss that in the first place... It turned out other write-in vote for Cripple Bastards had a typo in their name, too bad.

Written by NastyHero on 13.02.2019 at 23:57

It turned out other write-in vote for Cripple Bastards had a typo in their name, too bad.

Fixed

I agree about Bonehunter, solid black/thrash, however if you like this style check out Sathanas from last year. Deathstorm is pretty much death metal, no?
My favourites from our thrash nominations, apart from Soulfly of course, are Murder Inc., Extinction AD and Rapture (in order of preference).

Written by nikarg on 14.02.2019 at 00:37

Written by NastyHero on 13.02.2019 at 23:57

It turned out other write-in vote for Cripple Bastards had a typo in their name, too bad.

Fixed

I agree about Bonehunter, solid black/thrash, however if you like this style check out Sathanas from last year. Deathstorm is pretty much death metal, no?
My favourites from our thrash nominations, apart from Soulfly of course, are Murder Inc., Extinction AD and Rapture (in order of preference).

I wishlisted Sathanas right now, but, you know, 500 albums, it takes a while
Your comment about Deathstorm initially confused me a bit. It turned out there are 2 bands named like that and the Polish one is indeed death metal. I meant Austrian Deathstorm, which is definitely thrash metal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed-RLkTCBxk, also on Spotify).
Rapture was also very good, I agree. The rest you mentioned I haven't heard yet, though I never really liked Soulfly. I doubt that album will change my opinion of them but I'll give it a shot.

Also, not sure if that's your style, but another possible write-in for me will be in post-metal. A band which is missing from your database - Soldat Hans. But that was a strong year for post-metal (even your nominees are great ), so I might vote for Sinistro or The Ocean instead. Not that it matters, The Ocean will win anyway But Soldat Hans was a really pleasant hidden gem, with a lot of jazzy elements. And it's "name your price" on Bandcamp.

Written by RaduP on 13.02.2019 at 23:54

That thing single handedly gave prog a sour taste for me and indefinitely ruined my appetite for new Dream Theater music

Well, fair enough if people don't like it (I don't care for it either) but it came out 3 years ago.

Not to mention DT have been putting out disappointing albums for over 10 years now.

Written by Azarath on 14.02.2019 at 19:26

Well, fair enough if people don't like it (I don't care for it either) but it came out 3 years ago.

Not to mention DT have been putting out disappointing albums for over 10 years now.

I'd go 15 personally, but then again, I never really liked DT

Written by RaduP on 14.02.2019 at 19:46

I'd go 15 personally, but then again, I never really liked DT

15 sounds about right, with one album inbetween hitting close to the right spot, also personally.

I.

For Dream Theater it is 16 years, people. Train I Thought was their last good one, even though they had some dismal ones before that

I would like to compliment the Metal Storm staff responsible for recently stepping up the Hardcore game on this site (just noticed that Judiciary was added, as well, Primal Rite was not only recently added but nominated for thrash album of the year. They should be in the Hardcore category, but whatever. Please continue with the Hardcore upgrade on this site and please add the all mighty TERROR; Hardcore album of the year!....and Twitching Tongues, and Mindforce. Haaarrrrddd!

Metalheads will always be quite the strong minded bunch,believing their own little experiment with n=1 (themselves) ,n=10 (their group of friends) or n=100 (their favourite rock club) is 100% correct to assess every single one of us worldwide.So much new talent,so many new groups and genres not to mention the old dogs never quitting, make it too hard to decide.
Personally I'd like to see a couple of categories for individual tracks.Best metal song of 2018 and best single of 2018 (of an album released earlier or to be released later).The reason for this is that many times there are incredible individual tracks in an album that's not the best in its category and as a voter I'm torn apart to either vote for the song or the album.
All in all this vote makes me listen to bands I missed or revisit bands and albums I didn't give the proper attention to at first.

Someone here must like "Lil Pump & Kanye West - I Love It" an awful lot because he/she has put it as a write-in in every category.