Written by:	D.T. Metal
Published:	March 12, 2014

The dust has settled, the 2013 Metal Storm Award winners have been determined and you probably wonder which album we thought were the cream of the crop in their respective category. Right?

Ahhh, the mighty Staff Picks! As most of you already know, we do not vote during the Awards, we just nominate and leave all the fun to you fine folks; well, most of the fun that is. Come on, did you really think we didn't want to argue amongst us who should receive the moniker "Staff Pick" out of our nominees?

While some categories had slam dunk winners, others didn't. One of the many examples of our bickering would be during the pick in the Avantgarde category, where the comments ranged from:

Quote:
This poll is very homosexual

to

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That is just homophobic. Let this poll be who it is

which led to

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Not really, just callin it out. No need for it to hide in the closet, it's just unhealthy

and

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I bet its' partner is that folk poll. Just as gay

finally ended with

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I couldn't care less who wins this category. But would vote, if I voted here, for Vulture Industries just to see XXX throw a hissy fit (Name omitted to protect the innocent)

Good times And equal good times were that our Awards banner made it to Nr. 6 in the Drama Of The Year category. If we had known that this is what it takes, we would have done it sooner.

Nevertheless, we (somewhat) agreed, and here are the 2013 picks from your MS Staff, Elites and (for the first time) our Official Contributors:


2013 Metal Storm Staff Picks

	Alternative Metal Karnivool - Asymmetry		Avantgarde / Experimental Metal Vulture Industries - The Tower
	Black Metal Carpe Noctem - In Terra Profugus		Death Metal Tribulation - The Formulas Of Death
	Djent / Math Metal Uneven Structure - 8		Doom Metal Evoke Thy Lords - Drunken Tales
	Extreme Doom Metal Funeralium - Deceived Idealism		Folk / Pagan / Viking Metal Saor - Roots
	Gothic / Symphonic Metal The Eden House - Half-Life		Grindcore Antigama - Meteor
	Hard Rock Clutch - Earth Rocker		Hardcore / Metalcore / Deathcore Castevet - Obsian
	Heavy / Melodic Metal In Solitude - Sister		Industrial / Cyber / Electronic Metal Shining (NOR) - One One One
	Melodeath / Extreme Power / Gothenburg Metal In Vain - Ænigma		Melodic Black Metal / Metalgaze Vallendusk - Black Clouds Gathering
	Post-Metal Obscure Sphinx - Void Mother		Power Metal Stratovarius - Nemesis
	Progressive Metal Leprous - Coal		Sludge / Stoner Metal Weedpecker - Weedpecker
	Thrash Metal Death Angel - The Dream Calls For Blood		Debut Carpe Noctem - In Terra Profugus
	Clandestine Cut Of The Year Pin-Up Went Down - B-Sides

Thank you all for voting and we hope you had as much fun as we did and maybe you discovered some new bands or reconnected with your old favorites. We also want to thank the bands for putting out some great music and letting their fans know about the Metal Storm Awards through their social media outlets.


In lieu of quoting all of their feedbacks or "vote for us" posts, we decided to list just a couple which stood out:

In Vain - brownie points

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Ænigma has been nominated in The Best Melodeath/Extreme Power/Gothenburg Metal Album category in the Metal Storm Awards 2013. Metal Storm is one of the world's largest metal webzines, and each year they run annual awards in February. Please help us out and cast a vote for Ænigma.

Empyrios - are dissing the genre

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Attention everyone, "ZION" has been chosen among the best top 10 Djent / Math Metal albums of 2013 on Metal Storm? Although this whole "djent" thing is getting rather stinky lately, we're in good company of heavyweights like TesseracT, Vildhjarta & Uneven Structure so it's indeed super cool. Toss your vote for us and spread the news? thanks!!

Obscure Sphinx - on being humble

Quote:
3rd place in The Best Post-Metal Album @ Metal Storm Awards 2013! Right after amazing albums by The Ocean and Cult Of Luna! We're honoured, thank you all for voting!

And last but not least - two of the best responses we read on the internet:

Vulture Industries - guitar give-away

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The Tower has been nominated best Avantgarde/experimental album of 2013 on the Metal Storm awards. All voters will be sent a free signature air guitar!

We are also happy to see our friends in Leprous nominated for best progressive album. Make sure to also pass them a vote!

SubRosa - awesome

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SubRosa has been nominated for the "Best Sludge/Stoner Metal Album of the Year" by Metal Storm.
Metal Storm has a sweet little spot in our heart because Senior Editor Susan Thieme interviewed us in the lady's bathroom of the Highline Bar in Seattle last year.

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And with this - the 2013 Metal Storm Awards are a wrap. But to tide you over until next year, we have something special in store to commemorate the 10 glorious years of the Award's existence - Stay tuned!