MS Awards 2019 - Staff Picks!!
| Written by: | ScreamingSteelUS |
| Published: | March 25, 2020 |
The 2019 Metal Storm Awards were our biggest yet - most categories, longest voting period (well, tied with the other leap years), and, though we haven't verified exactly, possibly the largest voter turnout we've had. 2019 was also bursting at the seams with high-quality metal releases that we were very eager to promote, so much so that, as always, the staff highlights article and the actual MSAs themselves were not enough to satisfy our urge to pitch things. These are the albums that we, the staff of Metal Storm, democratically determined to be the best in their respective categories.
2019 Metal Storm Staff Picks
 | Alternative Metal Soen - Lotus |  | Ambient / Drone / Noise Big Brave - A Gaze Among Them |
 | Avantgarde / Experimental Metal Katharos XIII - Palindrome |  | Black Metal The Great Old Ones - Cosmicism |
 | Death Metal Suffering Hour - Dwell |  | Djent / Math Metal Herod - Sombre Dessein |
 | Doom Metal Officium Triste - The Death Of Gaia |  | Extreme Doom Metal Esoteric - A Pyrrhic Existence |
 | Extreme Progressive Metal Disillusion - The Liberation |  | Folk / Pagan / Viking Metal Obsequiae - The Palms Of Sorrowed Kings |
 | Gothic Metal Idle Hands - Mana |  | Grindcore Full Of Hell - Weeping Choir |
 | Hard Rock Year Of The Goat - Novis Orbis Terrarum Ordinis |  | Hardcore / Metalcore / Deathcore The Acacia Strain - It Comes In Waves |
 | Heavy / Melodic Metal Spirit Adrift - Divided By Darkness |  | Industrial / Cyber / Electronic Metal Vous Autres - Champ Du Sang |
 | Melodeath / Extreme Power / Gothenburg Metal In Mourning - Garden Of Storms |  | Melodic Black Metal Wormwood - Nattarvet |
 | Metalgaze Numenorean - Adore |  | Post-Metal Cult Of Luna - A Dawn To Fear |
 | Power Metal Paladin - Ascension |  | Progressive Metal Borknagar - True North |
 | Sludge Metal This Gift Is A Curse - A Throne Of Ash |  | Stoner Metal Bees Made Honey In The Vein Tree - Grandmother |
 | Symphonic Metal Wilderun - Veil Of Imagination |  | Thrash Metal Possessed - Revelations Of Oblivion |
| Debut Idle Hands - Mana |  | Clandestine Cut Crypts - Promo / Demo |
And there you have it: the staff picks. It's worth noting that for the Gothic category we had to go into double-tiebreak overtime; we had great difficulty choosing between Idle Hands and Helevorn's Aamamata, and it wasn't that we were strongly divided against each other - just about all of us were individually torn between the two. It was only after a lot of hemming and hawing and an almost-literal coin toss that we finally declared Idle Hands the winner long after the other picks had been settled. It was a tough choice between two albums very similar in quality, if not in sound; for all intents and purposes, you may consider Idle Hands and Helevorn joint recipients of this honor.
 | Written on 25.03.2020 by I'm the reviewer, and that means my opinion is correct. |
Comments
Comments: 8
Visited by: 128 users
| musclassia Staff Posts: 7621  |
So unlike last year, I actually voted for more of the staff pick winners than general vote winners (7/27 vs 3/27); I guess actually being involved in the process this time round might help on that front.
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| ScreamingSteelUS Editor-in-Chief Admin Posts: 5923  |
After finally conquering that extra tr tag, it shows back up again... and the CC image is too large. Well, I need to go take a shower. If this is still a problem when I get back tomorrow, I'll fiddle with it some more.
---- "Earth is small and I hate it" - Lum Invader I'm the Agent of Steel.
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| nikarg Staff Posts: 7345  |
If I am not mistaken, this is the third album in a row by The Great Old Ones that gets staff picked.
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| Nejde Posts: 1695  |
As a Swede I always feel a little proud when Swedish bands get picked and praised and last year was apparently a good year for us with six staff picks. Also I feel a little extra for Cult of Luna since they are from my hometown of Umeå and all members are really nice and down to earth when you meet them. So maybe I'm a bit biased but for me they made AOTY (together with Wormwood)
---- Liebe ist für alle da.
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| Abattoir Staff Posts: 3695  |
Written by Nejde on 25.03.2020 at 19:23 Cult Of Luna are probably the most compelling pick for a winner, on both fronts.
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| quieted_darkness Posts: 232  |
Suffering Hour - Dwell is a far better choice than Cattle Decapitation - Death Atlas. Well done, staff.
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| nikarg Staff Posts: 7345 |
Written by quieted_darkness on 29.03.2020 at 01:54 Thank you. It was actually a head to head battle between Suffering Hour and Blood Incantation and SF only won by one vote.
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| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306  |
Obviously none of us agree 100% with the outcome of every category, but I think this is a great representation of what the year had to offer in terms of quality, ingenuity, and accessibility.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
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