News

Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards Nominees Announced

• 5th Apr 2016

With the mighty Metal Hammer magazine celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, their annual Golden God Awards 2016 are going to be the biggest ever.

Taking place on Monday June 13th, this year’s awards are moving to a new home at the legendary Eventim Apollo (formerly Hammersmith Apollo) for the first time in the event’s history.

“The Metal Hammer Golden Gods are our way of saying thank you to the genuine fanatics out there who’ve supported us for 30 years,” says Metal Hammer editor-in-chief and TeamRock Executive Director Alexander Milas.

“It’s a party, it’s an award show, it’s a horn-throwing salute to the great and good of our community who’ve made our music the greatest cultural phenomena of the 20th, and now, 21st centuries. It’s only fitting that we’re holding them at the Eventim Hammersmith Apollo. As a cultural landmark and a living institution, it’s hosted some of the greatest, most iconic artists of our age, including the dearly departed Lemmy Kilmister who we’ll be paying tribute to on the night. With the help of our friends at Eventim we’ll be putting proceeds from our £6.66 cover charge towards TeamRock’s very own charity, the Heavy Metal Truants, whose annual cycling pilgrimage from London to Download Festival has already raised £232,000 for Teenage Cancer Trust, Nordoff Robbins and Childline. It’s not just going to be a great night, it’s going to support some great causes, too.”

There are 17 awards in total, with 10 fan-voted:

Best New Band
Honouring the new noise that’s been making our jaws drop.
The Black Queen
Black Peaks
Creeper
Cane Hill
Heck

Best Underground
Hailing the bands who are doing great things beneath metal’s crusty surface
Tribulation
Sunn O)))
Rotting Christ
Myrkur
Enslaved

Best UK Band
More evidence that the UK scene is on fire right now
Tesseract
The Prodigy
Asking Alexandria
Cradle Of Filth
Architects

Best International Band
Kicking ass around the world – the bands that have dominated the globe this year
Babymetal
Killswitch Engage
Amon Amarth
Ghost
Slayer

Breakthrough
High-fiving the bands blazing trails and cruising into metal’s upper leagues
We Came As Romans
Deafheaven
Beartooth
Northlane
Avatar

Best Live Band
Through showmanship or smashing stages, fistbumps for these venue-wrecking heavyweights
Nightwish
Parkway Drive
Anthrax
Lamb Of God
Bring Me The Horizon

Dimebag Darrell Shredder Award
Think guitar heroics are for golden oldies? We honour these modern day six-string mavericks
Alpha (Ghost)
Lzzy Hale (Halestorm)
Kristan Dawson (Bury Tomorrow)
Graham ‘Pin’ Pinney (Sikth)
Joe Duplantier (Gojira)

Best Independent Label
Repping for the people on the frontlines of the world’s metal scenes
Holy Roar
UNFD
Basick
Prosthetic
Season Of Mist

Best Video
Giving props to the bands that have gone beyond the call of visual duty
Parkway Drive – Vice Grip
Iron Maiden – Speed Of Light
Slayer – Repentless
Anthrax – Blood Eagle Wings
New Years Day – I’m About To Break You

Best Videogame
Dedicated to the games that have turned our digits to mush over the past 12 months
Until Dawn
Star Wars: Battlefront
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
Destiny: The Taken King
Fallout 4

There are also 7 editorial categories selected by a panel of Hammer’s finest:

Best Album – Dedicated to the very best album released during the last year, this remains one of the most prestigious awards of the night, with previous winners including everyone from Faith No More to Lamb Of God.

Riff Lord – Every great metal band has a great guitarist, but who is a true god on the axe? This year’s winner will be joining the likes of Slash, Dave Mustaine and last year’s winner, Brian May!

Inspiration – Awarded to an artist who isn’t just a hero to us, but to the countless bands that have been inspired by them over the years. Twisted Sister, Paradise Lost and Tom G Warrior are just some of the previous winners.

Icon – When a heavyweight transcends their own scene to become a true symbol of everything we love about heavy music – a true measuring stick for metal itself.

Global Metal Award – Dedicated to bands who have had to fight twice as hard to get their art recognised in their homeland – a symbol of metal’s ability to break down all boundaries.

Spirit Of Hammer – A special award given to a person or people who understand and embody everything we hold dear in metal. See previous, legendary winners including Sir Christopher Lee and Brian Blessed!

The Golden God – The Big One. An award given only to the mightiest, most important names in our world – those that have come to define heavy music over the past 40 decades – names such as previous winners Dave Mustaine, Kerry King, Joey DeMaio and the one and only Lemmy.