Written by Uldreth on 15.01.2015 at 10:40

God these choices are even more boring than I expected.

To be honest, I applaud the effort, but I don't think this is a good idea, the normal MS awards are, because there is always a fine choice there, but the winner is always determined by popularity, not merit, which is also fine, since at least less popular bands get exposure, but looking at the melodeath section makes me want to cry... At least more obscure genres (or despised, in the case of -core) do work better.

I swear the anthology awards joke about Korpiklaani became reality with Amon Amarth lol.

Yeah it's kind of a bad idea. The whole point of the MS awards is really to shed some light on some unknown bands. You can't really get around the fact the biggest names that year will win but at least people might actually take a look at some other bands they haven't heard of, but this format though it doesn't work at all, aside from being an affirmation of how awful people's taste is. I would have liked to have seen hand-picked bands from the last 10 years rather than this automated selection. While it might be good for site traffic it's also kind of bad as it's a low quality set of choices with tons of repeated bands and looks like it shows heavy favouritism by the site.

Written by Guest on 15.01.2015 at 13:50
I would have liked to have seen hand-picked bands from the last 10 years rather than this automated selection. While it might be good for site traffic it's also kind of bad as it's a low quality set of choices with tons of repeated bands and looks like it shows heavy favouritism by the site.

I must say I agree with you but I try to not think too much of it. I just see it as a cute novelty done between the process of the current MSA. You know the workload, so you know how this sort of thing can easily be thrown into second priority level. Going for handpicks would have been awesome but also a shitload of work. xD

Written by X-Ray Rod on 15.01.2015 at 14:01


I must say I agree with you but I try to not think too much of it. I just see it as a cute novelty done between the process of the current MSA. You know the workload, so you know how this sort of thing can easily be thrown into second priority level. Going for handpicks would have been awesome but also a shitload of work. xD

Yeah the workload + this year's would have been a lot. Perhaps just each staff / elite's fave 10 albums from each year or something would have worked quite nicely too then.

At any rate this award has me torn between Isa and Kenose. Probably the first time I'm actually going to have to think about what I pick =P

Written by Guest on 15.01.2015 at 14:04

At any rate this award has me torn between Isa and Kenose. Probably the first time I'm actually going to have to think about what I pick =P

No contest for me on that one. Kenose all the way.

Written by X-Ray Rod on 15.01.2015 at 14:06


No contest for me on that one. Kenose all the way.

Maybe I'll toss a coin =P

Doom and Symphonic Metal were actually pretty hard for me, i had a few almost equal options in each.

Written by BloodTears on 15.01.2015 at 11:59

How did Evergrey's Monday Morning Apocalypse won prog in 2006? Damn! That was the year I joined MS

there was one year when wrote in guy wrote Metallica - Ride The Lighting and other guy wrote Marcel delete my post LOL

Written by Guest on 15.01.2015 at 14:04

At any rate this award has me torn between Isa and Kenose. Probably the first time I'm actually going to have to think about what I pick =P

Rod is dumb, the answer is Isa. The answer has always been Isa

Written by Alex F on 15.01.2015 at 14:31

Rod is dumb, the answer is Isa. The answer has always been Isa

The contest for me was never between Isa and Kenose, but between Isa and AEO
I agree though, after careful re-listening, it was Isa that prevailed.

Some of the whining in this thread is almost as funny as some of the albums that won.

Almost as funny as the usual knee-jerk reaction whining from some of the higher-ups about the so-called whining. I love it when a formula doesn't change.

Written by Guest on 15.01.2015 at 18:35

Almost as funny as the usual knee-jerk reaction whining from some of the higher-ups about the so-called whining. I love it when a formula doesn't change.

i wasn't whining. i was grinning. as someone else has put it, 10 years awards, "no doubt the whining would be ten-fold."

Written by BitterCOld on 15.01.2015 at 18:57

i wasn't whining. i was grinning. as someone else has put it, 10 years awards, "no doubt the whining would be ten-fold."

I don't really get what's funny about it. Expecting people not to comment on the farcical, broken nature of the nominees would be funny to me. There's nothing funny about what's a clear embarrassment to the site. This reminds me of when members here open threads to mock those terrible "top x metal bands of all time" articles made by Q Magazine and the like. Only this time it's MS that's doing it.

Written by Guest on 15.01.2015 at 19:02


I don't really get what's funny about it. Expecting people not to comment on the farcical, broken nature of the nominees would be funny to me. There's nothing funny about what's a clear embarrassment to the site. This reminds me of when members here open threads to mock those terrible "top x metal bands of all time" articles made by Q Magazine and the like. Only this time it's MS that's doing it.

It's not as if we didn't expect it. We knew. It is what our voters voted for, after all. No matter what the process, people always whine.

There is a ton of work that goes into even regular MSAs, which launch in two weeks, so this approach was easy to do and acknowledged the users of the site. Further it could be used as a launchpad for all sorts of potential offshoot articles, Staff picks or individual picks articles/lists.

There should be no whining ... these are the winners YOU GUYS/GALS voted on ... and our deepest apologies if some of you current (complaining) users were still in Elementary School when some of those were voted on and you feel out of touch or have no clue about the impact those albums made back then.

I'm not quite sure what "impact" Amon Amarth made with their last 5 albums. I must have slept through that class

I get that you want to discredit the comments here as "whining" but I don't think complaining about the tabloid nature of this particular award is quite the same as your average "why wasn't x-band nominated" moaning. I find it strange there's not a swelling of embarrassment being associated with this from high-ups, as I certainly do as just a regular user. But that's my own issue after all

Imagine '10th Anniversary Metal Storm Awards' without nominations, only write-in votes in every category. That would be interesting.

^This guy. I'd have preferred that actually. Not complaining though. And it would be just as much work for the staff ( I think.)

Written by Guest on 15.01.2015 at 19:14
I'm not quite sure what "impact" Amon Amarth made with their last 5 albums.

I'm pretty sure that comment was made tongue in cheek...

Seeing the winners all listed together really puts the evolution of MS and also my own time here in a cool perspective, as I started here in 2004. Some of these albums I haven't listened to or even thought about for years, but remember loving/not loving dozens of them. So cool to check out a few tracks from them before casting a vote, as so many had some glimmer of or huge memory associated with them.

Written by X-Ray Rod on 15.01.2015 at 19:43

I'm pretty sure that comment was made tongue in cheek...

I truly hope so

So celebrating the MSA's 10 year anniversary was a mistake, and the MSA are an embarrassment because we don't just automatically pick the top 10 most obscure releases from every genre.

That's the gist of what I'm getting out of these recent comments...

Man, I guess the fact that obscure write ins never win and you people always pick from our selection of 10 is just too much proof of that.

Written by Guest on 15.01.2015 at 14:06

Written by X-Ray Rod on 15.01.2015 at 14:06


No contest for me on that one. Kenose all the way.

Maybe I'll toss a coin =P

And then?

Nice idea, i like that, but choosing in some categories is harsh, i don't want to choose especially in The Best Melodeath / Gothenburg Metal Album which i'm stuck. Be'lakor is something unique and unforgettable and Amon Amarth is legendary (except the last album which i can throw away of my list instantly )

Written by psykometal on 15.01.2015 at 19:52

So celebrating the MSA's 10 year anniversary was a mistake, and the MSA are an embarrassment because we don't just automatically pick the top 10 most obscure releases from every genre.

That's the gist of what I'm getting out of these recent comments...

Man, I guess the fact that obscure write ins never win and you people always pick from our selection of 10 is just too much proof of that.

Whilst I wouldn't go as far as to call it an embarrassment, do you honestly think that there is anything to come from listing like 5 Amon Amarth albums though?

Everyone knows that band and whilst I actually LIKE that band, musically they are quite banal and by the numbers. The point is not about deliberately going obscure, but what point is in putting forward stuff everyone knows and isn't stellar in the first place?

Written by Uldreth on 15.01.2015 at 19:57

Written by psykometal on 15.01.2015 at 19:52

So celebrating the MSA's 10 year anniversary was a mistake, and the MSA are an embarrassment because we don't just automatically pick the top 10 most obscure releases from every genre.

That's the gist of what I'm getting out of these recent comments...

Man, I guess the fact that obscure write ins never win and you people always pick from our selection of 10 is just too much proof of that.

Whilst I wouldn't go as far as to call it an embarrassment, do you honestly think that there is anything to come from listing like 5 Amon Amarth albums though?

Everyone knows that band and whilst I actually LIKE that band, musically they are quite banal and by the numbers. The point is not about deliberately going obscure, but what point is in putting forward stuff everyone knows and isn't stellar in the first place?

Unfortunately all those AA albums won in their respective years. So, they were put in there just like all the other categories consist of only the winners.

Written by psykometal on 15.01.2015 at 19:52

So celebrating the MSA's 10 year anniversary was a mistake, and the MSA are an embarrassment because we don't just automatically pick the top 10 most obscure releases from every genre.

That's the gist of what I'm getting out of these recent comments...

Man, I guess the fact that obscure write ins never win and you people always pick from our selection of 10 is just too much proof of that.

If you came to that conclusion then you did so because of your own preconceptions about me, not because of what I said. My main issue is having multiple bands in the same category and not giving any other bands a chance because we're just celebrating bands that already won. If you want to go off on a diatribe about obscure bands not being here then go ahead but I have nothing to say on that issue, and never did.

Well, this is the 10th Anniversary MSA. It's to showcase the last 10 years of winners. Not our fault that Amon Amarth dominates the Melodeath cat every year they release something.

Should we have said "Well shit, the Melodeath cat is a lil one sided. Perhaps we should pick the runners up for that cat instead..."

And you would be correct, Joe. See my response to Uldreth...

Edit: And actually you're not the only one coming off that way.

Written by psykometal on 15.01.2015 at 20:00

Well, this is the 10th Anniversary MSA. It's to showcase the last 10 years of winners. Not our fault that Amon Amarth dominates the Melodeath cat every year they release something.

Should we have said "Well shit, the Melodeath cat is a lil one sided. Perhaps we should pick the runners up for that cat instead..."

Perhaps you should have chosen the highest scoring / most voted AA album and went with that, then chosen the 4 other albums that received the most votes of the other years that wasn't AA. That would have been the obvious choice to me.