Tonight, metal fans all over the world are tuned into the spectacle that is the Metal Hammer Golden Gods awards show. The list of categories and nominees were:

Best New Band:

Zeal & Ardor
Venom Prison
Brutai
Puppy
Ocean Grove

Best Underground Band:

Perturbator
Neurosis
Royal Thunder
Pallbearer
Anaal Nathrakh

Best UK Band:

Bury Tomorrow
Architects
While She Sleeps
Tesseract
Orange Goblin

Best International Band presented by Nuclear Blast:

Metallica
Opeth
Alter Bridge
Avenged Sevenfold
Korn

Breakthrough:

Code Orange
Creeper
Oathbreaker
Ho99o9
Avatar

Best Live Band:

Steel Panther
letlive.
Killswitch Engage
Mastodon
Ghost

Dimebag Darrell ‘Shredder’:

Joel O’ Keeffe (Airbourne)
Kiko Loureiro (Megadeth)
Phil Manansala (Of Mice & Men)
Ben Bruce (Asking Alexandria)
Ben Weinman (The Dillinger Escape Plan)

 

Best Independent Label:

Nuclear Blast
Cooking Vinyl
Deathwish
Season Of Mist
Basick

 

Game Of The Year:

The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild
Overwatch
Mass Effect: Andromeda
Iron Maiden: The Legacy Of The Beast
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

With bands performing like Orange Goblin, Avatar, Clutch, and Mastodon (who will close out the show), and Chris Jericho (of WWE and Fozzy fame) hosting, tonight promises to be amazeballs.

And the awards given, in the order of presentation is/was……….

Best New Band:

Venom Prison

 

Best Underground Band:

Pallbearer

 

Best UK Band

Architects

Best Live Band:

Mastodon

Best International Band:

Avenged Sevenfold

Best Independent Label:

Nuclear Blast

Dimebag Darrell Shredder:

Joel O’Keeffe of Airbourne

Riff Lord:

Devin Townsend

Best Game:

Legacy of the Beast (The game dedicated to Iron Maiden)

 

Breakthrough:

Avatar

Defender of the Faith:

Ben Ward & Sandie Soriano (Crowd Funding for employees of TeamRock)

Inspiration:

Exodus

Best Album:

“Magma” by Gojira

Spirit of Hammer:

Prophets of Rage

Icon:

The Dillinger Escape Plan

Golden Gods:

Black Sabbath (Accepted by Tommy Iommi)

And that Beastlings, is the 2017 Metal Hammer Golden Gods awards show. Remember, support these bands. They make awesome music, and without your support they can’t make that music, they can’t tour, they can’t bring all of us pleasure in watching them. Support your local bands, indie bands, support bands who come through your city, buy their merch and albums. Give them a shot of making it as Golden Gods.