First Annual Australian
Heavy Metal Music Awards

Review and Pics by Brat

With a healthy dose of cynicism I attended the first Annual Australian Heavy Metal Music Awards in Canberra the night before Metal for the Brain (MFTB). Brought to us by the Australian edition of Kerrang Magazine and the organisers of MFTB, I decided to give our scene some support and cast my vote in the categories even though I didn’t think any of the people and bands I voted for would get a mention. How wonderfully was I surprised.

The awards opened with Josh Nixon of POD PEOPLE introducing the "ALL STAR BAND aka the mediocre star band" who warmed up the crowd that was taking a little longer to collect than expected with JUDAS PRIEST’s Breaking the Law, SLAYER’s Black Magic and PANTERA’s Walk.

The awards also had a lovely sponsorship by Jägermeister, so after a shot of yay-grrr-my-ster and a vodka shot chaser, I was ready for the awards.

MCs for the evening were Josh and Lucy (Lucifer) of ARMOURED ANGEL who kept me in giggles with their accidental comedy routine. As the nominees were read out for each category, I quickly scribbled my notes but unfortunately I missed some names.

Nominees included:

Best guitarist

Nominees included:

The award was accepted by the producer of Severance, "DW Norton Esquire".

Best vocalist

Nominees included:

The award was accepted by Stuart Marshall "looking somewhat like a black condom". He was wearing a Wacken Open Air shirt–all good in my books.

Best drummer

The nominees I heard included:

Keyboardist

Josh commented on receiving many votes stating "keyboards are shit and don’t belong in metal. Hasn’t anyone heard of Priest? Maiden? Hello?".

Nominees included:

All of the nominees except for Lachlan Mitchell are also lead singers of their bands.

Best video clip

After "Paris Hilton" was yelled from the audience the real nominees were read out.

Needing a break from the endless speeches that would put the Academy Awards to shame (note sarcasm here), KILL FOR SATAN provided us with a much-needed respite to quench our thirsts…Where did those Jägermeister girls go?

Nominees included:

THE AMENTA’s CD Occasus is available through French label Listenable Records.

Best live band

Nominees included:

"Winning by 1 vote over ALARUM is DUNGEON."

Best album

At this stage Lucy thanked all the supporters of the awards–Kerrang magazine; Alchemist for Metal for the Brain; Jägermeister and its lovely ladies; "and Josh Nixon for pulling it together. If we don’t do it, no one else will".

Best band

Nominees included:

Josh tried reading the achievements of the first inductees into the Hall of Fame, but he only got through what looked to be one long paragraph on the page he was holding before scanning the rest of the page and giving up while beckoning MORTAL SIN on stage to accept their awards. If you’d like to read more about MORTAL SIN see our interview here.

And so the official part of the night was over. I breathed a sigh of relief for not having the BUTTERFLY EFFECTs and SUNK LOTOs of the Australian ‘metal’ scene taking all the glory and spent the night hanging with some interstate friends I’d be too busy to chat with the next day while MORTAL SIN blasted the stage.