Golden Gods 2015 Guide: Best Live Band

Orange Amplification Presents the Metal Hammer Golden Gods In Association with World Of Warships is taking place on 15th June in London and we want YOU to choose the winners. There are eleven voted categories that we need your help with, and here’s the guide to the Best Live category.

Cast your votes in the Best Live Band category here.

**Parkway Drive **For a band as heavy as Parkway Drive, their ability to make gigs so much fun is unusual. Metal gigs can be many things – brutal, bone breaking, dangerous – but not always entertainment in the classic sense of the word, which is what sets the Aussie metalcore merchants apart from the crowd. Every Parkway gig is a party, and with the band stepping up to bigger venues and larger audiences, the shows have become even more of a celebration on a grander scale. Fun, fuck off big riffs, fire and pyro – what’s not to like?

**Meshuggah **The Swedish groove-heavy, progressive metal machines celebrated their 25th anniversary at the end of last year with a show at London’s historic Roundhouse that all but cemented their position as one of the greatest live bands on the planet. It’s not just the brutality of seeing one of metal’s most extreme acts up close and personal, it’s not just the dizzying level of musicianship on display or the light show that, along with the music, makes you feel like you have been transported into a futuristic nightmare, it’s all of these things combined that make Meshuggah the masters of the live arena.

**Killer Be Killed **If you were to name some of your favourite live bands ever, it’s a fairly safe bet that The Dillinger Escape Plan, Mastodon and Sepultura would be pretty high up on the list. So when Max Cavlaera, Troy Sanders and Greg Puciato join forces to co-front a band the potential for it to go off live is massive. Seeing the band get together and bash out their awesome debut album in front of a packed crowd at the Soundwave Festival was not only a highlight, but it made us hungry for repeat performances here in the UK.

**Of Mice & Men **Last year’s Restoring Force album gave OM&M the platform to step up and become a world-class live band. The skills were honed on a European tour opening for nu-metal behemoths Linkin Park in arenas, where the band won over vast majorities of a partisan crowd with their stomping anthems. The band’s biggest UK headlining tour followed, with Austin Carlile and co. destroying some of the most prestigious venues in the country. The scary thing for the opposition is; they’re only going to get bigger and better.

**Devin Townsend **Heavy Devy has long been one of the most inspiring performers in our world, and he continues to deliver the goods in the live arena whether it’s with his solo band on the main stage of Sonisphere at Knebworth House or spectacularly bringing Ziltoid to life at The Royal Albert Hall. It’s always a heady cocktail of swearing, silliness and songs from some of the most brilliant and bonkers back catalogues in metal. Unpredictable, unique and unusual Devin Townsend is a true one off.

To vote in the Golden Gods and win tickets to the ceremony head over here now.

Stephen Hill

Since blagging his way onto the Hammer team a decade ago, Stephen has written countless features and reviews for the magazine, usually specialising in punk, hardcore and 90s metal, and still holds out the faint hope of one day getting his beloved U2 into the pages of the mag. He also regularly spouts his opinions on the Metal Hammer Podcast.