Metal Hammer Golden Gods returns for 2017

The Golden Gods 2017

The Metal Hammer Golden Gods in association with Orange Amplification is back for another year.

The 15th annual event will take place at IndigO2 at The O2 in London on Monday, June 12 – and you can vote for your favourite artists now by visiting the Metal Hammer Golden Gods website.

Find a full list of nominations below.

Metal Hammer editor Merlin Alderslade says: “In December we were told that Metal Hammer may never exist again. What happened in the weeks and months after didn’t just show the power and strength of our scene when we come together, but showed the world that Metal Hammer is a central part of our community and can still make amazing things happen like no other magazine can.

“We were blown away by the amazing support everyone showed us, and with the magazine now back on shelves and stacked with the best in heavy music every month, we can’t wait to raise a glass to celebrate an amazing story and cement our comeback with a few thousand dear friends.

“You made this possible, and it’s time to show the world what we can do. Let’s party.”

Fozzy frontman and WWE megastar Chris Jericho will come straight from his appearance at this year’s Download to host the event – and he says he can’t wait to attend what will be an incredible night.

Jericho says: “Metal Hammer is back and so is Chris Jericho! And it’s gonna be amazing to host the comeback party on the 15th anniversary of the Golden Gods!

Metal Hammer call themselves the Defenders Of The Faith and I call myself Ian Hill, so it’s a perfect match yet again.

Metal Hammer is a torch bearer for metal and rock around the world – without them, heavy rock as we know it would be an entirely different place – a boring, stinky, One Direction-loving place. Let’s rock!”

Voting is now underway, so what are you waiting for? Choose your favourites and they could be picking up prizes at the metal event of the year!

Editorial-chosen awards include Riff Lord presented by Century Media, Defender Of The Faith presented by Orange Amplification, Album Of The Year, Icon, Inspiration, Spirit Of Hammer and The Golden God.

Metal Hammer Golden Gods full list of nominees

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

In Pictures: The Metal Hammer Golden Gods 2016

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.