Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards 2012 - Part 1

Perhaps the most important date in the Heavy Metal calender, the 10th Golden God Awards came once again to the extraordinate setting of the Indig02 at the 02 Arena in London.

11th June 2012 saw the battle-lines drawn for what is considered a wide-open award ceremony, with all nationalities legible for nominations, this year saw representatives from England, the USA, Sweden, Canada, Germany, Wales, Australia, Finland and Norway amongst others.

The awards itself had all forms of titans across the Metal genre from the bands to the musicians themselves, the fans giving support and the fabled HMS Hammer breaking waves down the River Thames with bands such as Attica Rage, Fozzy (feat. legendary WWF wrestler Chris Jericho), Butcher Babies, Evil Scarecrow amongst other sensational acts giving entertainment on the boat ride.

Metal Hammer itself celebrates 25 years of mass mayhem this year, the monthly-produced magazine changed the course of Metal history indefinitely. Published by Future Publishing in London, the franchise is also marketed in other countries but by different publishers. The irony of it outselling rivals Kerrang! and NME is that it is viewed as the most underground of the three, but they don't have such an international presence as the Metal Hammer in Germany has led its market since 1984.

Since that fabled beginning, Metal Hammer was first published at around 1 million issues and due to its vast multi-lingual editions published in 11 global languages, it spread to Israel, Japan, Serbia, Spain, The Netherlands, Italy, Poland, Hungary, France and the Sovient Union (now Russian Federation).

Presented by Orange Amplification and in association with Hobgoblin, the Golden Gods are Metal's equivalent of the Ivor Novello Award and the Brit Award, but with more brutality and excitement. It places the fans right at the heart of awarding some of the world's greatest talents, who have excelled beyond mere recognition.

With a handful of live bands, a sensational atmosphere to accompany the ceremony and a night of joyous jubilation at heralding one of music's finest genres and rock's 'genre that never died', the Golden God Awards are this year opened up by Watain, a Swedish Black Metal band who recently have surged forward and insanely became a huge hit, inbetween the awards given out, fellow countrymen Ghost, Sabaton and American's Biohazard provided entertainment for the live sets during the award ceremony, with American Thrashers Anthrax (one of the big four) closing up the night's tremendous reception and it's exceptional moment in history.

Amongst the bands, media, fans and other personnel was comedian Bill Bailey and WWF star (and bandmember of Fozzy) Chris Jericho; the latter being the Award's hosts (last year was Alice Cooper) and with guest appearances from  Killswitch Engage and guitarist legend Gus G.

The awards were voted by you the fans and some categories by the good samaritans aka the Metal Hammer team; lovely chaps.

Part 2 of the Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards will feature the winners, more background information on the event, its sponsors and hosts and of course, in the later parts: interviews and photos w