Australian Metal Awards 2009!

I went to the first ever Australian Metal Awards with my best friend Sami on Saturday. I have photos! Too many photos actually... I haven’t uploaded any of them yet... And have no idea when I will be doing that because I am going away for the weekend, tonight I have the VIP party at Galaxy, and tomorrow night I'm going shopping for a TV... Anyway, the gig part of the awards was fucking awesome! The awards part was disorganised and poorly planned.... They had the "stage" on the third story - where only the VIP could see anything... We had to go to the second story bar on the right of the building, and even then we couldn’t really see anything. I think if they had have regulated that part of the awards they would have been better. They also needed their microphones to be louder... People mostly kept drinking because we couldn’t hear what was being said.... So you cheered and wolf whistled and clapped when you heard the name of a winner you liked.... or just because everyone else was. Realistically, they should have blocked off the bar on the left and held it there... they had three bars in the public area, so this wouldn’t have been a problem. I think that is the biggest problem I had with the Awards. They had some technical difficulties with the big screen so they posted the intro video on YouTube...



We left before Sadistik Exekution played. They took ages and ages to come on stage... it may have been technical difficulties, but it wasn’t announced. We had to catch buses and trains home, so after like 45 minutes of waiting, we started walking to the bus stop... one of the band members came on stage and fiddled with his guitar for 5 minutes, but that is all I’ve ever seen of that band. I have a little rule of not buying band tshirts unless I’ve seen the band.... wonder what I do with my AMA SadEx shirt now? LOL luckily it’s already my sleep shirt LOL I bought an AMA 09 shirt for $35 - they are selling the leftovers for $10 now... I KNEW I SHOULD HAVE BOUGHT THE OUROBOROS SHIRT! ;D no drama... they are selling hoodies to apparently... I want one!

Okay, for the good stuff... we got there on time (missed the bloody door prize as we couldn’t find our bus grrr!) so we saw all the bands, excepting SadEx. The bands playing were: Sadistik Exekution, A Secret Death, Chaos Divine, Five Star Prison Cell, Eyefear, Death Audio, Bane of Isildur, Ouroboros. Of those I particularly wanted to see Ouroboros (seen ‘em before and loved it!) and Eyefear (who I had heard on JJJ and had planned to see at Abduction one nite but had a change of plans). I loved them!! I liked most of the bands actually... Bane of Isildur were great! Good Viking metal! it was great to see parents there... we shared our balcony with the band's mum and dad... these old conservative couple rocking out supporting their son... fantastic! And I loved the music too... mmm I think it was Eyefear (I need to check my photos) who had the lead singer with the hair that reached his ankles? Seriously, he looked like a ring wraith... it was awesome, and I was mesmerised.... and his voice was very unexpected... you know how sometimes you get a mental image when you hear a voice? Or you get a mental sound when you see a singer? Well it didn’t match LOL but it worked!! He slinked around that stage, his hair flying like a cape, and sung in his unexpected voice... plus, one of the band members had lights on his guitar/bass/whateverthefuck... fun times! Ouroboros were terrific!! Blew me away - again... love these guys... Also liked Death Audio, and other one... and god, one of the guys in one of the bands (gotta check my photos) was so fucking hot... seriously, looked like Jensen Ackles if he had been doing some good solid work for the last ten years.... nice and built! yumyum! There were a couple of hot guys there actually... not half as many as the All Hallows Eve Ball the weekend before (that was heaven for both boys and girls... discovered men look hot in corsets that weekend! LOL) but enough that I wasn’t bored... it was funny seeing the cross culture comparisons.... you had your guys with long fluffy blonde hair and demin vests, your staunch metal blokes with their band shirts and their beers, your Gothed up, your typical hardcore types... and the women were just as diverse. I guess most of the gigs I go to are one specific genre... like I might go to a death metal one night, and thrash the next... anyway, I digress... the highlight of my night was seeing Chaos Divine! Brilliant!! Loved them!! Decided on the spot I MUST buy their album.... (I couldn't find them at jbhi-fi last night *sigh*). And they won best album and best overall band! Oh, and Dave won best vocalist... I concur!! I wish they lived on this coast instead of Perth... wanna see them again! Oh, I found their fan page on facebook, and now Dave Anderton is my friend on facebook! Wacked! ;D

anyway, here are the winners... I'll post the photos next week....

Best Metal Fan/ Web/ Magazine:
Metal Obession.net

Most Popular Merch:
Psycroptic

Best Album Cover:
Psycroptic - (Ob)Servant

Best Band Name:
Psycroptic

Best Film Clip:
Psycroptic – “Initiate”

Best Producer / Recording Engineer:
Jarrad Hearman (Sing Sing Studios) – “Avalon” Chaos Divine

Best Drummer:
David Horgan – Ouroboros

Best Bass Player:
Michael Conti – Ouroboros,

Best Regional Band:
Alchemist

Best Youth Band:
Asphyxia

Best Export:
Psycroptic

Best Live Band:
Psycroptic

Best Guitarist:
Jimmy Lardner-Brown – Killrazer

Best Vocalist:
Dave Anderton – Chaos Divine

Best Keyboard Player:
Chris Stevenson - The Eternal

Best New Band:
Death Audio

Song of the Year:
“Refuse the Sickness” – Chaos Divine

Best Unsigned Band:
Ouroboros

Best Album:
“Avalon” – Chaos Divine

Overall Best Band 2009:
Chaos Divine



Congrats to all the winners... Well except Psycroptic because they were still in Bali, and they kept winning things... But weren't there LOL


I hope to see good things next year!! These awards have such potential!! (stupid 3rd story stage *sigh*) and I think it is a great thing for the aussie metal scene!! Bring it on!