Always one to openly speak his mind, ISIS’ Aaron Turner had some criticism for the less than stellar inaugural Revolver Golden Gods Awards, despite taking a prize home himself. From IndiePit:
All of us felt like it was sort of a ridiculous event. I mean it’s great that we’re exposed, perhaps, to more people because of something like that, but at the same time, it’s like, the award itself felt kind of meaningless. A lot of the other awards there I was kind of dubious about too. Like, for instance, the ‘Hottest Chick in Metal’ award. Like, that has no fucking relevance and, to me, is actually kind of insulting. It has nothing to do with the music really — it doesn’t even seem to have anything to do with metal. And I feel like it was kind of demeaning to the woman as well. Obviously she was a willing participant, but I’m just using that as an example of the preposterousness of the event.
The event certainly didn’t live up to the dream of having an American version of Britain’s long-running Metal Hammer Golden Gods. With no formal voting system (either by critics and industry peers or fans) and, as Turner points out, many silly (and heavily-sponsored) categories, the event came off more as hastily put together and superficial than an awards show with the gravitas you’d expect from a credible publication like Revolver. Not to mention MTV2’s glib, heavily condensed broadcast. The entire event could have been so much more, and its goofy, predictable “metal” tone undermines what serious heavy acts like ISIS have been doing for years.
