We already told you who won the 2nd Annual Golden Gods Awards this past Thursday, but now it’s time to give you an inside look at how and where things went down. Metal Insider correspondent Carl Sundberg was there, and reports from Los Angeles.

Last night was perhaps the most epic night of 2010 for the heavy metal world. The 2nd annual Revolver Golden Gods Awards presented by Epiphone guitars went down at Club Nokia in LA and Metal Insider was live and on location.

Hosted by Andrew WK and WWE Superstar Chris Jericho, it was a star-studded evening of celebration and performances from some of the biggest names in heavy metal. In attendance: Ozzy Osbourne, Dave Mustaine, Slash, Dave Grohl, Lemmy, Ronnie James Dio, Rob Halford, Jonathan Davis of Korn, Marilyn Manson, Vinnie Paul, Zakk Wylde, Rob Zombie, Alice Cooper, Fear Factory, Alice in Chains, Deftones, As I Lay Dying, The Devil Wears Prada, and many, many more.

Before the show began, the rockstars began to arrive outside the club, complete with full scale paparazzi and crazed fans yelling and crowding the Black Carpet. That Metal Show from VH1 was broadcasting outside as well and was the best place to get a glimpse of a metal legends outside, as their stage was elevated above the Black Carpet.

The night kicked off with Zakk Wylde playing the Star Spangled Banner and ended with a slamming set from Rob Zombie complete with his new touring drummer, Joey Jordison of Slipknot. In between were stellar performances from Slash (along with Lemmy and Dave Grohl for a couple songs), As I Lay Dying, The Devil Wears Prada, Fear Factory and Brian Posehn’s All Star Band.

As it was a televised awards ceremony, which will air in May on VH1 Classic, the night plodded along at times, and at the beginning suffered from poor audio and a handful of moments had to be recreated with multiple takes, including the song from Brian Posehn’s All Star Band (which included Scott Ian of Anthrax and Dethklok creator Brendon Small). The crowd was a little hostile at times because of this and especially after the announcement of the Dallas Cowboys as winners of the Most Metal Athlete award, but what can you expect from a room full of metalheads? It was intriguing to witness the actual taping of an awards ceremony, even if the crowd got a little mean at times. Ultimately it was action-packed night of heavy metal thunder.

One pretty amazing moment was when Ronnie James Dio took the stage to accept the award for Best Vocalist. The crowd went apeshit. No one expected to see Dio at the awards show, as he’s been battling cancer for the last few months. But he seemed to be in good spirits and said he was looking forward to recording new music and taking the stage again soon. It was also pretty cool when Robert Englund, who played Freddy Krueger from the original Nightmare on Elm Street movies, came out – razor glove and all – to receive the “Honorary Headbanger Award.” He’s a lot older now these days, but he’s still got the comic-terror look about him, and was definitely an unexpected moment of the night.

The real party, however, was in the VIP section, where fans mingled amongst legends, upstairs and tucked away in a swank rock-infused bar. While grabbing a Bud Light, it wasn’t uncommon to see Jerry Cantrell, Slash or Lemmy walk by. Everywhere you looked was another rock god hanging out and talking with friends, fans and beautiful women. Heavy metal has always been the bastard child of the music world, but thanks to Revolver and Epiphone, it now has it’s own legit awards ceremony, where fans and bands come together to celebrate the glory and fury of a style of music that more people are becoming fans of every day. And with this year marking only the second year of these awards ceremony of such nature in the states, no doubt it’s just warming up. And hopefully the Golden Gods will get bigger every year.

Don’t forget to tune into VH1 Classic May 22nd for the official broadcast of the 2nd Annual Revolver Golden Gods Awards.