Headbangers’ Brawl is a weekly column where Metal Insider’s contributors take a moment to debate and analyze opposing sides of a topical issue occurring in the world of metal and/or the music industry.
Yup, it’s that time of year again. The nominees for the 6th annual Revolver Golden Gods Awards were announced this week. Thus, the Metal Insider crew is keeping with the tradition of debating who they each think should win and who actually will. So check out the list of nominees one more time, get over the fact that some of the nominees are well-deserved and others are so-so, and check out our predictions for this year’s Golden Gods by clicking on the page numbers below.
Album of the Year
Zach: I say this every year, but 9 out of 10 times this theory is proven correct: bands that have the most active fans who read Revolver are the ones who win big at the Golden Gods. It’s a theory that explains why Avenged Sevenfold have won big in the past (hell, they pretty much swept the 2011 awards). So the biggest prediction I’ll make regarding this year’s awards is that A7X will likely win most (if not all) the categories they’re nominated for (in case you didn’t count, they lead the nominees with seven nominations). And that I believe will include “Album Of The Year” for Hail To The King.
With that said, the album that has the next best chance of winning is Black Sabbath’s 13, and rightfully so. Not only is it the pioneers of metal’s first album in 35 years with Ozzy Osbourne, but it’s a damn good album that does Sabbath’s legacy justice (in my opinion at least). Plus, it was named Revolver’s #1 album of 2013.
Matt: I’m sure Sabbath have “Album of the Year” in the bag, mostly because of 13 being named #1 in the magazine. And that’d be swell. But I also think that Five Finger Death Punch have potential to win for their two albums for no other reason than the band seems to pop up everywhere all the time and the fact that both albums have sold tremendously well, so the band has made more than a few new fans. Not to mention they were also included on Revolver’s list of top albums for last year.
Kodi: Oh, come on. It’s Sabbath.
Bram: Personally, I enjoyed the Queens of the Stone Age album more than any other album on this list, but this is a populist awards ceremony, and it’s not like QOTSA are anywhere near as popular as most of the other bands on this list. Sabbath should and probably will win for posterity, but I could see how some might think that the ambition of Five Finger Death Punch’s double-album makes them award-worthy.
