DISTORTED SOUND END OF YEAR AWARDS: Emily Coulter
Already a well respected photographer in the metal circuit, Emily Coulter joined Distorted Sound for another avenue to get her work published. Whilst primarily a photographer, Emily has taken to giving her insight to 2015 in metal. Let’s see what she made of the year!
BEST ALBUM
Silence in the Snow – Trivium
A tough one to call due to the amount of great albums that came out this year but TRIVIUM changed their sound in such an epic way that it’s hard to miss.
Silence In The Snow was released in October with singles such as Blind Leading The Blind and Until The World Goes Cold which have a real old school heavy metal element to it that is impossible not to sing along or headbang too. Matt Heafy‘s vocals are better than they have ever been in the band’s career and this certainly feels like a new beginning for the band.
MUSIC VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Cirice – GHOST
There’s nothing more creepy than a bunch of kids dressed up as various religious figures to even more haunting music. That whole sentence pretty much sums up GHOST‘s first music video Cirice from their new album Meliora which didnt show the band but featured new vocalist Papa Emeritus III singing to the doomy riffs. The video is a talent show with its various competitors followed by the kids creeping out the crowd and one special girl using a supernatural force on the crowd during the performance. No other band in metal apart from GHOST could do something like this.
GIG OF THE YEAR
MOTLEY CRUE @ Manchester Arena 03/11/2015
2015 is truly the end of an era for heavy rock band MOTLEY CRUE and Manchester Arena was one of the final stops on their closing world tour. Supported by the almighty ALICE COOPER playing a phenomenal supporting set, the CRUE came on with hits such as Girls Girls Girls, Wild Side and Same Ol Situation, closing with an amazing performance of Home Sweet Home in the middle of the crowd. Tommy Lee enchanted the crowd with his drum roller coaster as great as always and Vince Neil still has the same stage presence as he did in the late 80’s.
BEST FESTIVAL
Bloodstock Open Air Festival
Bloodstock Open Air is a firm favourite for anyone who likes heavy music. This years headliners were TRIVIUM, WITHIN TEMPTATION and ROB ZOMBIE on the main stage with DELAIN, FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE and GODFLESH taking over the S.O.P.H.I.E stage too. The festival run by metalheads is infamous for bin jousting and hearing the new breed of metal on each stage, there is nothing you will see anywhere else. Only problem with this year was the severe lack of sun screen which left many people looking like lobsters, but the super hot weather kept the moshing going.
BEST FESTIVAL PERFORMANCE
LAMB OF GOD – Download Festival
If you wasn’t watching LAMB OF GOD at Download Festival then where was you? The stage was so packed it had to be cordoned off, there’s no surprise with that when they have such a devout fan base in the UK. Vocalist Randy Blythe was performing at his best and the band played their heaviest show to date with songs such as Ghost Walking, Laid To Rest and new track 512 which the hyped up crowd adored. If there’s one thing this set proved its that the past few years events have not set them back, only made them stronger.
BEST LIVE PERFORMANCE
CARCASS – The Ritz, Manchester 30/10/2015
The Deathcrusher tour with CARCASS headlining was a tour that all death and grind fans have been waiting for ever since it was announced. The last show of the tour on Halloween eve at The Ritz in Manchester was packed and heavier than ever with a setlist of all kinds of fans when they played Unfit For Human Consumption, Incarnated Solvent Abuse and Heartwork. Jeff Walker is still the growling vocalist we all know and love with Bill Steer still pulls out the most iconic riffs and solo’s that got us listening to the band. The show was notable in it’s heaviness.
BEST NEWCOMER
PVRIS
There’s always that one band that Kerrang always plug and this year it was PVRIS.
The rock act from America enchanted fans this year with singles such as Holy and Fire which has catchy pop style vocals with harder guitars. Rock vocalist Lyndsey Gunnulfsen is joined by Alex Babinski and Brian McDonald in creating a unique but loveable music which fans of PARAMORE, TONIGHT ALIVE and WE ARE THE IN CROWD would adore. Expect big things from the band in 2016, they obviously see no chance of slowing down any time soon especially with big touring plans on the horizon.
