Iron Maiden and Bullet For My Valentine to go head-to-head at Metal Hammer Golden God Awards

Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden and Bullet For My Valentine will go head-to-head in the Best UK Band category at this year’s Metal Hammer Golden God Awards. The bands face competition from Skindred, Architects and Bring Me The Horizon to win the coveted prize, which is voted for by readers of Metal Hammer magazine.

Publisher Chris Ingham revealed he was ‘thrilled’ to honour the rock legends with the nominations, which come in the magazine’s 25th year.

He said: ‘A whole quarter of a century ago, Metal Hammer magazine began and in that time we’ve worked with some of the biggest and best names in metal and rock music.

‘Some of those names will be joining us for the Metal Hammer Golden Gods and, whether they’re icons or rising stars, their tireless efforts to stay true to the most loyal fanbase around is a massive achievement and one we are thrilled to honour.’

In the Best International Band list, Avenged Sevenfold will take on Dimmu Borgir, Down, Children of Bodom and Stone Sour, while Machine Head, Cancer Bats, Rob Zombie, Skindred and Devildriver are all nominated in the Best Live Band Category.

The awards will be presented on June 13, 2011 at London’s IndigO2.

Best International Band:
Avenged Sevenfold
Dimmu Borgir
Stone Sour
Children Of Bodom
Down

Best UK Band sponsored by Roadrunner:
Iron Maiden
Bring Me The Horizon
Skindred
Architects
Bullet For My Valentine

Best Live Band:
Cancer Bats
Devildriver
Rob Zombie
Skindred
Machine Head

Best New Band:
The Defiled
Kvelertak
Tesseract
The Damned Things
Letlive

Best Underground:
Watain
Kylesa
Primordial
The Dead Lay Waiting
Clutch

Best Breakthrough Parkway Drive:
A Day To Remember
Sylosis
Sabaton
Volbeat

Shredder(s) sponsored by Blackstar:
Gus G (Firewind, Ozzy Osbourne)

Mark Tremonti (Alter Bridge)
Alexi Laiho (Children Of Bodom)
Mark Rizzo (Cavalera Conspiracy, Soulfly, Il Nino)
Synyster Gates (Avenged Sevenfold)

Metal As F**k:
Slayer
Behemoth
Slipknot
Zakk Wylde
Deftones

Event of the Year sponsored by Alchemy:
Rob Zombie’s return
Manowar’s return
System Of A Down reforming
The Big 4 UK announcement
Beavis And Butthead’s resurrection

Anthrax confirmed as HMS Hammer second stage headliners

Thrash metal icons and international rock gods Anthrax have been confirmed as the headline band for this year’s HMS Hammer second stage, part of the Metal Hammer Golden Gods award show. Now in its second year, the Golden God¹s second stage invites 500 lucky metal heads on board HMS Hammer, which sails up and down the river Thames for three hours docking at Indigo2 and depositing the bands and fans on board in time for the start of the award show. In honour of the legends that will be headlining this year¹s second stage, Metal Hammer magazine will be rebranding the boat HMS Anthrax. Anthrax¹s gig aboard HMS Anthrax will be the band¹s first outside of the US with new singer Dan Nelson, who joined the band in 2007 but has yet to tour the UK and Europe. The Metal Hammer Golden Gods 2009 take place on Monday 15th June at Indigo2, part of London¹s prestigious O2 complex. Also confirmed to perform aboard HMS Anthrax are cult Maryland rockers Clutch, Reading metal crew Malefice and deathcore upstarts Trigger The Bloodshed.