2026 Metal Academy Awards Discussion - The Sphere Edition

With Ben busy beavering away on developing the new site, I thought I would instigate the threads for the "Metal Academy Releases of the Year Awards" and begin them early in the hope of drumming up some interest in the concept and in promoting new releases.

There will be a "Release of the Year" for each clan and I will also compile a Top 10 for the site as a whole. In addition there will be an award for the "Cover of the Year" for each clan. These will be determined by the site rating for each release, based on a to-be-determined minimum number of ratings. It is necessary to implement a minimum number of ratings as it seems unfair for a release with, for example, one 5 star rating to be placed above a release with a 4.5 average from 5 ratings. This minimum number of ratings may be different for each clan as the participation levels vary so significantly, but I would expect the final minimum to be whatever meaningful number returns a reasonable quantity of contenders, say at least five, for each clan. In the event of there being a tie for clan winner the release with the highest number of ratings wins out.

The Sphere is the clan that probably needs most help from members outside of it. So far there are only a couple of releases that have gained more than a single rating, so please use this thread to post recommendations for any Sphere releases from 2026 that you think deserve a shot at ROTY for the clan and hopefully a bit of exposure will get folks rating it. Any suggestions and/or comments about the concept more generally are also more than welcome.