2021 Metal Academy Awards

So we're starting to get pretty close to the end of another year guys. Earlier this year we conducted our inaugural Metal Academy Awards exercise where we nominated our 2020 Release Of The Year for each clan. From memory we based it on the Site Ratings with minimum requirement of ratings that varied depending on the clan activity. (Long-term I think we'll be better off going for the Clan Ratings once we have more active members.) We're open to your thoughts on that moving forwards though. Any better ideas? Would you like to see more awards? If so, what?

Besides continuing the Release of the Year awards, I just thought of something in the site that could be awarded. We have the monthly Spotify clan playlists for over a year now, and while many of them have positive reception, it would be interesting to see which one of the 12 playlists throughout the year for each clan really stands out and deserves the Playlist of the Year award for each clan. So here's what I propose: Each member who is assembling the playlists for their respective clan revisits the 12 playlists throughout the year for that clan for at least one full listen per playlist, then decides which one is the best of them all and deserving of the award. For example, I revisit the 2021 playlists for The Revolution and decide which one would be the winner, while you, Daniel, do the same for The Horde (what you enjoy) and The Sphere (what no one else enjoys). Quite some more work, but should be rewarding for the value of these playlists. I think my Playlist of the Year award idea is a good one, does anyone else agree?

Andi, you may well have time enough to listen to 24 hours of old playlists but I for one definitely do not.

Besides continuing the Release of the Year awards, I just thought of something in the site that could be awarded. We have the monthly Spotify clan playlists for over a year now, and while many of them have positive reception, it would be interesting to see which one of the 12 playlists throughout the year for each clan really stands out and deserves the Playlist of the Year award for each clan. So here's what I propose: Each member who is assembling the playlists for their respective clan revisits the 12 playlists throughout the year for that clan for at least one full listen per playlist, then decides which one is the best of them all and deserving of the award. For example, I revisit the 2021 playlists for The Revolution and decide which one would be the winner, while you, Daniel, do the same for The Horde (what you enjoy) and The Sphere (what no one else enjoys). Quite some more work, but should be rewarding for the value of these playlists. I think my Playlist of the Year award idea is a good one, does anyone else agree?

There Is no way I have the time to sit and listen to 12 playlists I am afraid.  Even if I did it sounds hellish listening up to 2 hours of thrash, groove and speed metal each day for the best part of a fortnight.  I think the playlists are too vast to rate as a “list of the year” thing, even if we had more members.  Sorry but not an idea I think would work.

I agree with Sonny & Vinny. I don't see that there's a lot to gain there Andi.

Well, time to throw what I thought was a good idea into the fires of Mount Doom. Any of you guys have better award ideas?

To be honest I'm not particularly interested in yearly awards. The Oscars, Grammys or any of the endless stream of entertainment  magazine award lists mean very little to me. I find it more interesting to hear what a particular person thinks were the best / worst albums, songs, gigs or whatever rather than some faceless consensus as it has a more human and therefore interesting perspective, especially here on the Academy where I think the active members have become a bit more familiar. Popularity has never equated to quality in my experience. Is anyone really interested in saying "______ is this year's Official Metal Academy album of the year"? (If so, great, but it doesn't interest me personally). I'd rather the members posted their own unique highs and lows for a more personal review of the year. But that's just my take on it.

I think the clan ratings speak for themselves to a degree so see no issue with doing what we did previously.  Not a massive fan of just lists of "top" releases (Decibel drive me fucking mental releasing their list in November for "end of year" ratings. I prefer to read lists with narrative behind the choices and as such have kept a top thirty in the lists section which I will update and release (probably in January).  Not knocking anyone with a love for a list without detail (time is precious - I know).  2021 has been one the first years in a long time that I have kept track of new releases with any effort for a good while.  Still picking up stuff I missed though, even as we hit December.

Getting back to the awards discussion though I think it is fine to leave things as they are.

I think that there would have to be some sort of Clan nomination thing so each top album can have their case explained, but that goes into normal award show bullshit and we don't have the amount of people necessary so...I think that just keeping it as it is currently is the only way.