2026 Metal Academy Awards Discussion - The Fallen 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.

Please use this thread for recommendations for any Fallen 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.

I will post threads for the other clans over the coming days.

There is currently an obvious leader in the race for The Fallen award with Neurosis' "An Undying Love for a Burning World" having both the highest site rating (4.5) and the most number of ratings (as well as sitting at #11 on the all-time charts at the minute). I haven't checked it out myself yet, but expect to pretty soon.

1. Neurosis - An Undying Love for a Burning World [4.50]

2= Ennui - Qroba 3 [4.33]

2= Fires in the Distance - Circadian Promise [4.33]

2= Warning - Rituals of Shame [4.33]

5. Draconian - In Somnolent Ruin [3.80]

6. Ruins of Beverast - Tempelschlaf [3.60]

7. Urne - Setting Fire to the Sky [3.38]

8. Exxûl - Sealed Into None [3.17]

9. Temple of Void - The Crawl [3.17]

10. Lone Wanderer Exequiae [3.00]

My personal recommendations so far would be Ennui, Warning, Temple of Void and Lone Wanderer, but I have a whole lot of catching up to do as I haven't given new releases as much attention as they deserve so far this year.