2026 Metal Academy Awards Discussion - The Gateway 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.

I am not very well up on releases from The Gateway, to be honest, so please use this thread to post recommendations for any Gateway 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.

At 2/3 of the way through the year, only four releases have so far achieved three or more votes. 

These are:

1. Soen - Reliance [3.38]

2. Karnivool - In Verses [2.83]

3. Gaerea - Loss [2.67]

4. Mirrorcell - Long Nights in Lovescape [2.50]

None of these have a particularly high site rating, so there is plenty of scope for others to stake a claim.

Some other releases that have gained at least one decent rating are albums by Alter Bridge, Clawfinger, Evanescence, Black Veil Brides, Dead Air Divine and Machinae Supremacy. Let us know what you think we should all be checking out from the Gateway this year.