Rammstein, Slipknot Honored At Amazon Music’s ‘Heavy Music Awards’
This year, the annual ceremony premiered as an ambitious virtual event, streamed live on the Amazon Music UK Twitch channel.
Rammstein and Slipknot were among the big names honoured at the fourth annual Heavy Music Awards, presented by Amazon Music UK, which premiered as an ambitious virtual event, streamed live on the Amazon Music UK Twitch channel.
The Heavy Music Awards featured a live interactive pre-show hosted by Kerrang! Radio presenters Sophie K and Jon Mahon and live performances from the studios of AfterLive Music by The Hunna, Holding Absence, Heart Of A Coward, Wargasm, Coldbones and Hawxx. Due to originally take place at London O2 Kentish Town Forum, the night marked another year of success and celebration of talent across the entire creative landscape in the rock and metal communities, with 12 awards handed out in total.
Slipknot enjoyed the greatest success on the night, taking home “Best International Band” and “Best Album” for their acclaimed 2019 LP “We Are Not Your Kind”. In his acceptance video, Slipknot’s Shawn “Clown” Crahan said: “It only means what it means when it’s voted by you, the fans, all around the world.”
German heavyweights Rammstein landed the “Best Live Band” award, following a series of seminal stadium shows in 2019. In a collective message, Rammstein said: “It’s always special to receive recognition for doing something you believe in, and when that recognition comes straight from the fans, it means a great deal.”
Sheffield’s Bring Me The Horizon made Heavy Music Awards history by becoming the first artist to retain an award — picking up “Best UK Band”. Frontman Oli Sykes echoed Slipknot’s sentiment about fan participation in a video message from his home.
Elsewhere, history was made in the “Best Producer” category, with Catherine Marks — who has worked with the likes of Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, The Amazons and Frank Turner — becoming the first woman to win the award. Accepting the award at her studio in London, Marks was quick to praise the other six finalists before adding: “This is such a shock, this is huge — thank you so much, this is such an honor. You don’t know how much this means to me. Thank you!”
Hugely respected metal snapper Ester Segarra, also became the first woman recipient in her category taking the “Best Photographer” award, one of the most hotly contested awards. Speaking from Stockholm, Segarra was quick to highlight the sense of unity among the metal community: “It means a lot to have got this award this year. Let’s stand united, because united we never shall fall.”
In the “Best Festival” category, Download festival took the award for the second time in four years — the first time since the inaugural Heavy Music Awards in 2017 — and the event’s mastermind Andy Copping was reflective in his acceptance speech: “It really means a lot to us. A very bizarre year this year, of course, with no festival taking place, but fingers crossed we’re going to be back next year, bigger and stronger than we’ve always been.”
Listen to the best of Rammstein on Apple Music and Spotify.
