I want to make clear that all results are final. I will eventually release the raw data, but any miscounts are considered the fault of the person who can't spell properly. Top Twenty Albums of the Year 1 81 Symphony X, The Odyssey 2 68 Pain of Salvation, Remedy Lane 3 57 Dream Theater, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence 4 52 Threshold, Critical Mass 5 40 Star One, Space Metal 6 39 Soilwork, Natural Born Chaos 6 39 Blind Guardian, A Night at the Opera 6 39 Superior, Ultima Ratio 9 36 Pagan's Mind, Celestial Entrance 10 34 Vanden Plas, Beyond Daylight 11 33 Opeth, Deliverance 12 30 Porcupine Tree, In Absentia 13 29 Nightwish, Century Child 14 28 Prototype, Trinity 14 28 Shaman, Ritual 16 22 Angra, Hunters and Prey 17 21 Spock's Beard, Snow 18 20 Andromeda, I=II 18 20 Enchant, Blink of an Eye 20 19 Dark Tranquillity, Damage Done 20 19 Avantasia, The Metal Opera Part 2 Others came in real close behind, but the clear winner for the year was Symphony X. Best Albums : AOR 1 4 Bon Jovi, Bounce 2 3 Humanimal, Humanimal 2 3 Harem Scarem, Weight of the World The voting here was very light, so caveats regarding a low sample apply. Best Albums : Black Metal 1 5 Immortal, Sons of Northern Darkness 2 4 Opeth, Deliverance 3 3 Arcturus, The Sham Mirrors Again, light voting. Best Albums : Death Metal 1 14 Soilwork, Natural Born Chaos 2 13 Opeth, Deliverance ...and way down the list: 3 6 In Flames, Reroute to Remain 3 6 Dark Tranquillity, Damage Done Honorable mention since I like them: =) 5 5 Nile, In Their Darkened Shrines Best Albums : Dweeb Metal 1 16 Nightwish, Century Child 2 12 Lacuna Coil, Comalies 3 7 Dakrua, Shifting Realities Best Albums : Instrumental 1 11 Planet X, Moonbabies 2 7 Ron Jarzombek, Solitarily Speaking of Theoretical Confinement 3 4 Chris Brooks, The Masterplan Best Albums : Live Disc 1 12 Iron Maiden, Rock in Rio 2 7 Threshold, Concert in Paris 3 6 Sonata Arctica, Songs of Silence Live in Tokyo 2001 Nothing else came close here. Best Albums : Live DVD 1 14 Iron Maiden, Rock in Rio ...nothing else really came close, but here are some of the others: 2 4 Nightwish, From Wishes to Eternity 3 3 Dimmu Borgir, World Misanthropy 3 3 Kansas, Device Voice Drum 3 3 Overkill, Wrecking Everything I'm surprised the 'deth didn't put in a better showing. Better luck next... er, oh well. Best Albums : Power Metal 1 19 Blind Guardian, A Night at the Opera ...the blowout I expected. 2 6 Pagan's Mind, Celestial Entrance 2 6 Nightwish, Century Child Best Albums : Prog Metal 1 26 Symphony X, The Odyssey 2 25 Pain of Salvation, Remedy Lane ...oh! So close. 3 17 Dream Theater, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence Best Albums : Prog Rock 1 17 Spock's Beard, Snow 2 15 Porcupine Tree, In Absentia 3 10 Enchant, Blink of an Eye It looks like our favorite band from up north has finally been given the old heave-ho. Best Albums : Solo/Side Project 1 8 Star One, Space Metal 2 4 Avantasia, The Metal Opera Part 2 3 3 Ron Jarzombek, Solitarily Speaking of Theoretical Confinement 3 3 Kotipelto, Waiting for the Dawn Best Albums : Studio DVD 1 5 Jag Panzer, The Era of Kings and Conflict Nothing else got more than one vote. Best Albums : Technical Disc 1 8 Meshuggah, Nothing 2 5 Ron Jarzombek, Solitarily Speaking of Theoretical Confinement 3 4 Theory in Practice, Colonizing the Sun 3 4 Dream Theater, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence I'll never understand why people insist on referring to DT as technical metal, but it's good to see the best technical disc of the year got recognized as such, especially from the people on this board. Best Albums : Thrash Metal 1 12 Prototype, Trinity 2 6 Pathos, Katharsis 3 4 Annihilator, Waking the Fury 3 4 Soilwork, Natural Born Chaos I'm not sure I buy Soilwork as thrash, but I included it anyway. Miscellaneous Album Awards : Most Anticipated Disc of 2003 A big-ass DQ, since I screwed up and called the category "2002" for the first week of voting. I'll get it right next year. Miscellaneous Album Awards : Comeback Disc 1 13 Superior, Ultima Ratio ...sounds like they've redeemed themselves from the shit-eater award following the release of Younique. Am I the only one who likes that album? 2 4 Dio, Killing the Dragon 2 4 Symphony X, The Odyssey 2 4 Rush, Vapor Trails And maybe I spoke too soon about Rush. Miscellaneous Album Awards : Cover Art 1 11 Symphony X, The Odyssey 2 7 Star One, Space Metal 3 5 Soilwork, Natural Born Chaos 4 4 Shaman, Ritual 5 4 Opeth, Deliverance 6 4 Pagan's Mind, Celestial Entrance 7 4 Angra, Hunters and Prey 8 4 Prototype, Trinity I don't see how Symphony X wins this category with nothing but T&A. Oh, wait: yes, I do know how. Miscellaneous Album Awards : Disappointment Disc 1 14 Dream Theater, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence 2 10 Symphony X, The Odyssey 3 7 Rush, Vapor Trails Miscellaneous Album Awards : Shit-Eater (worst) 1 10 Timo Tolkki, Hymn to Life 2 5 Dream Theater, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence 3 3 Rush, Vapor Trails None of these were unexpected. Best Song : BestSong 1 12 Symphony X, The Odyssey, The Odyssey 2 7 Pain of Salvation, Remedy Lane, A Trace of Blood 3 7 Blind Guardian, A Night at the Opera, And Then There Was Silence Some others from PoS came close behind; that seemed to be a particularly popular album for singles. Best Artists : Band 1 25 Symphony X 2 18 Pain of Salvation 3 16 Dream Theater Best Artists : Bassist 1 22 John Myung 2 6 Sean Malone 2 6 Jonas Reingold And the curse of people who can't name any bassist besides John Myung continues. Best Artists : Drummer 1 19 Mike Portnoy 2 10 Jason Rullo 3 7 Johanne James s/John Myung/Mike Portnoy. Best Artists : Female Vocalist 1 22 Tarja Turunen 2 5 Christina Scabbia 2 5 Kimberly Goss 2 5 Michelle Loose Best Artists : Guitarist 1 34 Michael Romeo 2 19 John Petrucci 3 6 Johan Reinholdz But people _DO_ know their guitarists. Best Artists : Keyboardist 1 24 Jordan Rudess 2 8 Richard Andersson 2 8 Michael Pinnella Best Artists : Band Least Deserving of a Major Record Deal 1 7 Dream Theater 2 5 Queensryche 3 3 Creed 3 3 Hammerfall 3 3 Limp Bizkit Best Artists : Band With the Best Live Performance 1 11 Dream Theater 1 11 Threshold 3 10 Symphony X Pain of Salvation and Angra were close behind. Best Artists : Band Most Deserving of a Major Record Deal 1 10 Prototype 2 7 Andromeda 2 7 Ascension Theory Pain of Salvation was close behind. Best Artists : Male Vocalist 1 29 Russell Allen 2 23 Daniel Gildenlow 3 7 James Labrie No surprises there. Best Artists : Record Label 1 54 Inside Out 2 7 Century Media 3 5 The End Records Best Artists : Rookie 1 8 All That I Bleed 2 5 Dead Soul Tribe 3 4 Shaman 3 4 Twisted Motivations 3 4 Prototype 3 4 Ascension Theory Best Artists : Band You Most Want to See Tour Europe 1 5 Rush 1 5 Andromeda 3 4 Symphony X Best Artists : Band You Most Want to See Tour USA 1 9 Pain of Salvation ...after PoS, the results were very close. 2 4 Prototype 2 4 Helloween 2 4 Pagan's Mind Best Producer/Team : Producer/Team 1 7 Steven Wilson, In Absentia 2 7 Arjen Lucassen, Space Metal 3 5 Devin Townsend, Natural Born Chaos 3 5 Fredrik Nordstrom, Celestial Entrance 5 4 Martin Hedin, I=II I may have missed some here; it's a hard category to score. Miscellaneous : Hall of Fame 1 23 Pain of Salvation 2 8 Blind Guardian 3 3 Megadeth 3 3 Rage 3 3 Saxon Anyone who voted for three got their votes nixed. Gotta learn to read directions. These guys will all be inducted. Miscellaneous : Best Music Vendor 1 59 The End Records 2 23 Laser's Edge 3 4 Hard'n'heavy Miscellaneous : Best Music-Related Website (other than PM) 1 11 Ultimate Metal 2 7 Melodicrockcom 3 6 Satan Stole My Teddybear 4 6 Bnr Metal Pages And now, on to the...PM AWARDS PM Awards : The Anti-Mikey Award Alzn Honorable mentions: Mattias of the Night, Ssmt PM Awards : Favorite Band Member Poster Teddy Moller PM Awards : Perfect Breasts (Favorite female poster) Teri No one else made double digits. You girls gotta show them breasts more! =) PM Awards : Bandwidth Champ Teri ...with the honorable mentions: Neil Kernon, LarryD, Ralf PM Awards : Bandwidth Chump Mattias of the Night ...by quite a bit. (Dis)honorable mentions: Schmuck, Chity PM Awards : Comedian Ralf Walter ...by more than 3x. PM Awards : Dearly Departed Misfit ...is still loved. PM Awards : Elmo (you can't help but like) Teri and Ralf ...who beat the hell out of everyone else PM Awards : The FedEx Award (best delivery) Ralf ...actually won this award, but voting was very low. PM Awards : Suspected Felon Mattias of the Night ...but our esteemed Ralf came in real close, followed by DaveG. PM Awards : Review Jedi Dweeb and LarryD PM Awards : Oscar (the Grouch) Ralf ...came in by more than 2x. PM Awards : The PT Barnum Award (Best promoter) Harvester ...beat everyone out by a large margin. PM Awards : Rookie Lamphear ...seems to have won this one. PM Awards : Sage Neil Kernon ...followed by Teri and LarryD. PM Awards : Longest Schlong (Favorite male poster) Ralf Walter ...has conquered this category. So, apparently everyone thinks he's the greatest AND a felon. Such are our heroes. =) PM Awards : The Viagara Award (Most stimulating poster) Joe-x ...followed oh-so-closely by Neil Thread of the Year : Thread of the Year Soilwork Is Overrated ...was followed closely by the Musical Industry File Sharing debate. Whether or not you agree with the results, I hope you found it interesting to know what everyone else who posts and/or lurks here thinks about our music and each other. Thanks again to Glenn without whom these awards would not have been possible. Cheers, Kyle