Orange Goblin to open Metal Hammer Golden Gods

Orange Goblin

Orange Goblin will open this year’s Metal Hammer Golden Gods with Orange Amplification.

The band will kick off the 15th annual event at London’s IndigO2 at The O2 on Monday, June 12, which will be hosted by Fozzy frontman and WWE megastar Chris Jericho.

Last year, frontman Ben Ward helped organised a crowdfunding campaign for Metal Hammer, Classic Rock and Prog staff who were made redundant when their parent company collapsed in late December.

And Metal Hammer editor Merlin Alderslade reports he’s delighted to welcome Orange Goblin to the biggest metal event of the year.

He says: “Keeping in the spirit of Metal Hammer itself, the Golden Gods are an awards show by fans, for fans, and few bands in our history have personified that mantra better than Orange Goblin.

“Ben Ward and his comrades were a beacon of unification for metalheads around the world when Metal Hammer’s future looked uncertain last year – and we couldn’t be more delighted to have them officially kick off the show that will be cementing the magazine’s place back at the very heart of our scene.

“Plus, they know how to throw a party. See you down the front – and trust us when we say we have some more amazing Gods announcements coming very soon…”

Voting is now underway with fans able to register their favourites by visiting the Metal Hammer Golden Gods website.

See the full list of nominations below.

Editorial-chosen awards include Riff Lord presented by Century Media, Defender Of The Faith presented by Orange Amplification, Album Of The Year, Icon, Inspiration, Spirit Of Hammer and The Golden God.

Metal Hammer Golden Gods full list of nominees

Best New Band

Zeal & Ardor
Venom Prison
Brutai
Puppy
Ocean Grove

Best Underground Band

Perturbator
Neurosis
Royal Thunder
Pallbearer
Anaal Nathrakh

Best UK Band

Bury Tomorrow
Architects
While She Sleeps
Tesseract
Orange Goblin

Best International Band presented by Nuclear Blast

Metallica
Opeth
Alter Bridge
Avenged Sevenfold
Korn

Breakthrough

Code Orange
Creeper
Oathbreaker
Ho99o9
Avatar

Best Live Band

Steel Panther
Letlive
Killswitch Engage
Mastodon
Ghost

Dimebag Darrell ‘Shredder’

Joel O’ Keeffe (Airbourne)
Kiko Loureiro (Megadeth)
Phil Manansala (Of Mice & Men)
Ben Bruce (Asking Alexandria)
Ben Weinman (The Dillinger Escape Plan)

Best Independent Label

Nuclear Blast
Cooking Vinyl
Deathwish
Season Of Mist
Basick

Game Of The Year

The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild
Overwatch
Mass Effect: Andromeda
Iron Maiden: The Legacy Of The Beast
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

Five minutes alone with Orange Goblin's Ben Ward

Scott has spent 37 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in 2014 before moving into e-commerce in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, highlights deals, and reviews headphones, speakers, earplugs and more. Over the last 12 years, Scott has written more than 11,500 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog. He's previously written for publications including IGN, Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from news and features, to tech reviews, video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.