LONDON, UK (Top40 Charts/ LD Communications) KERRANG!, the world's greatest rock brand and only weekly music magazine, has today unveiled the nominations shortlist for the grand return of the annual awards ceremony, taking place on
Thursday 21 June at Islington Town Hall. Renowned as the legendary night of rock 'n' roll fun, with the world's biggest rock stars in attendance and some huge surprises along the way - the Kerrang! Awards are back with a bang. Leading this year's nominations are Foo Fighters,
Architects and Enter Shikari, garnering three nominations each. Other nominated acts at the prestigious ceremony are Metallica, Marilyn Manson, Biffy Clyro, Marmozets and many more
Having played Glastonbury and headlined Download in the last 12 months, Scottish alternative rock heroes
Biffy Clyro have picked up two nominations for Best British Live Act as well as Best British Band. They are joined in the latter category by the legendary British metal act Iron Maiden. Competition is fierce as agit-rockers
Enter Shikari are up following the success of The Spark, their fifth album, which saw the band embark on their biggest ever UK headline tour culminating in a sold-out show at London's prestigious
Alexandra Palace. Powerhouse hard rock duo
Royal Blood and Brighton metalcore heroes
Architects are also nominated in that category, showcasing the breadth of voting and nominees.
Frontrunners
Foo Fighters picked up nominations for Best Album and Best International Act (in association with Chilango), reflecting the success they have enjoyed since the release of their ninth studio album, Concrete And Gold. They'll have to fend off bonafide metal pioneers
Metallica and rock heavyweights
Linkin Park as well as Green Day, Aussie stars
Parkway Drive in the latter category.
Best Song is an international affair with Antichrist
Superstar Marilyn Manson nominated for 'Kill4Me', alongside Linkin Park's
Mike Shinoda for the heartfelt 'Crossing A Line'. Representing the UK are Wrexham pop-punks
Neck Deep with 'In Bloom' and Marmozets take centre stage for the riotous 'Major
System Error'.
Architects secure their third nomination with 'Doomsday', the last song written with their late guitarist Tom Searle in 2016.
Kerrang! has relentlessly championed new and established rock talent for close to four decades and the nominees for this year's Kerrang! Awards reflect the emergence of a new generation of artists in both the UK and across the world.
The key categories of Best British Breakthrough (in association with Rizla) and Best International Breakthrough reflect what has been a hugely exciting 12-month period for emerging talent.
Conjurer, Employed To Serve and Venom Prison are three acts that epitomise the new wave of heavy music emerging throughout the UK, and they are nominated in the Best British Breakthrough category alongside rising Welsh post-emo outfit
Dream State and Blackpool punks
Boston Manor.
Best International Breakthrough sees Code Orange, The Fever 333 and
Turnstile reflect the rise of the American post-hardcore scene. They are nominated alongside hotly-tipped hard Michigan hard rockers
Greta Van Fleet and pop punk stars Waterparks.
Kerrang! Magazine Editor Sam Coare said: "The two categories that recognise emerging artists are packed full of remarkable talent. They reflect a new wave of rock music that is exciting, real and vital. It's not a 'scene' per se, because these acts are all very different from each other and set their own agendas, but they are all a reaction to the disposable nature of mainstream music right now.
As Kerrang! enters its 38th year at the heart of the rock scene, the 2018 Awards shortlist is indicative of both rock's illustrious heritage and thrilling future."
The impact of Pittsburgh outfit Code
Orange is reflected by the fact that they are also nominated in the category for Best International Live Act (in association with Old Blue Last) sitting alongside fellow post-hardcore act Converge and heavyweights Metallica,
Guns N' Roses and Foo Fighters.
As well as the voted for categories, the awards ceremony will also see Kerrang! bestow a number of merit awards recognising career-long achievements. This will include the latest inductee into the Kerrang! Hall Of Fame (sponsored by Marshall) and the Kerrang! Legend Award.
KERRANG! AWARDS 2018 NOMINEES FULL LIST:
BEST BRITISH BREAKTHROUGH In association with Rizla
1 Employed To Serve
2 Conjurer
3
Boston Manor
4
Dream State
5 Venom Prison
BEST INTERNATIONAL BREAKTHROUGH
1 Code Orange
2 Greta Van Fleet
3 Turnstile
4 The Fever 333
5 Waterparks
BEST SONG
1
Neck Deep - In Bloom
2 Marmozets - Major
System Error
3
Architects - Doomsday
4
Mike Shinoda - Crossing A Line
5
Marilyn Manson - Kill4Me
BEST ALBUM
1
Enter Shikari - The Spark
2
Foo Fighters - Concrete And Gold
3
A Perfect Circle - Eat The Elephant
4 Marmozets - Knowing What You Know Now
5 Rolo Tomassi - Time Will Die And Love Will Bury It
BEST BRITISH LIVE ACT In association with Triumph
1 Architects
2 Creeper
3 Biffy Clyro
4 Enter Shikari
5 Frank Carter And The Rattlesnakes
BEST INTERNATIONAL LIVE ACT In association with Old Blue Last Beer
1 Code Orange
2 Foo Fighters
3 Metallica
4 Guns N' Roses
5 Converge
BEST BRITISH BAND In association with Fireball
1 Architects
2 Enter Shikari
3 Biffy Clyro
4 Royal Blood
5 Iron Maiden
BEST INTERNATIONAL BAND In association with Chilango
1 Foo Fighters
2 Linkin Park
3 Metallica
4 Green Day
5 Parkway Drive
Votes were cast during the open voting process this year with both the readers of the magazine and the users of kerrang.com now invited to select the final winners.
Kerrang!'s own brand reach has grown in the last year since it was acquired by new media company, Wasted Talent Ltd. Now independently owned, the Kerrang! brand - which is overseen by Global Creative
Director Phil
Alexander - has recently opened a US office to expand operations on a worldwide basis.
The US office is headed up by Executive
Director Ethan Fixell who is tasked with creating new American-led initiatives. The first of these involves a series of live shows this summer at Saint Vitus, the legendary Brooklyn venue. These shows feature three hand-picked bills per night, and will be filmed and streamed to Kerrang!'s increasingly global audience. The shows will be followed in
September by a full Kerrang!-sponsored US tour headlined by Oregon metal band Red Fang.
Kerrang! now has a full film production teams in London and Brooklyn and has begun to shoot exclusive live sets with artists that include Parkway Drive, Quicksand, Enter Shikari, Frank Iero & The Patience and more. All these sets have been afforded a full sound mix and have been streamed accordingly, providing these artists, labels and management with further means of support across Kerrang!'s several channels.
The Kerrang! Awards themselves will take place on June 21 at Islington Assembly Hall which is close to Kerrang!'s UK headquarters.
The awards will also mark Kerrang!'s 37th birthday, the brand being launched as a magazine in June 1981. Today, despite expanding far beyond the printed page, Kerrang! remains the only weekly music publication on the UK newsstand. Its audience across all platforms is now in excess of five million and growing.
