The 3rd edition of The Rolling Stones Metal Awards took place on Sunday 1st July, 2012 at Blue Frog, Mumbai. Providence and Sky Harbor took top honors with both bands winning four awards each. Delhi’s Eccentric Pendulum and Bangalore Open Air Winners Zygnema , who won Best Band (Popular Choice) at the Rolling Stone Metal Awards in 2011 performed at this year’s show. Pangea, Providence and Abraxas too, performed at the Awards function.
Fans and supporters of bands could vote for their favoraite Band/Album/Song on Rolling Stones India’s Facebook page. Rolling Stones had also hosted a competition to get people’s opinions on the metal scene and metal music few days before the big event with big prizes on offer. The show was hosted by Rohit ‘p-man’ Pereira.
The Winners:
Best Emerging Metal band – Skyharbor
Best Album Art – Aaron Pinto (Providence – Vanguard)
Best Keyboardist – Taz James (Chaotic Years)
Best Bassist – Arun Natrajan (Eccentric Pendulum)
Best Drummer – Vibhas Venkatram (Eccentric Pendulum)
Best Guitarist – Keshav Dhar (Skyharbor)
Best Vocalist – Sunneith Revankar (Providence)
Best Song – Skyharbor – Maeva
Best Album – Eccentric Pendulum - Winding the Optics
Best Band – Goddess Gagged
Popular Choice Awards:
Best song – Skyharbor – Maeva
Best album – Providence – Vanguard
Best band – Providence
The Gig was pure mayhem with notably performances from Eccentric Pendulum and Zygnema. Pangea made an impressive debut with drummer Jai Row Kavi reviving his metal roots. Vocalist Karan Pote put on a good show fronting Abraxas and Providence. The nominees for the awards did not completely cover the entire spectrum of the Indian Metal scene. Mainly the top few bands were covered. None of the bands that won last year’s Rolling Stones Metal Awards were nominated except Zygnema. This shows how the metal scene has been shapeshifting over the years. Next year we hope to see recognition of sub-genres in the Metal scene as categorizing Goddess Gagged and Eccentric Pendulum in one category is simply not done. Hope this event does not turns out to be another brand building exercise for select few and take the path that many other major award functions have taken and lose its relevance as a reflection of Indian Metal scene in future on the whole.
