Earlier tonight, September 3rd, the fourth annual Heavy Music Awards, Presented by Amazon Music UK premiered as an ambitious virtual event, streamed live on the Amazon Music UK Twitch channel. Featuring 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 Presented by eOne 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 round the world.”

Sheffield’s Bring Me The Horizon made HMA history by becoming the first artist to retain an award - picking up Best UK Band Presented by Amazon Music for the second time in as many years. Frontman Oli Sykes echoed Slipknot’s sentiment about fan participation in a video message from his home.

German heavyweights Rammstein landed the Best Live Band Presented by O2 Forum Kentish Town 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.”

In a brand new category for 2020, Best Video Presented by Moshhh, Don Broco landed their first HMA in recognition of their clip for "Action". Frontman Rob Damiani was effusive in his praise of director Benjamin Roberds and producer Katie Gregg: “We’ve made six videos in total with them, and by far it’s been the best experience we’ve ever had making music videos.”

Pennsylvania’s Baroness were the recipients of the Best Album Artwork gong for Gold And Grey, with its jawdropping cover created by the band’s frontman John Dyer Baizley. On winning their first ever Heavy Music Awards, the charismatic vocalist said: “This means the world to us. It’s been an incredibly strange year, and we cannot wait to get back out on tour!”

In the Best Festival Presented by Ticketmaster category, Download  Festival took the award for the second time in four years - the first time since the inaugural HMAs 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.”

The Heavy Music Awards is an entirely democratic, independent awards programme recognising the year’s best in rock and metal. For HMA20, over 600 invited industry insiders nominated their favourites to create the finalists’ shortlists, before more than 150,000 votes were cast from over 150 countries to decide the winners. Originally due to take place at London O2 Kentish Town Forum in May, organisers pivoted this year due to covid-19 to bring the event which is now an integral part of the live calendar direct to fans homes. Further details can be found here.