XFM (www.xfm.co.uk) has issued the following report:

Metal Hammer Award Winners Announced

Last night saw the presentation of the annual Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards as famous faces from the world of metal gather at the Hackney Ocean to celebrate everything heavy.

Presented by Xfm's own Ian Camfield, the Golden God Awards 2004 were as far removed from the industry black tie events as is humanely possible as hundreds of fans filled the Hackney Ocean for an evening of strictly 'No Ties and No Tables'.

As the younger bands (Funeral For A Friend, Powder, Young Heart Attack, The Glitterati…) mingled with the old guard (Slayer, Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson and Motley Crue and Brides Of Destruction's Nikki Sixx all put in guest appearances), the metal world gathered to honour the year's Gods.

Live performances came in the shape of the Darkness-esque stylings of Silvertide, Texans Young Heart Attack, a rapturously received Killswitch Engage, besuited death metallers Akercocke and headliners HIM.

Special mention must also go to ex-Pantera and DamagePlan shredder Dimebag whose Best Guitarist acceptance speech consisted of him sitting on stage for ten minutes, half comatose, swigging from a bottle of Jack Daniels.

Partying went on late into the night as the alcohol flowed and one by one, eardrum after eardrum shattered.

The full list of winners is as follows: Best Underground Act: IN FLAMES, Best Video: THE DARKNESS - 'Love Is Only A Feeling', Breakthrough Band: FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND, Best Live Act: SLAYER, Best International Act: METALLICA, Spirit Of Hammer Award: NIKKI SIXX, Best UK Act: IRON MAIDEN, Best Guitarist: DIMEBAG, Best Album: KILLSWITCH ENGAGE - The End Of The Heartache, Golden God: Ville Valo (of HIM).

Meanwhile, Metal Hammer.co.uk have issued the following report on the night’s madness:

Last night Metal Hammer leveled East London with the second annual Golden God Awards, here's the catalogue of carnage!

The second annual Metal Hammer Golden God awards took place last night at London's Ocean and by all accounts it was a resounding excess! The awards bash was as far removed from a stuffy black tie event as you could get. 1500 fans crowded in downstairs to watch all the action unfold that saw Finland's finest HIM headlining the night, preceded by Killswitch Engage, Akercocke, Young Heart Attack and Silvertide.

Upstairs in the VIP bar bands such as Slayer, Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson, Nikki Sixx and his Brides Of Destruction, Machine Head, Damageplan, Soil, Drowning Pool, Funeral For A Friend, Mortiis, Chimaira, God Forbid, and Shadows Fall all vied for space at the bar.

Some notable incidents included:

- Slivertide being as rock as fuck
- Damageplan's Dimebag Darrell arriving drunk out of his skull.
- Nikki Sixx and Tracii having a dead arm fight at the bar.
- Killswitch Engage's Adam D wearing the most disturbingly small pair of cut off denim shorts that you've ever seen.
- Drowning Pool's Jason Jones buying us champagne.
- Funeral For A Friend being the happiest people of the night.
- Video messages from Metallica and The Darkness.
- Drinking with Rod Smallwood and Rick Sales.
- Mortiis being rushed backstage by paramedics after having an adverse reaction to his prosthetic make-up
- Akercocke arriving in an olde worlde horse drawn Victorian hearse.
- Head-On being huge and as hard as fuck!
- Bruce Dickinson loving the Metal Hammer posters and generally being a bloody nice chap.
- Machine Head drummer Dave McClain trying Absinthe for the first time ever - gee, we think he liked it!
- Dimebag Darrell collecting his award for Best Guitarist by sitting on the drum riser, swigging from a bottle of Jack Daniel's and getting Tracii Guns to take his shoes off. He then through his award into the crowd and stumbled from the stage back to the bar.
- Slayer guitarist Kerry King carrying around a huge inverted golden cross all night.
- Soil frontman Ryan McCombs going from hardly ever drinking to being more wasted than he'd ever been before in his life.
- God Forbid singer Byron Davis pretending to be a doorman.
- Drowning Pool shooting tequila at the bar all night.
- Silvertide playing a blinding set at the aftershow.
- Machine Head guitarist Phil Demmel exclaiming: "you'd never get anything like this happening in America!"
- HIM frontman Ville Valo and drummer Gas staying up drinking until 9am the following morning.

The show was filmed for ITV and will be broadcast some point over the next week or so.