I’ve been giving these virtual medals for 10 years now, so you can understand how heartbroken I am that this 10th anniversary edition is so poor in numbers: 9 events, featuring 25 performances, all in my home country, all in my home TOWN. Still way better than last year, and adding the 7 gigs I’ve seen then, picking 3 out of 32 is reasonable enough (remember that I’ve skipped the live section in 2020). There won’t be “most disappointing” medals, though. Not that there wasn’t one or two I could gladly live without, but I wasn’t expecting much from them in the first place. Plus, returning to the front row of live shows made any not-so-good experience bearable. And so the winners are:

1st HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD (2020/02/17) – Sala La Riviera – Madrid (ES) 

2nd INFRAKTOR (2021/10/30) – Metalpoint – Porto (PT)

3rd EQUALEFT (2021/11/21) – Hard Rock Café – Porto (PT)

There were a few good surprises and those are worth mentioning/awarding:

1st GODARK (2021/07/10) – Metalpoint – Porto (PT)

2nd SUGIRU (2021/11/13) – The Skull Room Fest – Porto (PT)

3rd MR. GIANT & THE BROKEN STONE – Metalpoint – Porto (PT)

From the studio, I pick these:

1st THE NIGHT FLIGHT ORCHESTRA, “Aeromantic II”

2nd HYPOCRISY, “Worship”

3rd MOONSPELL, “Hermitage”

I’ve debated between Till Lindemann‘s “Ich hasse Kinder” and Danny‘s for the third spot in the videos, and no, I didn’t choose the latter based on my unconditional love for his voice. It’s just that I already had a movie-like big production on #2 (after the entertaining #1), so a humbler and emotional #3 was in order:

1st THE NIGHT FLIGHT ORCHESTRA, “Burn For Me”

2nd ICE NINE KILLS, “Funeral Derangements”

3rd DANNY ROSE, “Treading Water”

I’m even afraid of sharing my expectations for 2022, but as the saying goes, “hope for the best, plan for the worst”… Here we go:

The release of HILLS HAVE EYES fourth album (yeah, STILL. Was going to add a “LOL” after “release” but I don’t want to jinx it anymore than it already is…).

The HOLLYWOOD UNDEAD headlining show in Hannover, in June.

The 40th anniversary tour of W.A.S.P. that I’m hoping to catch in Madrid in March.

THE HALO EFFECT debut album and the gig in October in Lisboa.

A chance to see PITCH BLACK live after missing their return due to health issues. I think they were scheduled for one of the festivals that I really hope won’t be postponed again (also a huge expectation), but I’m not sure anymore.

#fingerscrossed