Rock Sins 2016 End of Year Awards – Charlie Harris

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A newcomer to Rock Sins in 2016, so this makes it Charlie Harris’ first time contributing to our end of year awards. So, let’s see what he made of the last twelve months…

1) Album of the year: Bury Tomorrow – Earthbound

Bury tomorrow have been one of my all time favourite metal bands and for them to come out with a brand new record which I think is better than The Union of Crowns is so impressive. Earthbound has clearly connected with more people than previous albums as the response has been tremendous. During their set at Download 2016, it was really evident of how successful the album had been due to the sheer size of the crowd and how many people new all the lyrics. For me, 301 or For Us would be my favourite tracks off the album, they pack a punch and show what Bury Tomorrow are all about!

Honourable Mentions:

Architects – All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us
KoRn – The Serenity of Suffering
Fit For a King – Deathgrip
I See Stars – Treehouse
Despised Icon – Beast

2)Song of the year: Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes – Lullaby

This band have become the greatest thing to enter my life behind sliced bread. Lullaby is an extremely well structured song which has been sung beautifully by Frank Carter. The music video goes perfectly with the song and shows raw emotion from the band. The song is as good live as it is on MP3 which gives me great confidence fro the new album.

Honourable Mentions:

Fit for a King – Pissed Off
Architects – Gone with the Wind
A day to remember – Exposed
KoRn – Please come for me
KoRn – Insane

3) Festival Performance of the year – Parkway Drive – Reading 2016

I am a very biased Parkway Drive fan and will never say that they performed badly. However, with the changing crowd of Reading they had a much tougher challenge to face, which they smashed out the park. The 40 minutes they got onstage was perfect, they showed off the new album IRE which is amazing, as well as showcasing what built their foundations. The circle pits were bigger than Download 2015’s set and the crowd response was actually better. I think the sunshine at Reading helps people enjoy music more rather than G-d unleashing hell onto Download with rain.

Honourable Mentions:

Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes – Download Festival and Reading Festival
Wage War – Download Festival
Fit for an autopsy – Tech- Fest
Beartooth – Download Festival
Skindred – Download Festival

4) Most Disappointing album of the year – The Word Alive – Dark Matter

The Word Alive introduced me into the metalcore world and have been one of my favourite bands to listen too in the past 5 years however the recent album lacked so many aspects. I felt like the album was trying to drag in a new crowd but trying to keep heavy instruments at the same time. This for me did not work and is the main reason why this was my most disappointing album of the year.


5) Music Video of the Year – KoRn – Insane

This band have never brought out something which isn’t amazing and weird at the same time. The Insane music video is yet another of those attributes to the band. KoRn really take their time with creating music videos as they have been such a successful part of the bands career (as it is for many artists). The video sometimes can be the make or break for the song and creating it as a “single”. The song is also fantastic live!

6) Gig Of The Year – Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes – Rescue Rooms – Nottingham

A 400 cap venue with the Rattlesnakes on stage is a recipe for disaster. After seeing Frank and the lads crush Download and then Reading I didn’t think for a second I would get to see them a third time in Nottingham…shooting the show! It was a fantastic show in every aspect. There were great photo opportunities, a great crowd and a great performance from the Rattlesnakes. Frank was born to be on stage and effortlessly can control a crowd with a flick of a finger. I enjoyed frank demanding a girl only crowd surfing period which was very refreshing for a gig usually filled with big sweaty lads jumping on each other.

7) Band of the year – Architects

This band seem to come back year after year and bring something so refreshing to the metal scene. Regardless of the tragic passing of Tom Searle, the band have to be my band of the year. They create such an atmosphere on stage that has to be seen by anyone who loves metal music. They manage to make you understand the meaning behind the band and the messages they are trying to deliver, which they do with such professionalism. From seeing them play the KOKO to playing the Roundhouse and then announcing their biggest headline tour to date with tones of sell out shows, you can see how important the band are to the community and how much they are respected as individuals. All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us and Lost Forever // Lost Together are two of the best metal albums produced by the British Metal scene and I am sure their one to follow will be even more ground breaking.

8) Hero of The Year – Rob Damiani – Don Broco

No Questions asked…

So there we have it, Charlie’s first Rock Sins end of year awards is over. We would also suggest you check out the choices from some of the other members of the team that we’ve run recently:

Jamie’s 2016 End Of Year Awards
Sam’s 2016 End Of Year Awards
Fran’s 2016 End Of Year Awards
James W’s 2016 End Of Year Awards
James H’s 2016 End Of Year Awards

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