Hello everybody! December is here once again and y'all know what that means. It's time for:
THE ENCYCLOPAEDIA METALLUM ALBUM OF THE YEAR POLLHow exactly does this work you ask? Why it's simple! All you need to do is:
Select your top ten:This is very easy, all you need to do is choose your top ten albums of the year.
PM your top ten, in order, to me, BastardHead:It's that simple, just make a top ten and send it to me, I'll take care of all the number crunching nonsense!
What happens next is that I will assign each position a point value, grand prix style, so that first place votes are seen as more valuable than second place, and so on. The point values are as follows:
1 = 25 points
2 = 18 points
3 = 15 points
4 = 12 points
5 = 10 points
6 = 8 points
7 = 6 points
8 = 4 points
9 = 2 points
10 = 1 pointThat may seem confusing and semi random for people who don't follow F1, but the idea of the point system being set up the way it is is that consistency is valued over a lucky win. So an album with twenty third place votes will fare better than one with ten first place votes. Regardless, we want you to put some good thought into this. Every vote counts! The idea is to get a collective snapshot of what we, as MA forumgoers, see to be the best albums of the year. So give it a lot of thought and let your voice be heard!
As with all things, there are a few guidelines we ask you to follow, but they're all quite simple, common sense rules.
1) METAL ONLY!: This is for the METAL Archives, so it would be really friggin' weird if a bunch of non-metal clogged up the final chart. I don't care how great the new Idles album is, metal only. This will be measured by whether or not a band is on the archives. I don't claim to know every band, but I'll crosscheck ones I don't know against the database here, and if they don't have a page, your whole ballot goes in the internetical trash. This is very simple. The only exception is for bands who are on the archives but released a non-metal album, simply because I'm not about to split hairs and listen to every single album myself to make sure they all qualify. So to make it easy: An album like Opeth's soft stuff is eligible, but Kvelertak is not.
2) Make sure you vote for ten albums: If you can't think of ten great albums from this year, you don't really have any place deciding what was the best of the year.
3) Put your list in order: I'm assigning point values, it's important that they're in order. If you just give me something alphabetically with no determined ordering, I'll either just discard the entire ballot or change every vote to the new Metallic Ass album out of spite. In the event of a tie, the album with more higher placed votes counts, so an album with ten votes all for fourth place will rank above one with a hundred and twenty votes only for tenth place, so please, order them!
4) New, original material only: So no live albums or compilations or anything like that. This is simply so no pointless "best of" release or something shows up. Those are never in play unless it's something totally rerecorded and treated as a new release, which to my knowledge is extremely rare, and if there is such a case that you loved and want to vote for, just use your best judgment as to whether or not it's a standalone release or simply a "best of" collection with a new vocalist or something. So full lengths, demos, EPs, splits, etc. are all fair game. Live albums, compilations, box sets, rereleases, deluxe editions, etc. are not.
5) Only albums actually released in 2018: This should go without saying but I want to make it clear just in case. Be sure it actually came out this year, if you vote for some 2019 album because it was leaked in November, I will invent a way to slap you through your monitor.
6) One ballot per user: Again, should go without saying, but don't try to vote multiple times to inflate the numbers. I will notice and I'll just wipe your whole vote if you decide to be a numbskull.
7) Your account must have been registered before this thread was created: This shouldn't apply to pretty much all of you, but it's just to prevent duplicate sockpuppet accounts trying to game the system. Don't do that.
8) Don't be a dick: We're running on the honor system here, and I obviously can't police the intentions of everybody who votes, but please don't be a troll who votes in a bunch of crap you've never heard of for yuks. Nor should you vote in things you actually think are terrible as some weird form of protest. Nor should you vote the same album ten times. Nor should you vote for something your own band released. We're trusting you to take this seriously enough to have fun with this but not act like an idiot, just use common sense and don't waste our time.
And that's all there is to it! This thread is open for questions, simple discussion and nothing more. This gets some puzzled looks every year but what I mean is simply don't post your lists here before the final tally is done. It may seem minor but the last thing I want is to get weird results thanks to people not voting for something if it looks like they're already going to win or something (this happened last year with somebody openly saying they put Pallbearer lower on their list since it was probably getting a lot of votes anyway, and in the end they wound up only 2 points out of the Top 10). But if you want to say "Hey guys, if you liked the new Vomit Sodomy record, be sure to check out the new Goat Fucking Moonpocalypse too!" or something, that's more than welcome! The more people know about great albums, the better! The whole idea here is to get a snapshot of how MA feels and hopefully to introduce everybody to some great stuff they may not have heard of before. Treat this thread as a Q&A for me and a companion thread to the "Worthwhile Albums of 2018" thread, basically.
Also, just for fun and to shine some light on the fresh faces in the scene, there will also be an optional side vote for:
DEBUT OF THE YEARYou don't have to vote for this if you don't want to, but if you'd like to, you can also include ONE (1) vote for debut of the year. A valid debut is considered the same as above: new original material in any format. As long as it's their FIRST of the type. So a band's first ever release is obviously okay, but say a band has a demo that got them noticed and signed, and just released a full length debut this year, that full length would also count as long as it was released in 2018. ONLY VOTE FOR ONE OF THESE. Again, it's just a fun sidebar, and not required, but I really like the idea so I'm going for it.
THIS IS A NEW PART THAT REQUIRES YOUR PARTICIPATIONNormally, polls are open until
January 1st, 2019, MA time (so Eastern, or GMT -05:00), but last year I had a few complaints (beyond just that one dork I'm sure you remember) from people who thought the polls ended too quickly. Albums are still being released all throughout December, and people want more time to listen to everything and make their lists as accurate as possible. I start collecting votes early because I know a lot of people who finalize their lists this early, but some of you guys wait til the eleventh hour as well.
So! In the interest of fairness and the illusion of democracy,
you can now vote on when the polls close! I'll posit three options:
1) January 1st: This is the original date we've used the last two years and my personal preferred date. This allows me to get the final list posted as soon as possible after the year turns, when interest in lists like these are at their highest. Selfishly, it also helps that I'll have this day guaranteed off work, so I can focus on getting it done in one hit instead of splitting it across a few days while I do responsible adult shit.
2) January 8th: This is purely the Enlightened Centrist option. Select this if you love Roger Sherman.
3) January 15th: This is the date that was most often cited as a preferred date by people who were unhappy the last two years. This gives voters an extra two weeks into the new year to confidently and accurately solidify their lists in order to give the best representation of their ballot. Great albums do still come out in December (this happened last year with Nortt and the previous year with Batushka) and some people will want to spend extra time with them in order to make sure they get the representation they deserve. There's also a bonus in late bloomers who don't visit the forums too often to still get their lists in, as I've had a few disappointed people miss the deadline the last two years.
So there! As soon as a forum mod/admin wakes up and creates a poll for this, y'all will be able to vote on when you want the polls to close. The Poll for the Poll, if you will. I say we can leave that open for a week or two just so people will still have a few weeks to prepare before the month ends, but once it's decided, it will be finalized and I'll make another announcement just so everybody is on the same page.
Thank you all for your support these last few years and thanks for playing along this year as well if you so choose! Happy voting!