Metal Hammer’s online excellence awards winners have been announced today.

The Golden Gods Awards is fast approaching, and while it rewards the best bands and people of our humble metal sphere, no one is rewarding the sites that keep us all in the loop and entertained. As such Hammer decided to stage the first Web Of Death Awards, to promote those online unsung heroes.

And the winners are [hurriedly opens gold card envelope]

Best News:
www.blabbermouth.net
Best bit: exhaustive news broken first, the metal world’s finest news resource!

Best Reviews
http://www.metalsucks.net
Best bit: honest, insightful, unpretentious – and fun – reviews.

Best Multi Media Metal Portal
http://www.metalunderground.com
Best bit: great online live photo gallery

Defender Of The Faith Award
www.metalrage.com
Best bit: very honest columns about music, the scene and related lifestyle topics.

Ozzy Award for Randomness
www.metal-rules.com
Best bit: heavy metal comic strip ‘Diamond In The Rough’ ft King Diamond!

Best Personal Blog
http://rayvanhornjr.blogspot.com
Best bit: very knowledgeable (and personal), in depth reviews, commentary, lists and features.

And we added one for two extra sites that deserved recognition!

The Bill & Ted Award for ‘Excellent!’s
www.punktastic.com
Best bit: punk by name punk by nature, they answer to no one! The best punk/hardcore/emo blog.

www.smnnews.com/
Best bit: loads of daily news bullet-ins including video/gig/music announcements.

Thanks to all the sites and blogs! Keep defending the faith!