Metal Hammer Golden Gods nominations announced

Metal Hammer has announced the nominations for the Golden Gods 2011 awards. Public voting begins today at metalhammer.co.uk/goldengods and the winners will be unveiled at a suitably debauched IndigO2 event on June 13.

Rob Zombie and Skindred have secured double nominations, while Iron Maiden go up against Bullet For My Valentine and feisty underdogs Bring Me The Horizon, Skindred and Architects in the Best UK Band category.

You can vote on the below nine categories, while Metal Hammer themselves will deliberate on a further nine - Best Album, Icon, Defender of the Faith, Spirit of Hammer sponsored by Jagermeister, Inspiration, Riff Lord sponsored by Jackson, Best Drummer, Global Metal and, of course, the ultimate none-more-metal accolade, the Golden God 2011.

Best International Band: Avenged Sevenfold, Dimmu Borgir, Stone Sour, Children Of Bodom, Down

Best UK Band sponsored by Roadrunner: Iron Maiden, Bring Me The Horizon, Skindred, Architects, Bullet For My Valentine

Best Live Band: Cancer Bats, Devildriver, Rob Zombie, Skindred, Machine Head

Best New Band: The Defiled, Kvelertak, Tesseract, The Damned Things, Letlive

Best Underground: Watain, Kylesa, Primordial, The Dead Lay Waiting, Clutch

Best Breakthrough: Parkway Drive, A Day To Remember, Sylosis, Sabaton, Volbeat

Shredder(s), sponsored by Blackstar: Gus G (Firewind, Ozzy Osbourne), Mark Tremonti (Alter Bridge), Alexi Laiho (Children Of Bodom), Mark Rizzo (Cavalera Conspiracy, Soulfly, Il Nino), Synyster Gates (Avenged Sevenfold)

Metal As Fuck: Slayer, Behemoth, Slipknot, Zakk Wylde, Deftones

Event Of The Year: Rob Zombie's return, Manowar's return, System Of A Down reforming, The Big Four UK announcement, Beavis And Butthead's resurrection