The 2003 installment of the Finnish Metal Music Awards (Sirkkelirock 2003) was held this past Saturday (January 3) at Tavastia Club in Helsinki.
The winners are as follows:
Finnish Band of the Year: CHILDREN OF BODOM Finnish Newcomer of the Year: MACHINE MEN Finnish Album of the Year: KOTITEOLLISUUS – "Helvetistä Itään" International Band: IRON MAIDEN International Newcomer: EVANESCENCE International Album: IRON MAIDEN – "Dance of Death" Producer of the Year: Mikko Karmila Metal Video of 2003: KOTITEOLLISUUS – "Minä Olen" Metal Event of 2003: Tuska Metal Festival
In addition, Sirkkelirock presented a special Lifetime Achievement Award to CANNIBAL CORPSE for acknowledged work in metal music.
The true leaders of death metal CANNIBAL CORPSE will be heading back to the studio on September 15th, 2003 to start the recording process for the follow up to their highly praised release "Gore Obsessed". The band will once again record at Sonic Ranch Studios in El Paso, Texas with Neil Kernon. More information including the album title will be announced shortly.
The masters of death metal, CANNIBAL CORPSE, have just reached the one million mark for combined sales of all their albums. This is a great achievement not only for the band and label but also for all death metal bands out there. It is not very often a truly heavy metal band reaches the Platinum mark and it just goes to show that it is possible. CANNIBAL CORPSE is one of the most prominent death metal bands ever unleashed upon the scene and have not let up since they started in 1990. Only a truly remarkable band such as CANNIBAL CORPSE can continue to reach their fans and still mean something to the death and heavy metal world...and reaching the one million mark proves it! So big congratulations go out to CANNIBAL CORPSE from all their friends and fans here at Metal Blade! The band is set to record their new album in September at Sonic Ranch Studios in El Paso, Texas, with producer Neil Kernon.