The winners of the 2022 Heavy Music Awards were unveiled at a sold-out ceremony at London’s O2 Kentish Town Forum on Sunday 5 June.
Established in 2017, the Heavy Music Awards invite several hundred members of the music industry to nominate acts from the previous calendar year for each of the awards’ open categories. The organisation then tallies the nominations to create shortlists, and the winners of each category are decided by public vote. Only two awards, The H and the Innovation Award, are not open to public voting.
Architects were the evening’s most awarded act, taking home both Best UK Artist and Best Album for the number one charting For Those That Wish To Exist. Bring Me the Horizon, who were named Best UK Artist three years in a row from 2019 to 2021, were awarded Best Single for ‘Die4U’. Meanwhile, Enter Shikari were named Best Live Artist and fast-rising crossover artist Cassyette claimed the title for Best UK Breakthrough Artist.
Castrop-Rauxel’s Electric Callboy became the second German act to win an HMA when they took home Best Video for ‘Pump It’, following in the footsteps of Best Live Band winners Rammstein in 2020. Elsewhere, On Wednesdays We Wear Black picked up Best Podcast, Mathieu Nozières' composition earned Best Album Artwork for Trivium's In The Court Of The Dragon, and Carl Bown and Bullet For My Valentine were awarded Best Production for the band’s self-titled album. In the international categories, Beartooth were crowned Best International Artist, while KennyHoopla took home the award for Best International Breakthrough Artist.
In the two categories not voted for by the public, While She Sleeps received the inaugural Innovation Award for their Sleeps Society platform, and Heavy Metal Truants took the stage to formally accept The H, which had been announced in May ahead of the ceremony this week.
