Top 10 Winners and Nominees of the Metal Storm Award "Best Metal Drama"

Metal Storm Awards were established in 2004 so they include only new stories.

The award "Best Metal Drama" is pretty funny because it awards the most "wonderful" scandals in metal that journalists love very much, especially because drama in metal is relatively rare.
Yes, scandals and drama in metal happen less often than in the other music genres - drama in metal just can't compare with rap, pop, grunge and rock, but there are some interesting stories.

For some reason in 2009 there were more scandals than usual and even the honorable mentions were "better" than some winners in other years.
Seems most of the negativity was concentrated in 2009 because in 2010 and 2011 there were no major scandals and there were no winners/awards.
The Top Ten
1 The Ozz Egg Incident (Sharon Osbourne vs Iron Maiden), 2005

Sharon Osbourne invited Iron Maiden to participate in Ozzfest but then she sabotaged their performance by orchestrating these things:

1) The beginning of Iron Maiden show was interrupted by loud chanting 'Ozzy, Ozzy' recorded on tape and played from the soundboard (this was repeated a couple of times during the show)

2) The power was cut off seven times during their show

3) Ozzy fans in the front row (including Kelly Osbourne) were throwing eggs, bottle caps, beer cups, and similar at Iron Maiden (security did nothing, they were obviously instructed)

4) Eddie, the band's mascot, was purposely delayed, only briefly appearing in the end of a song

5) During the performance of The Trooper, where Bruce always brings the English flag on stage, Ozzy fans rushed the stage with American flags. Mrs Osbourne missed the point because the song is about a battle of 1854 where no Americans participated

6) Then Bruce escalated the heat by a hard-hitting rant ending with this: "It's gonna take more than eggs to stop Iron Maiden, NOTHING is going to come between us and our fans, and it will be death before dishonor, this is Iron f****** Maiden! "

7) When Iron Maiden left the stage, Sharon took the mic and called Bruce 'a prick', after which she was booed off the stage.

2 The Tale of the Two QueensrÿcheS, 2012 (honorable mention)

In a band meeting, which singer Geoff Tate didn't attend, the band fired Tate's wife, their band manager since 2005, and Tate's stepdaughter, from running the fan club. Two days later, before a show in Brazil, Tate had an argument with his bandmates about the firing of his family. The confrontation became heated and Tate threw over the drum kit and physically assaulted Rockenfield and Wilton. Tate was expelled from the band and Todd La Torre was the new singer.

Tate and his wife filed a lawsuit against his former bandmates, claiming that he was illegally fired from the band.

The best part: the court ruled that BOTH parties may use the brand Queensrÿche until a court ruling or settlement would arrange otherwise. As a result, both parties had a band that used the name and brand of Queensrÿche from 2012 to April 2014. During this period both QueensrÿcheS toured and released an album.

Final verdict: Tate lost the brand Queensrÿche to Rockenfield, Wilton and Jackson. Tate solely has the right to play Operation: Mindcrime and Operation: Mindcrime II in their entirety.

3 Strato-drama: Timo vs Timo (Stratovarius), 2004

This is like a T.V. series that had over 1,000 episodes, sometimes changing the genre - from drama to action, to crime drama, to melodrama, and psycho thriller...
Timo Tolkki (guitarist) and Timo Kotipelto (singer) got pissed at each other and at a point used their lawers for communication.
Timo Tolkki is a talented guitarist and songwriter, as well as founder of Stratovarius. But he had personal problems such as chronic depression and suicidal feelings. Besides, in 2004 he was already an alcoholic which partly explains his behavior. Later, when he was sober, Tolkki realized what he had done and promised to be nice with his bandmates.
Back to 2004:
Timo Tolkki: "The band is mine! Jens may stay... everyone else - get the hell out! " But Jens Johansson pissed on Tolkki's leg while the band was performing "Forever" in Spain. This was Jens' way to express his loyalty to Tolkki.
Also, some fans believed that it was Tolkki who should've quit the band and events escalated. Tolkki hired 2 bodyguards but despite this measure he got assaulted with a knife in Spain (by Stratovarius fans).
After this Timo Tolkki was hospitalized for his suicidal feelings and chronic depression.

4 Ozzy vs Tony Iommi, 2009 (honorable mention)

In 2009 Ozzy took legal actions against Tony Iommi, "to protect Iommi from taking sole ownership of the Black Sabbath name". Ozzy claimed that the band was "literally in the toilet" and only thanks to his management company (I.e. Sharon, his wife) the net value of the "brand" name was resurrected.
That was ugly because:
1) Ozzy was kicked out of Black Sabbath in 1979 and Iommi was the man who tried to keep the band alive during all those 30 years
2) In the meantime, Ozzy was a Reality T.V. star in the Osbourne's, MTV star (solo), Pepsi pitch man, etc.
3) But Ozzy thought Iommi did nothing for the net value of Black Sabbath's "brand name"?!? What?

5 Drama Borgir: Dirty Laundry, 2009

Former keyboardist Mustis and bassist ICS Vortex left the band together but this wasn't the most dramatic thing although rarely 2 members quit at the same time.
What made journalists happy was that the band members aired their dirty laundry in a way that "exceeds any Tolstoy's masterpieces in length and perhaps matches the Encyclopedia Britannica in word count."
It was the winner of 2009 because usually metal musicians don't do this.

6 The Gorgoroth-ing: Black metal drama, 2007

Gaahl and King ov Hell (Gorgoroth) tried to kick out Infernus.

Gaahl and King ov Hell "sent a text message through Satan's Message Service to Infernus saying his pale corpsepainted ass was kicked out of the band." Gaahl and King claimed the rights to the band name, with King having made a trademark application the previous month.

However, they forgot one thing: Infernus is the sole founding member of Gorgoroth (he founded it in 1992). In March 2009 (I.e. after 1 year and a half) a court verdict recognised Infernus as the legitimate user of the name and that "Gaahl and King had excluded themselves from Gorgoroth upon attempting to remove the founding member."

7 F Factor Finale: Direct Elimination 'Fear Factory vs Fear Factory', 2009 (honorable mention)

Former band members Burton Bell and Dino Cazares, who had left the band, decided to reunite and reform as Fear Factory. However, Christian Wolbers and Raymond Herrera, the other half of Fear Factory, were still active as Fear Factory as well. Herrera explained that the four original members (Bell, Cazares, Wolbers, and Herrera) were contractually regarded as Fear Factory Incorporated, leading to a stalemate between the two factions.

Fear Factory featuring Bell and Cazares was scheduled to make its live debut in Spain in 2009, but the show was canceled "at the last minute" due to the legal complications mentioned by Herrera. Many other planned shows in 2009, including those in the UK, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand, were also canceled.

Cazares stated that he could never work with Wolbers and Herrera again because he felt they were too focused on money. He also criticized the music they recorded on the album Archetype for being too similar to the band's earlier output. And so on...

8 Spreading the Feces: Danthrax No More, 2009 (honorable mention)

Anthrax frontman Dan Nelson was kicked out of the band. Benante told BLABBERMOUTH.NET that Nelson was a bully. Nelson denied.
Events escalated when Nelson claimed Anthrax gained fans because of him and when he filed a $2.65-million lawsuit against his former bandmates.

9 Immortal Split: Eternal, Internal and External Conflicts, 2015
10 Black Sabbath: Ozzy vs Bill Ward, 2015 (honorable mention)
The Contenders
11 Drama Of The Year: No Drama (2010)
12 Ashes Against All Common Decency: Agalloch split, 2016

John Haughm caused a sudden breakdown in the relationship between the band members by kicking out the other three members.

13 Drama on Fire: Rhapsody (Of Fire), 2006

Rhapsody had to change their name due to copyright and trademark issues. Changing a band name is always more or less dramatic but the guys from Rhapsody made the process even harder for the fans by choosing the name "Rhapsody Of Fire". Not all fans liked it.
But one thing can't be denied - Luca Turilli probably said the most 'power metal' words ever: "The power of the dragonflame will burn brighter than ever before".

14 Metal Storm vs Wikipedia, 2008
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