Four years ago, the 518’s metal, punk, and hardcore scene decided to give itself an awards show. Nobody else was doing it, so they built it themselves. The Extreme Music Awards returns to Empire Live on Saturday, January 16 for its fourth consecutive ceremony — the only awards show in the country devoted entirely to metal, punk, hardcore, and everything heavy.
About the Show
The EMA covers the full spectrum of the region’s extreme music community. Genre-specific band awards span Death/Black Metal, Doom/Stoner, Power/Prog Metal, Thrash Metal, Deathcore, Metalcore, Punk/Ska, Hardcore, Beatdown, and Hardcore Punk. Individual musician categories recognize the best vocalists, guitarists, bassists, and drummers working the regional circuit. Album of the Year, Video of the Year, Lifetime Achievement, Best New Band, and Best Veteran Band round out the slate — all decided by community vote. No industry panel. The 518 scene picks its own.
At last year’s ceremony, Deveria swept the individual musician categories: guitarist Roman Singleton, bassist Marvin Veeder, and drummer Phil Shannon (also of Violent By Design and Balor) each took home awards, with the band’s album The Final Hour claiming Album of the Year. The Antarctican’s Alex Roumanidakis won Best Vocalist. In the genre categories, Invoke Thy Wrath took Best Death/Black Metal, Jupiter Queen won Best Doom/Stoner, and The Lycan claimed Best Metalcore. Mark Garrett received the Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously. KAKOS took Best New Band; 1000 Yrd Stare won Best Veteran Band. Community voting for the 2027 class opened September 1; official nominees will be announced in late fall.
The event runs across two days: a pre-show concert on Friday, January 15, followed by the main awards ceremony Saturday evening. The Black Carpet photo experience returns alongside the ceremony. The EMA is built from the 518 scene’s own media infrastructure — Upstate Black and Blue Productions, RadioRadioX, 93.9 WABY, That Fuzzing Rock Show, and 518Scene.com — and the organizers frame it as the biggest 518 event of the year.
Venue & Logistics
Empire Live — which the organizers call “the home of metal, punk and hardcore in Upstate NY” — hosts the ceremony at 93 N. Pearl Street in the Capital Region. Start time is listed at 6:00 p.m.
Tickets
No ticket price for the 2027 ceremony was available at the time of publication; past editions have priced tickets at $15–$20. Tickets are on Ticketmaster. Buy tickets