The ESP Guitar Company

Online rock/metal magazine Loudwire is getting ready to host their inaugural Loudwire Music Awards ceremony on October 24 at the Novo in downtown Los Angeles, and it looks like the show is going to be killer! More importantly -- for us, anyway -- darn near every category has ESP players among the nominees, and some categories are nearly full of musicians and bands with ESP players in them. Official voting has opened, so if you want to show your support for these great ESP players listed below, visit their site and do it now!

Below are the nominated ESP players and their bands in their respective categories. 

HARD ROCK ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Korn (ESP player: Brian "Head" Welch)

METAL ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Code Orange (ESP player: Reba Meyers)
Mastodon (ESP player: Bill Kelliher)
Metallica (ESP players: James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett)

METAL ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Mastodon, Emperor of Sand (ESP player: Bill Kelliher)
Metallica, Hardwired…To Self-Destruct (ESP players: James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett)

HARD ROCK SONG OF THE YEAR
Of Mice & Men, “Unbreakable” (ESP player: Alan Ashby)

METAL SONG OF THE YEAR
DragonForce, “Ashes of the Dawn” (ESP player: Frédéric Leclercq)
Obituary, “Sentence Day” (ESP players: Ken Andrews and Terry Butler)
Pallbearer, “I Saw The End” (ESP player: Devin Holt)

BEST LIVE BAND
Anthrax (ESP player: Frank Bello)
Behemoth (ESP players: Nergal, Orion, and Seth)
The Dillinger Escape Plan (ESP player: Ben Weinman)

MOST DEDICATED FANS
Babymetal (ESP players: Kami Band)
Rammstein (ESP player: Richard Z. Kruspe)

BEST GUITARIST
Bill Kelliher, Mastodon (w/Brent Hinds)

BEST BASSIST
Frank Bello, Anthrax