The 2010 Platinum Vinyl Awards: Best Rock Album of the Year

This is it. The Final Album of the Year Award for the Inaugural Platinum Vinyl Awards: Rock. This is where the hopes and dreams of Christian Rockers everywhere are either fulfilled or dashed. I mean anyone can win a Dove or a Grammy Award. How many can say that they've won a Platinum Vinyl Award. Right now, because of a few ties, twelve. It's the elite award.

For review, the final seven nominees:

• Monster, Monster - The Almost
• Real Life - Lincoln Brewster
• For Your Consideration - Evolett
• For Those Who Wait - Fireflight
• Hanging on by a Thread - The Letter Black
• Satellites and Sirens - Satellites and Sirens
• Tonight - Toby Mac

Things went smoothly for the final Album of the Year Award of the Evening, as four artists were eliminated in the first round. Since this was neither horseshoes or handgrenades, The Almost didn't count (a very bad pun, I know). Nobody Said Real Life was fair, but the voting process still eliminated Lincoln Brewster. We considered Evolett, and for this round, they were out, but they could still be New Artist or Group of the Year in the General Field. And though Satellites Beam signals and Sirens scream, well, not this time. To see how it all came down, continue after the break.
A Three-Way final showdown between showstopper Toby Mac, newcomers The Letter Black and the Unbreakable but Desperate Fireflight. 

And the Platinum Vinyl Award for Best Rock Album of the Year for 2010 goes to:

For Those Who Wait - Fireflight 

This decision will be sure to spark a lot of conversation. All three had the wow factor. All three "deserved" to win, and all three, once they learned they were nominated, could have expected to go home with the award. Toby Mac is, well, Toby Mac. He got John Cooper of Skillet to assist him. Nuff said. But still, it wasn't enough to win. The Letter Black upped the game with their full CD release. There was enough new material on it to justify the purchase even if you had gotten the Breaking The Silence EP. There will be many more appearances of this band in awards ceremonies in the future, but for now, they still have some dues to pay, as they say. Their time will come.

Fireflight's third release knocked my socks off. Dawn Michelle's vocals soar on this album. I had the privilege of seeing them in concert, and, Live, you have to wonder if they've been misclassified and they should be in the Hard Rock genre against the likes of Demon Hunter, I have heard none harder, and I've been to many Heavy Metal Concerts. Suffice it to say that you have an awesome CD, and pair it with an even more awesome live set (usually the live set suffers a bit due to the lack of production controls) and you have the first Best Rock Album of The Year Winner.

That concludes the Album of The Year awards. Congratulations all. We move on to the general field, and the first up is Comeback Artist of The Year at the half-hour.