The idea of a heavy-metal awards show, replete with paparazzi flashbulbs and celebrity wranglers, seems a bit odd. Metal is outsiders’ music, forged in dank garages by fans for whom Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister is a sex object. But it’s also a competitive genre in which bands hone skills that can be quantified and graded.  The comparative merits of Coldplay versus Alison Krauss and Robert Plant are opaque; questions of which drummers can play 16th kick notes at 180 bpm are debates with answers.

The first American edition of the Revolver Golden Gods Awards, curated by metal magazine Revolver and held Tuesday night at Club Nokia in L.A. Live, attempted to settle those epochal arguments in a kind of anti-Grammys. The night’s centerpiece was a performance by L.A. thrash pioneers Megadeth alongside younger acts such as Killswitch Engage and Suicide Silence. Metal awards wounds are still raw from Jethro Tull’s unlikely 1989 Grammy win for best hard rock/metal performance over Metallica, so the Golden Gods seemed more of a codifying of metal virtues including ability, ferocity and work ethic. And, yes, finally getting a consensus pick as to the “hottest chick in metal.”