First of all, congrats to MetalSucks Maniac Mykee Shaffer for winning our first (possibly annual?) Heavy Metal Halloween contest! Mykee got some help from his girlfriend, who does special effects make-up (you can check out her work here), and the amount of effort he put into both his costume and the photos of said costume really blew us away. Mykee wins a special prize pack, courtesy SPV. Gggggoooo Mykee!!!

Now, as proud as we are of Mykee, the truth is we got a LOT of great entries. So even though we had no plans to have a runner-up to this contest, we are, in fact, going to have one, who will win another prize pack, contents TBD. The catch is, we’re having a such a hard time deciding who the runner-up should be, that we’re leaving it up to you, our beloved readers. So after the jump, check out some of the best entries we received from readers who ain’t Mykee, and then vote on who YOU think should win!

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Earlier this month, we told you about new “Heavy Metal Halloween” contest, in which we’re teaming up with SPV to give away a prize pack full of awesome surprise goodies! We’ve already gotten some great entries, but there’s still time for you to try and win — the contest doesn’t end until midnight EST this Sunday, October 31!

In case you forgot, here’s how to enter:

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We already do “Heavy Metal Hannukkah” and “Antichrist Christmas” every year, and Halloween is way more metal than either of those holidays, so this year we figured, hey, why not? We’re teaming up with SPV to give away a prize pack full of awesome surprise goodies. Here’s how to win:

• TAKE A PICTURE OF YOURSELF IN YOUR HALLOWEEN COSTUME. Make sure you’re either holding a sign that says “MetalSucks,” or standing near some MetalSucks merch, or in some way proving that it’s actually you in the photo, and you didn’t just steal someone else’s pic off the web or whatever.
• E-MAIL THAT PHOTO TO NEWS [AT] METALSUCKS [DOT] NET with the phrase “Heavy Metal Halloween” in the subject line by no later than midnight EST on Sunday, October 31.
• Axl and Vince will choose their favorite costume, and the winner gets the SPV prize pack.
• Don’t send us a photo if you’re not prepared to have it published on the site.
• Unfortunately, this contest is open to U.S. residents only.

And that’s it! We’re stoked to see what shit you guys come up with. Good luck, and try not to kill any children with poison candy this Halloween.

-AR & VN

It’s always sad to see any metal label, let alone a reputable one, bite the dust. But you can’t say SPV didn’t have it coming. SPV put out plenty of quality records over the years, but it seems like recently we received in inordinately high amount of promos from head-scratchingly obscure European bands on SPV; I’m thinking, “these make you guys money? ok then…” After all, it is a business.

So is SPV really going away or what? Here’s the money quote in a recently released lengthy statement from the label:

“An ongoing international artist relationship and export business is planned…”

Translation: the label will continue on selling their catalog and repacking their most popular albums in special editions, box sets, compilations and greatest hits collections. And why not? It’s easy money. Sad to see the core label go, though.

-VN