The KISS veteran was awarded the Legend title at the prizegiving, held at London's IndigO2 venue, while Queen guitarist May was handed the Riff Lord prize and Megadeth frontman Mustaine won the ceremony's most coveted award, the Golden God.

Mustaine took a 'selfie' picture with the audience from the stage and uploaded it to Twitter.com, adding, "Thanks to @MetalHammer for such a great night! I am still smiling and so humbled..." while May took a picture with his award and wrote, "Thanks Metal Hammer for naming me Riff Lord, and for a great evening..."

Slipknot won Best International Band, Bring Me The Horizon were named Best U.K. Band and Of Mice & Men won the Best Live Band award. Other winners include KISS guitarist Tommy Thayer, who was named Defender of the Faith, Richie Faulkner won the Dimebag Darrell Shredder Award and Faith No More won Best Album for Sol Invictus.