Paris, France (February 22, 2007)

Monstrous.com, the largest and most popular brand about monsters announced today the nominees and winners of The Monstrous Awards, which recognize the very best artists in the field of horror and paranormal. The Monstrous Awards is the leading international honour for monstrous artists and the innovators behind them.

The Monstrous Awards winners are revealed today in 4 main categories: books, movies, games and music.

The 5th Annual Monstrous Awards received a record 11 323 votes people from over 60 countries around the world speaking out for their favourite artists.

Monstrous movie of the year: Underworld: Evolution by Len Wiseman

The movie has been snobbed by most critics but features the best and most realistic monsters as well as a story that is renewing the whole genre. Special mention to the gorgeous Kate Beckinsale.

Monstrous game of the year: Gears Of War from Epic

With more than 3 millions units sold since it was released for Xbox 360 in November 2006, Gears of War is the best game of the year. It centers around the soldiers of Delta Squad as they fight to save the human inhabitants of the planet Sera from a relentless subterranean enemy known as The Locust Horde. The player assumes the role of Marcus Fenix, a former prisoner and war-hardened soldier.

Monstrous music of the year: Blood Mountain by Mastodon

Blood Mountain, the third album of the Atlanta Heavy Metal quartet, confirm their position as the greatest big-time metal band on earth.

Blood Mountain is filled with fantastical imagery; a concept album centered around a protagonist who must ascend a living, breathing mountain to obtain a crystal skull to achieve enlightenment, the tale involves shape shifters, sleeping giants, a one-eyed beast called a Cysquatch, half-human trees, and an Ice God among many other creatures.

“It's about climbing up a mountain and the different things that can happen to you when you're stranded on a mountain, in the woods, and you're lost. You're starving, hallucinating, running into strange creatures. You're being hunted. It's about that whole struggle.”

The sound is both melodic and brutal while the vocals, with guest spots from Neurosis' Scott Kelly, the Mars Volta's Cedric Bixler-Zavala, and Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme – put the lyrics to a new level.

Monstrous book of the year:The Stolen Child: A Novel by Keith Donohue

Inspired by W.B. Yeats' poem, "The Stolen Child" is a truly remarkable work on the ancient legend of the changeling and a coup de genie for Keith Donohue who signs his first novel. The book alternates between the tale of seven-year-old Henry Day, who is kidnapped by hobgoblins and turned into one of them, and the tale of the hobgoblin that replaces Henry and takes over his life. Aniday and Henry Day, like humans the world over, are plagued by questions of identity and belonging.