Encyclopaedia Metallum
Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives (commonly known as Metal Archives per the URL or just MA) is a website which lists bands from various forms of heavy metal music. However, there are exceptions; for subgenres which are not accepted by the website, see the site rules for further information.
Encyclopaedia Metallum attempts to provide additional information on each band, such as a discography, logos, pictures, lyrics, line-ups, biography, trivia and user-submitted reviews.
The site also provides a system for submitting bands to the archives, and users are encouraged to use it. As of April 2007, the site boasts 45,000+ bands listed, 108,000+ albums, 26,000+ reviews and 103,000+ registered users (72,000+ of which are "currently active") [1]
User interaction
As an incentive to get people to submit data, the site uses a "point" system, in which registered users gain points and move up ranks with the amount and value of data and information they submit. The more valuable and complete the information, the more points are awarded.
The website is notably completely free of advertisements, and as of March 2007 is run completely independently. Some however, question whether or not this affects the quality of the website. Since the middle of 2005, frequent visitors noticed that the site was often down, though the stability situation began to improve in the beginning of 2006. Through the first three months of 2007 the site ran relatively free of downtime, with the exception of late March.
Accepted bands
The site is known for its extremely strict rules, especially those which mandate band submissions. Encyclopaedia Metallum only accepts bands which it deems metal, but many bands that once were rejected were accepted later on, and vice versa. The only exceptions are: side projects of members of metal bands that have a release on a label with worldwide distribution, bands that are no longer considered to be metal, but were in the past and grindcore bands that bear close similarities to death metal.
Power metal, gothic metal, and some of the extreme metal related bands that fall into black metal, death metal, thrash metal, speed metal and doom metal (with the exception of drone doom) genres, have no further specific restrictions aside from "proof of existence".
Traditional/heavy metal and NWOBHM genres have stringent rulings; users are warned in the rules section, to consider bands submitted under these classifications as "ambiguous", in the sense that if a band is submitted with these terms as their genre, the music will be extensively reviewed by the moderators before they decide whether or not to accept the band onto the website.[2] This is because in the past, some submissions labelled with those genres have turned out not to be metal, according to the site's guidelines..
Additionally, there are some non-metal bands featured on the site that are considered to be part of the metal scene despite not being metal themselves (usually dark ambient and folk bands, examples being Mortiis, Elend, Autumn Tears, Stille Volk, etc). These bands are selected by the moderators in an admittedly arbitrary fashion, and their submission by normal users is discouraged.[3]
Bands excluded by the website
Genres that are sometimes associated with extreme metal, such as grindcore and hardcore, are also absent as they are seen to have more in common with punk than metal. Glam metal is rejected if the website owners consider the band more hard rock than metal. Industrial metal is only allowed if the site' staff consider it "more metal related than industrial", for example; the band Rammstein is not allowed, while Ministry is (based on the newer output of this band which has incorporated a lot of thrash influence).
Bands that are associated with the nu metal or mallcore labels are completely forbidden and have been since the website started. Many users believe that metalcore bands have been completely banned from the website since a bulletin was posted that simply stated, "Please stop submitting -core bands. Please." [1] However, this is false; many metalcore bands appear on the archives and many more have been added since the bulletin was posted, but the moderators have become more strict on what metalcore bands can be added and generally work case-by-case rather than saying all, or zero, metalcore bands will be accepted. Most of the metalcore bands that are allowed are the ones heavily influenced by melodic death metal. The metalcore bands that typically get rejected are ones that sound like Hatebreed, Zao, Diecast, The Dillinger Escape Plan and Avenged Sevenfold.
The site runners have standards which exclude some bands that are considered by some sites (such as the BBC[4] and Allmusic [5] and others) as founding and definitive heavy metal acts, such as Led Zeppelin and Blue Cheer; the website's runners consider these acts as hard rock, despite their often-attributed influence and history. However, there are some websites specialising in rock and metal music that, like Encyclopaedia Metallum, also exclude Led Zeppelin [6] or just mention Led Zeppelin as "hard rock" [7].
In fact, many of what are often viewed as the original 1970s heavy metal bands are missing from the website, such as Blue Öyster Cult, Uriah Heep, Vanilla Fudge, The Cactus, Dust, Power of Zeus and many more. Users have questioned these exclusions on the website's messageboard in the past.[8] On the other hand, other 1970s bands such as the Flower Travellin' Band, Scorpions, Sir Lord Baltimore, Rush, Rainbow, Thin Lizzy, Budgie and Pentagram are accepted.
History
The Encyclopaedia Metallum was founded in 2002 by two Canadians using the pseudonyms HellBlazer and Morrigan. They have been interviewed twice about their site. The first interview was given to the now defunct MetalGospel.com site, and the second interview was given to the Finnish magazine Miasma during May and June of 2005, and the issue was published in mid-October of the year.
Trivia
- The process of being banned from contributing to the site has been nicknamed "Dursted", named after Fred Durst (lead singer of Limp Bizkit).
- All new members start off with the ranking of "mallcore kid" when joining as a member of the site. Some people get upset about being labeled as a mallcore kid on the website, but it's just a ranking on the site referring to the amount of points you have (the aforementioned are 0-point accounts).
- Finnish band Amorphis was the first band to be entered into the database. According to administrator Morrigan, there was no particular reason for this.
- Bands, such as Def Leppard and Stryper, are on the website, due to only one or two of the bands' albums meeting the websites specifications.
- Industrial rock/metal band Ministry was originally rejected since it was believed they were not metal enough. Recently, the band was accepted after their two recent albums. Another recent accepted band once blocked by the administration is the industrial group Pitchshifter based on their first three metal-influenced albums.
- There have been cases in which bands originally accepted have been later rejected. One example was pornogrind band, Cock and Ball Torture. Another was Skinlab, for the belief they were "too mallcore."
Notes
- ^ Encyclopaedia Metallum' statistics
- ^ Websites "rules"... heavy metal/hard rock to be considered "ambiguous"
- ^ Encyclopaedia Metallum's Guidelines
- ^ BBC.co.uk
- ^ Allmusicguide.com naming Led Zeppelin "the definitive heavy metal band"
- ^ Metal-rules.com does not cover Led Zeppelin
- ^ Rockdetector classifies Led Zeppelin as "hard rock"
- ^ 1970 Heavy metal.