Encyclopaedia Metallum

This site has alot of flack for their monopoly on "metal" but, MA is so useful of a resource. I discovered 100s of badass bands, never mind the awful reviews though, not sure why they get accepted in the first place if their rules are so strict? However go into their message board, they will bash you, if you are not liberal you should stay out of their political talks. They are very pro-Obama.

I use that site a lot for discographies and track listings of more obscure bands.

the forum is shit but the site is good for resource.

ok. i'm gonna rant for abit but they say that Hard Rock bands are not allowed but Geoff Tate's solo stuff (not including his Operation: Mindcrime or other QR band) get's allowed?. now they allow non-metal off shoot bands OF Metal bands?. yeah. so that get's accepted but Praying Mantas does not 'cos they are a Hard Rock band?...but they allow Non-Metal bands that are a off-shoot of said Metal band?. the logic is f*cking broken there and you can't even call 'em out on it.

Their definition of what is and isn't heavy metal is dumb.

Lari wrote:

Their definition of what is and isn't heavy metal is dumb.

agreed 100%, it's arbitrary as hell. i especially agree with the instance of Praying Mantis.

Certainly a forum and site for self described elitists with holier than though attitudes. The data base is OK but the mod's are such dicks that it is a sin to even use the DB.

OF note I have going back in forth for about 6 years, I retry from time to time, to add the Metal Church self titled cassette on their own Ground Zero records and the mods keep saying it doesn't exist and threatening to ban me. I have even sent in pictures of it and they still bag on me. Just illogical and not very enjoyable group. As mentioned I avoid on principle.

I genuinely believe Metal-Archives is the single greatest website to ever exist. I'd get rid of google before getting rid of MA.

The rules are strict, but I take no issue with them. The side projects thing makes sense to me. Geoff Tate is already on the archives, so you can definitely see the relation from his side project to metal. On the other hand, Praying Mantis isn't a metal band, so it makes sense that they wouldn't be on a metal database.

I think people take things personally in the sense of "if they don't accept this, it means they don't like it", which isn't the case. The reality is that it is an arbitrary set of rules set by a few people, but I have on genuine complaints with the database itself. I wish they'd add Alice Cooper, but that's one area where I disagree on the definition of metal with them. Genres aren't really a black and white thing, so I understand why they don't include certain bands. I believe they've stated that Rush is the only 100% exception to any of their rules.

As for the forum, it's definitely a strongly-opinionated group, but I find the people who struggle on their forums tend to also have strong personalities. It's like this forum: there's a lot of religious people here, so that's a route I'm not going to go down when I post on this site. It doesn't make me avoid this site, it's just a different way of posting.

I use it occasionally as a discography reference but I've never bothered with the forums.

They do have kind of a weird oppinion about what Metal is and what isn't. There are quite a few bands/musicians that should be there like Praying Mantis, Alice Cooper, Pretty Maids, Uriah Heep (they allowed DP but not Heep? makes no sense to me) among others.
But the reviews are always good for a laugh, a lot of them are so badly written and feel like they've been written by a 15 year old who has no clue about the music

Not to mention all of glam metal. Basically taking away perhaps the largest, most iconic and most popular era of heavy metal.

It's like if someone hypothetically decided Iron Maiden isn't NWOBHM (because they are popular or whatever), then writing a book about NWOBHM being careful not to mention Iron Maiden in any capacity. It seems very petty.

Their discographies are riddled with errors, but I definitely use it as a resource all the time. I mostly use it as a jumping off point for further research into a band. I rarely go to their forums.

I lurk their forums when I have free time at work and have exhausted all other time-killing sites I look at, mostly because I'm fascinated at the insane amounts of black metal albums people purchase and post pics of in the recent hauls thread.

I never got an extra liberal vibe, but I guess I don't look at political threads, and I always assume most metalheads are not liberals anyway so. I'm down with that part then, but I come to music message boards to talk about music. I'd rather talk about bands I enjoy with 10 conservatives than listen to 1 liberal talk about bands I don't like...so...I don't even know what I'm saying. I prefer this board, I guess is what I'm saying.

I use it for the discographies of bands but I never go to their forums. The reviews on there are mainly downright laughable.

Fat Freddy wrote:

I use it occasionally as a discography reference but I've never bothered with the forums.

Yea, that about sums it up for me too.

It's ok. I prefer spirit-of-metal.com.

mc666 wrote:

It's ok. I prefer spirit-of-metal.com.

thanks Monty

I don't think I have ever been there. The forums, I mean. I have been to Encyclopedia Metallium in the past and I also check out Sleazeroxx and Heavy Harmonies every now and again. I have lurked their forums in the past but they are not very active. Most topics seem to only get one or two responses and that's it.

mc666 wrote:

It's ok. I prefer spirit-of-metal.com.

I don't know that one. It's not Painkiller's site is it?

I think the Sleazeroxx forum is gone. That one used to be pretty fun and I discovered a ton of bands I never would have through that forum. But at the end, it was definitely dead and was basically three posters posting stuff...and one of those was a dude (presumably) pretending to be Stevie Rachelle from Tuff.

It's still there. I checked moments ago. They seem to have more discussions about everything else in the world except for music. Lol.

the sentinel wrote:

It's still there. I checked moments ago. They seem to have more discussions about everything else in the world except for music. Lol.

Ok...I see it now....that's weird dude. After they re-did the site I coulda sworn it was not on the bar at the top, but maybe I just missed it.

ZombieHavoc wrote:

the sentinel wrote:

It's still there. I checked moments ago. They seem to have more discussions about everything else in the world except for music. Lol.

Ok...I see it now....that's weird dude. After they re-did the site I coulda sworn it was not on the bar at the top, but maybe I just missed it.

That's funny. I visit that site quite regularly and never knew they had a forum.

the sentinel wrote:

mc666 wrote:

It's ok. I prefer spirit-of-metal.com.

I don't know that one. It's not Painkiller's site is it?

No. You are thinking of fortressofsteel.

I use it quite often to get info on bands.

I've never been to the forum, I only really like forums populated by cynical bitter twisted old people like myself. Oh! and this one, this one's cool

ShadowAngel wrote:

They do have kind of a weird oppinion about what Metal is and what isn't. There are quite a few bands/musicians that should be there like Praying Mantis, Alice Cooper, Pretty Maids, Uriah Heep (they allowed DP but not Heep? makes no sense to me) among others.
But the reviews are always good for a laugh, a lot of them are so badly written and feel like they've been written by a 15 year old who has no clue about the music

Ahem...

http://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Pretty_Maids/1197