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13th Moon | May 17, 07:25 |
Emissary | May 17, 07:24 |
Dark Nazarian | May 17, 07:21 |
Regicide | May 17, 07:13 |
Deride | May 17, 07:07 |
Blind Maniac | May 17, 07:07 |
Intestinal Laceration | May 17, 07:06 |
Dechristianized | May 17, 06:57 |
Narrative | May 17, 06:55 |
Sencezium | May 17, 06:48 |
Type O Negative | Slow, Deep and Hard | May 17th |
Boris | W | May 17th |
Power Trip / Integrity | Integrity / Power... | May 16th |
Mirror | The Day Bastard... | May 16th |
Inanna | Void of Unending... | May 16th |
Romulox | The Three Kings | May 16th |
Messa | Feast for Water | May 16th |
Aftermath | There Is... | May 16th |
Death Angel | The Ultra-Violence | May 16th |
Onslaught | The Force | May 16th |
High Noon | The New Life Dawning | May 16th |
Mercyless | Sure to Be Pure | May 16th |
Lazarus A.D. | The Onslaught | May 15th |
Macabre Idolatry | Macabre Idolatry | May 15th |
Beign | 1911 | May 15th |
Serenity | Death & Legacy | May 15th |
Ibaraki | Rashomon | May 15th |
Venom Prison | Erebos | May 15th |
Ares | Mother Earth to... | May 15th |
Haunter | Discarnate Ails | May 15th |
Mendel | Equilibrium | May 17th |
Emissary | Emissary | May 17th |
Auraal | Morbid Fears and... | May 17th |
Caelus | The Voyager, Pt. 1 | May 17th |
Zeke Deux | Advance to Glory | May 18th |
Necroveg | Gluttony | May 18th |
矢島舞依 | Metamorphose | May 18th |
Shiningstar | We Were Here | May 18th |
Warred | The Siren | May 19th |
Dark Ages | Between Us | May 19th |
Sailor Hunter | Sailor Hunter | May 19th |
Sadist | Firescorched | May 20th |
Sadistic Ritual | The Enigma,... | May 20th |
Drift into Black | Earthtorn | May 20th |
Inciter | Dark Daggers of... | May 20th |
Anvil | Impact Is Imminent | May 20th |
Gronibard | Regarde les... | May 20th |
Evergrey | A Heartless... | May 20th |
Spheric Universe Experience | Back Home | May 20th |
Malevolence | Malicious Intent | May 20th |
You've probably noticed that on every band page we list the band's status. There are six options: active, on hold, split-up, unknown, changed name, and disputed. Typically, it's our policy that a band is listed as "active" unless proven otherwise (i.e. there's an official statement from the band saying that they're taking a break (thus, on hold), have changed their name (self-explanatory), or have decided to call it quits (and therefore split-up)). The "unknown" status is a placeholder, intended only to be used when there hasn't been activity from a band - even in the form of gigs and communication with fans - for a long time. The "disputed" status is for special cases involving band members claiming ownership of a band and deciding to take it in different directions - think Batushka or English Dogs.
When a band member dies, so long as there are other band members, and it's not just a solo project, do not change the band's status from "active". Wait until the band has made a statement about their plans before doing so. Just because a band member has died - even the frontman of the band - it does not necessarily mean the band is immediately over. The remaining band members may choose to keep playing, or take a break, or quit, but give them time to grieve and figure that out first. Sometimes a statement may never be given, but context is important, and we'll have a better sense of the band's status at a later point in time.
This is also true for other circumstances that might impact the lives of band members. Just because a band member may be charged with a crime and/or is incarcerated does not necessarily mean the band is automatically "on hold" or "split-up". The same is true if everyone but one person leaves a band; the band could remain active, you don't know unless the band says otherwise.
In any case, tl;dr: ideally, wait until the band makes a statement on its status before changing its status on MA.
Thank you. \m/
Greetings, all! It's almost that time of the year again - time for our classic reviews challenge!
This challenge is a time-honored tradition among our reviewers here. Every spring and autumn, reviewers are encouraged to spend a week writing and submitting as many quality reviews as possible. The challenge is focused on virgin albums: those with no reviews so far.
Every day, the reviews submitted and accepted are tallied, so that participants can see how they compare with one another and whether or not, altogether, we've been able to surpass previous challenges' totals. There's no prizes or rewards except knowing that you've given a review to an album that didn't previously have one. There's also bragging rights for the most reviews, if that matters to you. Please read this thread for the rules and to discuss the challenge!
The challenge is named in memory of our friend Diamhea, a long-time contributor to the challenge and staff member here at Metal Archives, who sadly passed away on May 21st, 2018. He was the first person to have ever written 100 reviews for a single challenge!
The challenge will start one month from now at 12:00AM EST on Monday June 6th and will run until 11:59PM EST on Sunday June 12th.
Everyone is welcome to participate - all you have to do is submit reviews as usual during that week.
Looking forward to your participation! \m/
You know, every year I think nobody will be fooled by the joke, and yet... Some of you always provide some amusement. No, we're not really getting rid of genres, that would be really silly. Happy April Fools.
If you haven't been living under a rock for the past week, you probably already heard about the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces.
In these dark times, please consider donating to help with the situation over there. Every little bit can help!
Based on what we keep seeing in the band queue, I'd like to remind our contributors that approving band submissions solely based on one digital (one-track) single release is still the exception rather than the norm. I know that a previous news post on the matter states that one single can be acceptable in certain contexts (ex. with such unusual length that one might as well call it an EP; in addition to other criteria such as cover art and downloadability being met), however as a rule of thumb and for the overwhelming majority of cases there should be at least two before we'll even begin to review the submission for any other requirements. This particularly holds true if the band is playing a borderline genre, since multiple singles can offer a better picture than one, even if it is comparably lengthy, although moderators may opt to reject a submission even so if the available music so far remains ambiguous.
Also, there is no 5-minute rule.
The end of the year is nearly upon us, which means it's time for the Album of the Year poll for 2021!
How does it work? Select your top ten metal albums of the year; they have to be metal, they have to be new, original material, they have to be on MA, and they have to have been released in 2021. Put your list in order, with #1 being the album you liked the most. Once you're certain you have your list, send it to BastardHead by private message (pm) on the forum. You have until 12:00AM EST on January 1st, 2022 to submit your list to him.
You get one ballot, and your account on MA must've been registered before November 30th, 2021 in order to participate. Please read the first post here for more details on the way the poll works.
The results of the poll will (ideally) be announced on January 1st, 2022 or shortly thereafter. In the meantime, feel free to discuss the poll in the thread located here.
EDIT: Results can be found here.
Have fun, and look forward to the results. \m/
Wow, that little joke blew up, huh? Cool to see so many people enjoying the feline band pictures. So much so that our traffic more than doubled, and the server had a hard time keeping up. Sorry about the slowness!
Thanks to Black Metal Cats Twitter, sadanduseless.com, various cat pic subreddits, and many, many other random sources from Google Image Search for the material.
Happy April Fools to all, and by general demand, if you want to keep browsing MA with cats instead of humans... Now you can!
Here's a few items regarding some largely unrelated things we've noticed during the last year or so of working on the site and which either (to my knowledge) aren't explicitly addressed in the rules or may need an explicit refresher here. Nothing really major, but I feel they warrant some clarification regardless.
Over the past few months, the staff has had another look at the site's policy in regard to what constitutes a valid digital release (specifically one needed for a band to be acceptable), attempting to further minimize the arguable special treatment of physical releases relative to digital ones. Some of you may already have noticed that certain requirements have seen some loosening again considering newly approved bands, in particular when it comes to digital singles and production quality in general. We would now like to make certain things explicitly clear in this news post, highlighting two major changes.
1) Streaming-only releases are now valid, if and only if they are available through an officially sanctioned reputable distributor. This most prominently includes Spotify, but also other big outlets such as Apple Music, Amazon Music, Tidal and Deezer. The list is not exhaustive and subject to expansion over time as we see fit. Youtube/Youtube Music is NOT acceptable, unless of course a download link is included in the video description. Additionally, streaming-only releases on music-promotional sites that normally/potentially do come with a download option are also not acceptable, i.e. SoundCloud, Bandcamp, ReverbNation, VKontakte, etc. Of course, downloadable releases from such sites are still valid; nothing has changed in that regard, but when it comes to streams, we want to stick to the more prominent, dedicated sites for now.
2) We have decided to become more inclusive concerning bands with only digital singles, as opposed to the previous, restrictive approach where only exceptional and multiple single releases would qualify for a select few cases. The basic requirements and guidelines are as follows:
Please don't upload logo collages (multiple logos in one image) to band pages. We will eventually support uploading multiple logos and pictures from different periods, but for now, just the most recent logo is enough (or the most recognizable/classic logo in the case of a split-up band).
Thanks.