Turns out, there are constantly new metal bands being formed and releasing music, and so we will never be fully complete? Who knew? :)

Happy April Fool's Day, everyone. Band submissions are open again. Here's to another 120,000 bands and more!

-Morrigan

Hello everyone!

It has been close to 16 years since we launched this site, never expecting at the time that it would grow the way it did. We are very proud of having helped the community build this amazing resource and we appreciate everyone's hard work over the last decade and a half or so.

But all good things must come to an end. We currently have over 120,000 bands, more than we ever thought possible. That is more than enough to declare our database 100% complete. Safe to say, no other resource comes close to being as thorough and comprehensive. Considering the continuing dilution of metal by outside musical influences, it is this unrivalled level of coverage of what may very well be called the birth, life and death of the genre that has led us to the decision to stop accepting new band entries as of today. When we started, we thought it'd be cool if we could get as many as 12,000 bands listed, some day in the distant future, but we have crushed this objective more than ten times over.

Don't worry, the Archives are not shutting down! Review submissions are still open, and for an undetermined amount of time, edits will still possible to fix whatever mistakes remain. But we have more than enough bands to be considered fully complete. All noteworthy bands have been catalogued, and then some. It's time to move on.

It's been a pleasure, everyone. \m/

- HellBlazer

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-Morrigan

Holy shit, we've reached 20!

The classic MA Virgin Reviews Challenge is back, and just as we reach the end of what has been a wild year!

This challenge is a time-honored tradition among our reviewers here. Every winter and every summer reviewers are encouraged to spend a week writing and submitting as many quality reviews as possible... with the aim to focus on albums with no reviews so far (ie. virgin albums). 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 starts at 12:00 AM EST on Monday December 4th and runs until 11:59PM EST on Sunday December 10th.

Everyone is welcome to participate - all you have to do is submit reviews as usual.

Looking forward to your participation! \m/

-Derigin

July 7, 2002: The first band was added to Metal Archives. ~117,000 bands later, here we are. We would like to thank all contributors, past and present (and future!), big and small, for their contributions to the site and making Encyclopaedia Metallum the definitive resource for metal.

If you are so inclined, head over to the official MA Facebook page to commemorate this milestone and share your favourite memories of the site.

\m/ \m/

-Zodijackyl

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-Azmodes

Greetings, all! It's that time of the year again - time for our classic MA Virgin Reviews Challenge!

This challenge is a time-honored tradition among our reviewers here. Every winter and every summer reviewers are encouraged to spend a week writing and submitting as many quality reviews as possible... with the aim to focus on albums with no reviews so far (ie. virgin albums). 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 currently running from today (June 5th) until 11:59PM EST on June 11th. Everyone is welcome to participate - all you have to do is submit reviews as usual.

Looking forward to your participation! \m/

-Derigin

The site will be going down for some quick maintenance around 11:30 PM EDT / 3:30 AM UTC. I'm told it shouldn't take more than 30 minutes.

EDIT: All done.

-HellBlazer

Yeah, you know the drill. We're not really doing the news thing (as was hopefully obvious).

-HellBlazer

Greetings, all! It's December yet again, and that means yet another MA Virgin Reviews Challenge!

First hosted over a decade ago, this challenge is a time-honored tradition among our reviewers here. Every winter and every summer reviewers are encouraged to spend a week writing and submitting as many quality reviews as possible, with the aim to focus on albums with no reviews so far (ie. virgin albums). 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!

This challenge will run from Monday December 12th @ 12:00AM EST to Sunday December 18th @ 11:59PM EST. Everyone is welcome to participate - all you have to do is submit reviews as usual.

ALSO, this year we're bringing back SECRET SATAN. In addition to the challenge, you can opt-in to the Secret Santa (Satan?) bonus round. In Secret Satan you will be matched up with another reviewer by yours truly. You will exchange with one another a virgin album for review and will commit to reviewing that album for the challenge. If you want to join Secret Satan, please read what you need to do here. Got any questions? Feel free to ask there!

Looking forward to your participation! \m/

-Derigin

A decision has been made somewhat recently to overhaul the "Links" tab, removing clutter, streamlining and determining what is/isn't pertinent for addition to band pages. We must emphasise that third-party links should only be added if they complement the existing info on the page, or provide tertiary info for extremely obscure bands. Wikipedia, Last.FM and Discogs links generally do not belong anywhere in the links section; Wikipedia links are notoriously unreliable on all fronts, while Last.FM pages are rarely directly operated by the band members themselves and do not add much, if any, encyclopedic value either way, as multiple "artists" with the same name are oftentimes bunched together.

Motivated by the prevalence of users point whoring and taking advantage of the "Unofficial" sub-tab, users need to take a step back and consider whether or not inundating bigger band pages with dozens of fan forums, off-site reviews and other means of clutter is really worth it from an encyclopedic standpoint. These links are oftentimes temporary at best, leading to more broken links than functioning ones only after a short time. Lastly, realize that merch and label links MUST redirect to a band-specific page on the site in question.

Thank you for your comprehension.

-Diamhea

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-Azmodes

Greetings, all! It's that time of the year again - time for our classic MA Virgin Reviews Challenge!

First hosted a decade ago, this challenge is a time-honored tradition among our reviewers here. Every winter and every summer reviewers are encouraged to spend a week writing and submitting as many quality reviews as possible... with the aim to focus on albums with no reviews so far (ie. virgin albums). 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 currently running from today (June 20th) until 11:59PM EST on June 26th. Everyone is welcome to participate - all you have to do is submit reviews as usual.

Looking forward to your participation! \m/

-Derigin