Frequently Asked Questions

Please don't e-mail the webmasters or individual mods about this, chances are they are not the ones who rejected the band in question. There's a sticky thread dedicated specifically to this question in the suggestions and complaints forum, please post your queries there.

You can tell us about it in the following forum thread.

E-mails are not the correct way to ask for changes that you can't make by yourself. There's a "Report an error" button on each band, album, artist and label page (to the right of the page title) that can be used to report information that needs changing. You can also provide links to new pictures, see the question about images further down for more info.

That's not how the site works. No one is the "owner" of each band page, so who submitted a certain band doesn't matter. We also don't give special permissions to band members because the site must remain a neutral source of information. If something is inaccurate or missing on your band page, please send a report, as detailed in the previous question.

You can delete your account from this page when you're logged in. Do note that this is permanent.

Use the "Report an error" button on the appropriate band/album/label/artist page, then describe the error AND what changes need to be made. If at all possible PLEASE provide a source (website, link to an image scan or mp3, etc), especially if you claim the genre is wrong. And make sure the report category is accurate.
And whatever you do, please do NOT email us or post it on the forums, unless you are not sure about what the correction entails and prefer to discuss it with others first. Otherwise we'll just refer you to the report page.

If it's a serious report, you were not ignored - we just have many, many reports in the queue. Some can stay in there for several weeks, unfortunately. We do our best to take care of them, but it gets difficult with so many reports, often false or with misplaced priorities. Please be patient. If it's been more than six weeks, and nothing has been done and you are SURE the report is accurate, you may resubmit it (and mention it's a re-submit).

See the questions above regarding reports. Use this to submit the picture. You should upload the picture to a website such as ImageShack or Imgur (free, no registration required), and then send us the direct link to the image in your report. Make sure the picture meets the size requirements.

If you did sign up, but never received the activation email, first check your junk/bulk mail folder, some email networks are particularly harsh.
If you still have nothing, try to use the Forgot login? feature and enter your email address. If your account is still inactive, it will simply resend the activation link. Obviously, if you have already activated your account, it will send a password reset email as expected.

We will not.

If you feel that there are too many errors or inaccuracies on the page, we will be more than happy to correct them. Just use the "report an error" button on the band page and detail the corrections you need, and a moderator or veteran user will take care of it.

But unless your band(s) don't follow our rules, we will not delete it just to please you. There is no copyright on publicly available information, and that's all we're reprinting. If you don't want your presence to be known on the Internet, there is a very simple solution: don't form a band, and don't release anything! Chances are that if you do, someone will hear about it, and might mention you to someone else, and so on, until someone with an Internet connection decides to add your band information to the Archives. Tough luck. If you don't want your real name to be published, you can always use an alias (exceptions are made for those of you who live in backward countries where heavy metal is against the law; we will gladly help you make the information more anonymous if necessary).

If one of the following conditions is true, we will gladly help make your artist page more anonymous (remove real names, photos, birth date, etc.), but we will not delete it:

1. You live in a country where heavy metal is against the law and/or being linked to it can severely destroy your life (e.g. Iran, Saudi Arabia).
2. Your real name is unknown to the public, as you are a) credited with an alias on the album(s) you appear on, and b) your band(s)'s official website, Myspace, Facebook, etc. does not list your name or information.

In other words, if the information is publically available, someone on this site will no doubt end up archiving it. "Publically available" includes (but is probably not limited to): album credits, official band sites/Myspace/Facebook pages, and interviews with the artist.
Here are a few cases that really happened, and how we dealt with it:

• Various, unrelated musicians are credited on albums using an alias. Their respective bands's website lists the alias as well. Some acquaintances (on Facebook or in real life) of these musicians added their real names to the artist pages. Result: real names removed.
• A musician asks us to remove his last name from the page. Unofficial websites list the full name, but his official Myspace only shows his first name. Result: last name removed.
• A black metal musician from Iran contacted us because his photograph appeared on an artist page. Though it's unlikely to happen, he is still worried about real-life people (relatives, law enforcement, etc.) finding him on the site. Result: photograph removed.
• A musician is credited on album #1 using an alias, and on album #2 using his full name. Interviews confirm this is the same person, who appears in several bands. He has been happily promoting all his bands for years. Recently having a change of heart, he lies and claims he is not in those other bands. He asks us to remove his real name entirely from the page and remove links to his previous bands. Result: real name stays for album #2 credits, no other change to the page..
• A musician asked us to "remove her profile page" from the site. On her band's official site, her real name appears, along with a photograph and a short biography. Result: no change on the page.
• A musician, listed as ex-member of a few death metal bands, asked us to remove his page entirely because he "no longer plays metal" and wants to distance himself from his past. He is well-documented as having been a member of those bands, including on the official site of one of those bands, where there is a detailed page listing everything from his full birth name to his hobbies and favourite drinks. Result: no change on the page.

Please note that we do this not to be assholes, but simply to make sure the database of band line-ups is as accurate and complete as possible. If your request is reasonable regarding a violation of privacy, we have, and will continue, to gladly cooperate, but attempts at whitewashing band history remind us of a certain someone... do you really want to be that guy? :)

The site owners don't write reviews. All the reviews on the site are submitted by our users. If you want to request a review, you could try asking in this forum thread (though of course, no one is obligated to review anything).

Actually, we probably don't remember. We don't have time to remember every little transgression by our members. Chances are, if your score apparently dropped out of the blue, it's because a moderator caught you breaking the rules even if you were inconspicuous at it, i.e. you added a bootleg album, a worthless re-release, worthless links, etc. Or perhaps you were point-whoring.

Also, you shouldn't email us about your points. Quite frankly, you shouldn't worry about your score so much. If you lost Veteran status and strongly feel like there has been a mistake, please ask on the Suggestion and Complains forum.

Probably because you did something that angered the Metal Lord (moderator) who was reviewing your submissions.
What pisses off the moderators include a variety of rule violations, but among the most annoying include: writing lame-ass reviews of a few lines and/or little to no content, writing reviews that insult other members or the moderators, submitting a non-metal band and put in a valid metal subgenre (e.g. "traditional metal", "progressive metal", "death metal"...), writing all the info in CAPS, all in lowercase, all in alternate caps, wasting the mod's time by not providing a link for an obscure band with minimum info and an ambiguous subgenre...

In other words, respect the rules and guidelines and you'll keep your score. :) Here's a tip: the more you repeat the same offense, the more you piss off the moderator. Don't push your luck.

No, sorry. At least not at the moment, things might change, but don't hold your breath.

If it doesn't work, try logging out and relogging in. As a last resort, try to clear your cookies.

The ranking system from the forum software is independent from the one on the main site. You could have the highest possible rank on the actual site, and still be a "mallcore kid" on the forums. On the site, your rank grows with your submissions and the points you accumulate: on the forums, by your number of posts.

Don't take silly ranks on an Internet site so seriously. It's meant to monitor user activity and their level of access, and we thought it'd be more fun with rank names like that instead of just "Admin", "new Member", etc. Nothing more than that.

Check the band submission queue. If your band appears, it's still pending. If it does not, check under "My bands and look for a "rejected" flag. If it's still set as "draft", please resubmit. If it's not under your band list, either something went horribly wrong and you'll have to start over :( or the band was nuked from orbit to stop wasting the moderator's time (it's the only way to be sure...).

If it's pending, please be patient, the band submissions list can grow very quickly, often faster than the moderating staff can keep up.

So chances are, your submission isn't lost (though it HAS happened before, but very rarely), just pending. Don't worry, some band submissions have been pending for over a month, for diverse reasons (we can't find info, samples, etc). Usually though, if your submission is not ambiguous and even provides samples, it will be accepted/rejected on the first review.

First, please tell us the message error in details, so that we can figure out what caused it. Second, tell us what your user agent is (browser and OS). Please note that these pages have been tested successfully with IE8 and up, Opera 9.x and up, and the latest Chrome and Firefox. If you are using a different browser and get errors, try one of these instead. Note that Javascript must be enabled.

If this happens, try to reset your password using the My profile link in the left menu of the main page. Just put in a new password, or the same one if you want, but make sure you update your profile with a new password. It should work on the board also. If not, please let us know. And, try to avoid using the forums' "send me a new password" functionality, as this password will not be the same as the one on the site.