Metal Archives - Accepted Bands - Bands Excluded By The Website

Bands Excluded By The Website

Bands playing genres that are sometimes associated with extreme metal, such as grindcore and metalcore, are absent if they are seen to have more in common with punk than metal. Some grindcore bands are accepted if they are more associated with death metal (e.g. Napalm Death, and Pig Destroyer). 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." 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. Glam metal is rejected if the website owners consider the band more hard rock than metal. Industrial metal is only allowed if the site's staff consider it "more metal related than industrial", for example; the band Rammstein is not allowed, while industrial rock pioneers Ministry were accepted in March 2006 based on their album Rio Grande Blood. Another accepted band once blocked by the administration is the industrial group Pitchshifter, based on their first three metal-influenced albums. As with other potential hybrid genres, Encyclopaedia Metallum only accepts grunge, alternative metal and punk rock bands if the staff considers them to be "metal enough", i.e. if the band has at least one album that they consider to be predominantly based in metal; The Melvins, Soundgarden, Helmet, Faith No More, Alice in Chains, Suicidal Tendencies, D.R.I. and The Exploited have all been accepted, while Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Tool, Chevelle, The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, The Misfits, The Offspring and Green Day are not allowed on the site.

Bands that are associated with the nu metal label are forbidden and have been since the website started. However, certain bands which are commonly regarded as nu metal were accepted, if the moderators considered certain albums "metal" enough, what happened with Extrema and Synthetic Breed. This particular loophole was exploited to comedic effect on April Fools' Day 2009 by the site's staff when popular nu metal band Korn was briefly added to the database, whereupon a series of staged arguments between moderators appeared throughout the day on the site's forum. Soulfly, who were once a nu metal band, were accepted in April 2012 based on their eighth studio album Enslaved.

The site runners have standards which exclude some bands that are considered by some sites (such as Allmusic 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. However, there are some websites specializing in rock and metal music that, like Encyclopaedia Metallum, also exclude Led Zeppelin or just mention Led Zeppelin as "hard rock".

In fact, many of what are often viewed as the original 1970s rock / heavy metal bands are missing from the website, such as Blue Öyster Cult, Uriah Heep, Vanilla Fudge, Cactus, Dust, AC/DC, Van Halen, Kiss and UFO (who were once accepted but deleted from the website in February 2003 as one of the owners described them as "not metal"). A small amount of users have questioned these exclusions on the website's message board in the past. On the other hand, other 1970s bands such as Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Scorpions, Sir Lord Baltimore, Judas Priest, Rush, Rainbow, Thin Lizzy, Budgie and Pentagram are accepted.