TShirtSlayer Heavy Metal Merch Gallery
  • Bands (0)
  • Groups (0)
  • Members (0)
  • (X)

World's largest community of heavy metal tshirt and battlejacket collectors.

Forums > All other metal related talk..

"Metal Bands" Missing from Metal Archives...

joecubbie
Mon, 05/01/2015 - 06:48

Thought I'd compile a list of bands who are blacklisted from Metal Archives that are truly metal bands at the end of the day in my opinion. If you can think of any more, leave your comments or give your opinions on my choices...

Original Heavy Metal (1970s) - Many 70s bands that people call "metal" are really hard rock groups who influenced metal (Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Van Halen, KISS, etc.). However, there are some 70s groups who I believe are indisputably metal including...

Uriah Heep - Blacklisted from the Archives for being "progressive rock" when other progressive rock groups including Lucifer's Friend and Buffalo are present in the Archives.

Blue Oyster Cult - Just as heavy as Thin Lizzy, Deep Purple, and Scorpions (all who are in MA) and just as big of an influence.

UFO - Read above.

AC/DC - Not metal then and not metal now, HOWEVER, they should be included based off of sheer influence alone. Every single "raw" sounding metal group's sound including Motörhead, Venom, early Metallica, Napalm Death, Toxic Holocaust, Skeletonwitch, Ghoul, Noisem, etc. can be rooted down to AC/DC's 70s work.

Michael Schenker Group - Part of the NWOBHM, so why are they blacklisted?

Hair Metal (early 1980s) - I divide hair metal into 2 eras: the first wave and the second wave. The first wave was straight up metal that was played by bands who had "the look" (Motley Crue, Twisted Sister, W.A.S.P.) while the second wave was really just radio friendly hard rock posing as metal (Poison, Bon Jovi, Warrant). Almost every first wave group is in the MA and the only second wave group I can name off the top of my head in there is Skid Row. However, there are some first wave groups missing...

Ratt - The debut EP and Out of the Cellar are straight up metal. Plus, Ratt was featured on the original Metal Massacre compilation so enough said.

Black 'N Blue - Another first wave group featured on the original Metal Massacre compilation, yet blatantly blacklisted.

L.A. Guns - Probably the only second wave group besides Skid Row who should be in and here's why...I submitted them last year based off of a groove metal record they released back in the 90s called American Hardcore. The rules at MA is that the band needs at least one metal record to qualify and the mods themselves acknowledged it was a metal album, but they didn't want to accept them simply because they're L.A. Guns. They debated for a month over their entry only to blacklist them.

Lynch Mob - Every other single George Lynch project is in, so why not?

Crossover Thrash - I guess their reasoning behind these next bands not being admitted is based on that they're more "crossover" than "thrash"...

G.B.H. - Every other UK'82 band is in (The Exploited, Broken Bones, Discharge, Cockney Rejects, The Blood, English Dogs), yet not the band who played crossover thrash/speed metal for about half of their existence.

Murphy's Law - A pivotal influence on crossover and godfathers of the movement,

Body Count - Just because Ice-T is their singer? How ridiculous.

Agnostic Front - 80s stuff is straight up crossover thrash.

Grindcore - Like above, but in this case, the band has to be more "grind" than "core".

Anal Cunt - Considering Seth Putnam's involvement in the metal scene with bands like Pantera and Eyehategod, and the characteristics of Anal Cunt's music, they definitely belong in MA.

Agoraphobic Nosebleed - They create shitstorms that are equal parts "grind" and "core".

Nails - Definitely dark enough and has enough riffs to count as a metal group.

Capitalist Casualties - Heck, these guys could qualify as a crossover thrash or speed metal group and yet they're still blacklisted!!!

Post-metal - For the most part, MA has been kind to post-metal, with bands such as Neurosis, Cult of Luna, and ISIS present. There is one group missing though which I clearly don't understand.

Russian Circles - So just because the members came from "core" groups (Botch, The Hope Conspiracy, Young Widows, etc.) you're going to ban them? Yet Pelican is in and they've made a living off of being Russian Circles ripoffs!!! Make up your mind MA!!!


meaningless's picture

dude...i ask myself the same..since a long time. ...u can find Mötley Crüe and Wasp there...but not Cinderella or L.A.Guns?..hahahaha...
but hey...u can find nearly every stupid nazi black/metal band there.... incl. a link where to buy...
..anyway..dont wanna waste my time with talking about this stupid metal-archive...

meaningless's picture

i know what u mean. as the internet wasnt that common for every1, we (2 close friends + myself) were starting a webspace-hoster for metal-related pages. I was writting a metal-ecyclopedia (years before metal-archive started..funny side-node..u can still see some pics they stole from our page..haha..anyway..). we also payed everything on our own. We were running our own servers. ..just because of : we hate 'funny + lovely adds on creepy, dark, bloody metalpages'..haha..so simple it is :) ...but at the end..we supported everything which is metal, hard rock..etc. ..but NO nazi/racist stuff/bands/shops..etc.

joecubbie's picture

I could understand why Cinderella wouldn't be included as they never identified themselves as a metal group or played metal (I always thought they were more blues-rock). But LA Guns belongs for sure simply based off of American Hardcore. I don't know if you've heard it, but if I didn't know it was LA Guns who did "Electric Gypsy" and "The Ballad of Jayne", I'd think it was Pantera.

meaningless's picture

sadly...yes....i have heard them. i love the first 2 albums, they are fantastic...to bad how the rest of their releases sounds like. I can get ur point about Cinderella...but whats up then with Mötley Crüe or Wasp...they arent more hard/more metal then Cinderella ..haha..or im totaly wrong here?

joecubbie's picture

Personally, I always considered W.A.S.P. a metal band. Mötley Crüe is only in solely based off of Too Fast for Love and Shout at the Devil.

alla2465's picture

Why does this even matter and why do you even care? Why is this important to you?

alla2465's picture

Why so? I love Metal music too, but I could care less of what some website thinks, I asked because I wanted to know why, I want to get it, that is why I commented, aren't we all allowed to express our own opinion, it's not like I was being a dick about it.

alla2465's picture

There is nothing wrong with that, I never said that :P
I am just curious about why he really think it matters, I just want to see it from his perspective

nwobhmbanger's picture

I'm personally tired of seeing these kinds of threads always popping up. Without Metal Archives, most of the younger generation would've been nothing more than fanboys of only ten bands that headline Wacken Open Air.

The.Necrobutcher's picture

Not necessarily. I would still have the collection of albums I do now, I just wouldn't know anything about the band/genre

nightslasher26's picture

I just saw wall of text and gave up :(.

gizter's picture

i never knew that bands like Discharge, The Exploited and English Dogs where one there... how can they be on there if Antisect isn't? and also yeah. how can GBH not be on there then..

but really, its pretty hard to judge with a lot of bands, especialy some genres that are kinda in between like crossover, grind and crust, aswell as early bands. cant really blame them that some do and others dont make it in.

still really funny that Death Devil (fictional band from an anime) did make it on there..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJOdLMXOK1M

joecubbie's picture

I wouldn't consider Antisect "metal", but you do have a point, and Amebix is in so...

gizter's picture

i wouln't consider Antisect ''metal'' ether. but the same goes with Discharge and such. Amebix aswell indeed (exept for the last album with could be considered Post Metal).
Antisect do have some very clear metal influences. just like other punk bands that did made it on there.

nwobhmbanger's picture

According to their guidelines, as long as at least one album is predominantly metal, then that band may go in.

That's why even Def Leppard's on there.

bad_american1992's picture

tey need to inclood slipnot and corn to the arcives cuz they are the most metal bands evar

Sickening Gore's picture

inorite tey don even have the reel Disturbed or 5FDP bro tey need 2 get withe timez

joecubbie's picture

Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat. is pretty much a Faith No More ripoff record and FNM is in the archives even though they're considered "borderline" metal haha. And as much as I hate them, the first KoRn record can be considered groove metal which is another subgenre they cherry pick (Pantera is in yet Ektomorf is blacklisted).

gizter's picture

agreed. still not getting shit for all the punk i uploaded here ;)

nwobhmbanger's picture

Heavy metal rules. All that punk shit sucks. It doesn’t belong in this world.

IT BELONGS ON FUCKIN’ MARS, MAN! What the hell is punk shit?

Judas Priestess's picture

I see why a lot of those bands aren't included, it's just odd that similar bands in those genres are on there, so it's not very consistent on what is considered "metal" or not.

judascrust's picture

I can't stand that site anymore, used to be like a bible to me, and I still refer to it once in a while for general info (where a band is from, or release dates or contact info or something) but all the nitpicking over what kinds of bands can and can't be included and then contradicting themselves on their own points, and the countless, meandering, insipid, pointless reviews has made me start to kind of hate it.

RavenEffect's picture

I think its pretty well established that Metal-Archives is extremely elitist and should only serve as a database and it even fails as that, since it has a shit ton of bands that only released and Demo and broke-up or didnt even released a thing so I wouldnt count them as "relevant" or at least worthy of comming up in the search result.

Their Reviews are 90% shit with the ammount of 100% great album 0% crap. Yeah there are some reviewers who do a good work but usually those write to other well established websites. The forum is a joke as well. I found Metalstorm to be superior in every aspect.

This being said, it's pretty obvious why these bands dont feature in MA.

nwobhmbanger's picture

Another one of these threads. Nearly every metal community has someone complaining about Metal Archives' "elitist" moderators rejecting their favorite -core bands.

Being influential to the metal genre doesn't make a band metal. Just because a band was on a metal compilation doesn't make them metal. While there are certainly some metal songs off Ratt's full-length debut album, it's much more hard rock than anything else.

There are plenty of other sites where you can browse for information about many of the bands that you listed. Not saying that I agree with every band being on Metal Archives, but it's honestly the closest that someone could get to frequenting a site devoted to true metal. A band that rules or sucks doesn't have anything to do with their overall metal.

joecubbie's picture

Yep. "True metal" meaning Skinlab, Underoath, and Winds of Plague.

nwobhmbanger's picture

I never said it was a perfect resource, but I find it a lot more accurate than Wikipedia labeling just about any band with distorted guitars as "heavy metal".

The questionable bands are far and few between for me, as there are way more actual metal bands that get their respective spots. I think spending more time discovering underground metal and other lost gems is better than complaining about certain bands being included or excluded.

Even if you don't agree with a lot of what their moderation allows or forbids, keep in mind that it takes a lot of their own personal time and energy to go through listening to random Bandcamp or Facebook EPs and demos to make up their minds if the bands should be considered metal enough to be added. It's even worse with all the pending reviews that many newbies and trolls send to them, which I can understand.

PForx's picture

I feel that it's a bit far fetched to say that Motörhead's sound can be traced back to AC/DC, as they were founded within two years of eachother, and Lemmy simply wanted to play stripped-down, primitive, almost reactionary rock'n'roll. I think Motörhead was mostly influenced by early punk and proto-punk like MC5 (Lemmy himself has stated this) and of course the first decade of rock'n'roll.

(I know that I'm cherry-picking from what you said)

Also, Motörhead isn't a metal band, and to me it seems weird that they are featured in Encyclopedia Metallum.

MercyfulKing's picture

(Motorhead not being metal?) Listen to Motorhead's Sacrifice and come back to me.

PForx's picture

Hell yeah, no one is going to tell me otherwise!

Hofmonstr's picture

Lemmy himself even said Motörhead is Rock n' Roll. That is how I categorize my music, it is either rock n' roll or it isnt.

kimo's picture

Yes I agree. I break my music down like that. It either rocks (good) or it doesn't (bad)

Stiopa's picture

You forgot Praying Mantis, at least I didn't seen them. Just sayin'.

joecubbie's picture

I consider Ektomorf groove metal and so does MA but they won't accept them because they're too much along the lines of the "jumpdafuckup" groove metal groups. How I see it is, if Soulfly. DevilDriver, and Skinlab are in, they may as well put in Korn and Limp Bizkit.

Kathulex's picture

Five Finger Death Punch also used to be in MA.

Focus on "used to be".

674,126 items in the gallery, 910,622 comments, and 514 items have changed hands in the last month.

Guess this TShirt!

Can you guess which metal tshirt this is from?

Can you guess which metal TShirt this is from? Click here for all previous tshirt guesses

Recent Comments

  • about 2 hours ago
    That Mystic Styles patch is hard as fuck
  • about 2 hours ago
    Beautiful! 🤘🏻
  • about 3 hours ago
    sick
  • about 3 hours ago
    Thank you, friend.
  • about 3 hours ago
    Where did you get that violent restitution latch and your BP?! Awesome jacket
  • about 4 hours ago
    yes the link is https://buysupermerch.com/products/sarcofago-inri-enamel-pin
  • about 5 hours ago
    One of the first AP shirts I bought back then, still love the colors!
  • about 5 hours ago
    A thing of beauty… wow. I wish I was a rich man!
  • about 5 hours ago
    What do you want for that dark angel patch???
  • about 5 hours ago
    Where you get that backpatch?! That is awesome! Vulture and deathhammer are the best!!
  • about 5 hours ago
    Where u get.the hirax logo?
  • about 7 hours ago
    fantastic
  • about 7 hours ago
    Thanks.
  • about 7 hours ago
    there’s quite a few square patches made from what were supposed to be circle patches.
  • about 7 hours ago
    Thanks! Yeah, I’m hoping to get that beauty some day, I’m trying to make a deal for one.
  • about 7 hours ago
    Pm