If you're a serious metalhead, you already know about this website. It's basically the IMDb of metal. The Metal Archives (a.k.a. Encyclopaedia Metallum) is a sprawling, full-dress database of every "kvlt" band in existence. Nowadays, when a band forms, creating an entry on this virtual file cabinet (of eeeeeeevil) is on their checklist. You do have to meet certain criteria, but these screeds aren't particularly stringent. You just need to be...metal. That's it.
As you can imagine, it's easy to spend a tidy sum of hours leafing through The Archives. It's a great way to smoke out new music or discover older bands that you haven't acquainted yourself with yet. Generally speaking, the user-generated content yields helpful album reviews, but be wary of bias. Anything closely resembling groove metal (including Pantera and post-Arise Sepultura) is bound to be derogated on the spot. It seems that the most prolific critics only gush over fourth-tier black metal out of Scandinavia. "My favorite bands are more obscure than yours!"
PS-Thanks to Ike for naming this column.
PS II-Check back late tonight for a movie review. Yep!
I get every bit of my metal info from this site, nice mention. The Random Band button is amazing.
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