As simple as the "must be a metal band" rule may seem, it involves a huge debate. None of us here think we're a supreme authority on all things heavy metal. However, as an encyclopedia of heavy metal, this site must draw a line somewhere. If we accepted just about anything, it wouldn't make sense; we would no longer be a "metal" archive. Because of this reality, the moderating staff decide, based on these guidelines set by the owners, on whether or not your submission is validly metal. This is perhaps the most important point (other than the point about truthful information), because knowing our rules on what is acceptable could save some people a lot of time that they would spend submitting a band that would simply get rejected. For a band to be considered metal by the site, it must adhere to the following:

First and foremost, for a band to be metal, it must have metal riffs. This point should be fairly straight-forward and obvious. Nevertheless, when it comes to some genres or styles, it's not always implied that the music is rooted in metal or is substantively comprised of metal riffs. For example, grindcore can either be rooted in punk (ex. Anal Cunt) or in death metal (ex. Nasum, Pig Destroyer, Agathocles); metalcore rooted in hardcore/-core (ex. Atreyu) or in metal (ex. Bleeding Through); and so on. Such music can be borderline, but still be acceptable. Some bands have mostly chugging, fuzz, or noodling, with minor metal influences; this does not make these bands metal. The metal elements must outweigh the non-metal ones.

Second, for the lesser-known bands, we need compelling evidence that the band is metal. We won't just take your word for it, sorry. The best evidence is, of course, in the form of audio samples. Most bands have a Bandcamp page or some other online streaming platform (ex. Spotify, Deezer, Tidal) with such samples nowadays. But for older, obscure bands (the kind of thrash band that released one demo in 1986 and disbanded, for example), if no sound samples are available, a scan from a metalzine review describing the band's sound as unambiguously metal can be acceptable, but those cases are exceptional and the moderation can exercise full discretion.

Third, for a band to be acceptable, it must have at least one fully, unambiguously metal album. This means that Def Leppard can be accepted because of their NWOBHM debut, even if they turned to pop rock later. This also means that DevilDriver and Soulfly, which started as nu-metal, were (reluctantly) deemed acceptable after finally releasing some metal albums. This does not mean that we'll accept Sum 41 because of their one heavy song "The Bitter End". Bands with a long discography of non-metal music and one short metal demo/split/single will not be accepted. Additionally, bands with a few metal songs scattered across an otherwise generally non-metal discography are not acceptable either.

We have previously accepted some non-metal bands as selected exceptions. Those were mostly side-projects of notable metal band members (ex. Mortiis, Wongraven, Die Verbannten Kinder Evas) and some non-metal bands (ex. Rush, Arditi, Stille Volk) included arbitrarily as they have been seen by the staff to be historically relevant to the metal scene. We are no longer including any more non-metal exceptions. Do not ask.

Please keep in mind that bands which have released an unambiguously metal album will obviously be included in the encyclopaedia, even if they no longer play metal or are better known for their non-metal material (ex: Ulver, Anathema, Def Leppard, Ghost). So long as a band has a valid metal album it is acceptable.

We do NOT accept the following (this is our decision, please don't argue this):

• Nu-metal (ex: Korn, Slipknot, Limp Bizkit, Jinjer, In This Moment)
• Metalcore and Deathcore, unless it's clearly more metal than core (ex: As I Lay Dying, Unearth, All Shall Perish are OK; Atreyu, Architects, Bullet for My Valentine, Parkway Drive, Chelsea Grin, The Acacia Strain, Suicide Silence are NOT)
• Glam rock (ex: Poison, Ratt, Whitesnake, Steel Panther)
• Hard rock (ex: Led Zeppelin, Uriah Heep, Blue Öyster Cult, Alice Cooper, Kiss)
• Progressive rock (ex: King Crimson, Porcupine Tree, Spock's Beard, Tool, Scale the Summit)
• Psychedelic/occult rock (ex: Graveyard, The Devil's Blood, Kadavar, Year of the Goat, Hexvessel)
• Medieval/folk rock (ex: In Extremo, Subway to Sally, Saltatio Mortis)
• Stoner rock (ex: Fu Manchu, Clutch, Monster Magnet, Villagers of Ioannina City)
• Hardcore (ex: Hatebreed, Earth Crisis, Agnostic Front)
• Grindcore (and all its variants; noise, powerviolence, gore, etc.) with little to zero metal riffs or influence (ex: Anal Cunt, Libido Airbag, Last Days of Humanity, Sete Star Sept, Spazz, Man Is the Bastard)
• Crust punk (ex: Anti Cimex, Disfear, Doom, Wolfbrigade)
• Screamo (ex: From Autumn to Ashes, Pg. 99, Envy)
• Punk (ex: Misfits, Black Flag, GBH, Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat)
• Noise rock (ex: Lightning Bolt, Swans, Wrong)
• Gothic rock (ex: Sisters of Mercy, Christian Death, HIM, The 69 Eyes)
• Industrial rock (ex: Nine Inch Nails, Rammstein, KMFDM, Turmion Kätilöt)
• Alternative/modern hard rock (ex: Avenged Sevenfold, Evanescence, Audioslave, Godsmack, Five Finger Death Punch)
• Symphonic hard rock (ex: Edge of Paradise, Illumishade, Blackbriar)
• J-Rock/Visual Kei rock (ex: Nogod, Dir En Grey, Kiryu)
• Pop with metal elements (ex: Amaranthe, Babymetal, Necronomidol)
• Djent (ex: Animals as Leaders, Periphery, Tesseract, Monuments)
• Ambient, Drone, Noise (ex: Lustmord, Æthenor, Merzbow)
• Folk, Medieval folk, Neofolk (ex: Heilung, Faun, Death in June)
• Post-rock (ex: God Is an Astronaut, Russian Circles, Long Distance Calling)
• Post-punk (ex: Killing Joke, The Birthday Party, Grave Pleasures, Rope Sect)
• Post-hardcore (ex: Rosetta, LLNN, The Fall of Troy)
• Cover/tribute/gimmick bands (ex: The Iron Maidens, Catch the Rainbow) of contemporary artists (metal versions of traditional folk songs can be OK), unless they start as such and eventually write their own music. Touhou/doujin cover bands (ex: Thousand Leaves), in other words, the bands who cover many different songs from different artists and then mesh them into one seemingly original song are also unacceptable.

Reception[edit]

Although Cynic were associated with the Florida death metal scene, Focus represented a significant departure musically from Death's Human and the early Cynic demo-tapes. It was therefore a hard album to market. Cynic found themselves touring to promote the album with brutal death metal band Cannibal Corpse and predictably received a mixed reception from their fans. When asked in an interview about the success of the 2007 reunion tour, Masvidal said:

"...it was just really disorienting to hear a sea of 10,000 people singing ‘Veil of Maya’. You know, it was just wait, the last time we did this song I think a bottle hit my head and we were in Texas somewhere with Cannibal Corpse..."^[7]

This negative reaction from within the metal scene was part of the reason Cynic broke up in 1994: