Metalium is really a fantastic resource and this is despite how gatekeep-y the people that run/maintain that site can be. The laundry list of bands they exclude because they deem them "not metal enough" is regularly baffling.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeal_%26_Ardor
[1]: https://forum.metal-archives.com/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=129411
[0]: https://www.angrymetalguy.com/zeal-ardor-zeal-ardor-things-y...
I've spent a lot of time on MA, but boy, they can be so childishly opinionated.
The general EM argument is that they are adding black metal elements to music that is fundamentally hard rock and/or punk.
It ends up being arbitrary, but I think the underlying desire makes sense - at some point, things go from being metal to being something else with metal elements. They aren't an encyclopaedia for music with metal elements, they're an encyclopaedia for metal music.
I was only recently introduced to them by this song [0] and I was like 'hmm, yeah, maybe not really my thing'. Until the 9 second mark where I was proven completely wrong because that stuff is a prime example of this overwhelming 'it felt like satan came to me'-style which I really like and makes me smile like a posessed maniac, claws raised towards the dark heavens. Moreover it is also so well-executed, riffs/drums/lyrics all fit, and it's done quite a lot better than a myriad of other bands which try to do this but simply pale in comparison to Z&A.
So, to then read comments where people are debating whether there's enough metal elements to be included is some list, just makes one realize that the common trap of black&white for many aspects in life just isn't worth it.
[0] https://zealandardor.bandcamp.com/track/feed-the-machine
No Rob Zombie. No Rammstein.
Meanwhile, they added psychedelic rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard and their whole discography (now up to 24 albums) solely because their 15th album was metal.
I love King Gizz, but Metal Archives are disappointingly inconsistent.
It's not like industrial is an instant deny, either - Fear Factory, Blut Aus Nord, Strapping Young Lad, etc etc etc are included.
As for King Gizz, their rules are quite clear that one predominantly metal album is enough for inclusion.
Just curious, if they don't sound anything like metal to you, what kind of metal do you like to listen to? I mostly listen to doom metal, plus a little bit of death metal, industrial metal, and black metal.
Even spread over 20 years, that's a lot of bands to vet!
It is fitting they ended up with Mike Portnoy.
I think it is just because people are getting old and tastes stop changing after a certain age.
I'm getting up there in age and I think my taste in music ended somewhere in the mid-2000s. Everything past that point sounds like screamo, djent, Hatebreed copy cats, or screechy noise core.
I started with 70s-80s British heavy metal when I was 14, and in the past 20 years my music tastes have only been expanding. Most people I hang out with also tend to be curious about new (unfamiliar to them) music.
0 results = sad Les Claypool face.
They explicitly state they are not the ultimate arbiters of what is and isn't metal, but they have a mission for the site and have to draw the line somewhere, and that's what they picked.
But as for who they are to draw the line... they're the team that has built one of the largest and most informative databases of metal acts of all time. It's incomplete, it's arbitrary, it's subjective and biased, but even with all of that, it's indisputably something they should be monumentally proud of building.