Monthly playlists

May 25, 2024 10:58 PM

Alternative Metal Authority?

Alternative Metal Assault?

Alternative Metal Armada?

Alternative Metal Attack?


I kinda like Alternative Metal Authority. What does everyone think?


May 25, 2024 10:59 PM


Interestingly, one of our inactive members has created a 224 hour Spotify playlist called "The Fallen" & has used our The Fallen clan symbol as the image which isn't wonderful, especially given that some of the content isn't in line with the Metal Academy clan genre trees.

Quoted Daniel

If it's any consolation, Daniel, I couldn't find it and I searched for quite a while, whereas the "official" Fallen playlist (complete with new name) came up on the first page.


May 25, 2024 11:03 PM


Alternative Metal Authority?

Alternative Metal Assault?

Alternative Metal Armada?

Alternative Metal Attack?


I kinda like Alternative Metal Authority. What does everyone think?


Quoted Daniel

Of the four, it is the one I would pick, but it seems very difficult to find sonething that feels right with alternative metal. I did give it some thought today, but drew a blank.


May 25, 2024 11:07 PM


I've just done The Fallen, The Sphere & The Pit. Any ideas for The Gateway, The Infinite & The North playlist names?

Quoted Daniel

Progressive Metal Dimensions

Progressive Metal Visions

Progressive Metal Voyages


Black Metal Wasteland

Black Metal Blasphemy

Black Metal Tundra

Black Metal Blizzard


May 25, 2024 11:50 PM

Alternative Metal Authority?

Alternative Metal Assault?

Alternative Metal Armada?

Alternative Metal Attack?


I kinda like Alternative Metal Authority. What does everyone think?


Quoted Daniel

I also think Alternative Metal Authority sounds best.

I've just done The Fallen, The Sphere & The Pit. Any ideas for The Gateway, The Infinite & The North playlist names?

Quoted Daniel

Progressive Metal Dimensions

Progressive Metal Visions

Progressive Metal Voyages


Black Metal Wasteland

Black Metal Blasphemy

Black Metal Tundra

Black Metal Blizzard


Quoted Sonny

Progressive Metal Voyage fits well, as does Black Metal Blasphemy.

Interestingly, one of our inactive members has created a 224 hour Spotify playlist called "The Fallen" & has used our The Fallen clan symbol as the image which isn't wonderful, especially given that some of the content isn't in line with the Metal Academy clan genre trees.

Quoted Daniel

If it's any consolation, Daniel, I couldn't find it and I searched for quite a while.


Quoted Sonny

Found it! And it's been done with the other clans too: https://open.spotify.com/user/3uyuzxp5v3bxjdlm0x7x97og6/playlists

Impressive, but can't really say I approve of all that being done behind our backs.

May 26, 2024 12:01 AM

Black Metal Blasphemy has unfortunately already been taken.

May 26, 2024 12:36 AM

Found it! And it's been done with the other clans too: https://open.spotify.com/user/3uyuzxp5v3bxjdlm0x7x97og6/playlists

Impressive, but can't really say I approve of all that being done behind our backs.

Quoted Shadowdoom9 (Andi)

I'll reach out to her & ask her to stop using the images & clan names as they're not for public use. Those logos were created specifically for Metal Academy by a paid designer.

May 26, 2024 03:47 AM

Guys, please feel free to suggest a suitable image for your playlists too. I've already changed the ones for The Horde & The Guardians to make them more appealing to the casual listener. Make sure they're freely available for public use & don't breach copyright though.

May 26, 2024 03:49 AM


Found it! And it's been done with the other clans too: https://open.spotify.com/user/3uyuzxp5v3bxjdlm0x7x97og6/playlists

Impressive, but can't really say I approve of all that being done behind our backs.

Quoted Shadowdoom9 (Andi)

I'll reach out to her & ask her to stop using the images & clan names as they're not for public use. Those logos were created specifically for Metal Academy by a paid designer.

Quoted Daniel

She's removed the images at my request but not the playlist names which I also have a problem with.

May 26, 2024 03:58 AM


Guys, please feel free to suggest a suitable image for your playlists too. I've already changed the ones for The Horde & The Guardians to make them more appealing to the casual listener.

Quoted Daniel

If using existing album artwork is permissible then the cover of Bell Witch's "Mirror Reaper" would be my first choice, closely followed by Jupiterian's "Protosapien" which has the added advantage of having no visible text to remove.

https://metal.academy/releases/6131

https://metal.academy/releases/22971

May 26, 2024 08:21 AM

Good ideas, Sonny, but I think sticking with free-to-use images is the safest way (with the sole exception of the Neuropath cover artwork used for the Horde playlist). Here are a couple free-to-use images (each cropped to square) that I found for the Revolution and Sphere playlists, respectively:


May 26, 2024 09:21 AM

Sorry, but I really don't have the time to search through countless pages of free to use images to try and find something suitable. Even my spare time has it's limits.

May 26, 2024 09:49 AM

In the interest of full disclosure, Daniel, I have used the Fallen clan logo to head up a public list on RYM where I list all the tracks I have used so far on the playlist. Would you prefer me to replace it or make the list private? In my defence, I only made it public in the hope that it might drum up some support for the playlist and, by extension, the website (which it seems to have spectacularly failed to do!) Sorry, I should probably have asked first.

May 26, 2024 10:23 AM


Alternative Metal Authority?

Alternative Metal Assault?

Alternative Metal Armada?

Alternative Metal Attack?


I kinda like Alternative Metal Authority. What does everyone think?


Quoted Daniel

Alternative Metal Adrenaline ?

May 26, 2024 10:28 AM

In the interest of full disclosure, Daniel, I have used the Fallen clan logo to head up a public list on RYM where I list all the tracks I have used so far on the playlist. Would you prefer me to replace it or make the list private? In my defence, I only made it public in the hope that it might drum up some support for the playlist and, by extension, the website (which it seems to have spectacularly failed to do!) Sorry, I should probably have asked first.

Quoted Sonny

Part of the problem with Scarecrow's playlists is, she never mentioned Metal Academy nor where the names and images came from, and she seemed to have only made them for personal usage. That doesn't really help give the site its much-needed attention or support, and it can certainly be a breach of trademark. It's good that you're making your playlists public to help us achieve the site's ultimate goal, Sonny, but at the same time, I think just the main playlists are enough for that. So I guess it's up to Daniel to decide on what we should do with the playlists we submit.

May 26, 2024 10:59 AM

That is why my post was directed at Daniel, Andi.

May 26, 2024 11:43 AM

I know, just sharing my thoughts on it.

May 30, 2024 05:42 AM

Ok, so I've updated all of the playlist titles, descriptions & images & they now seem to be much easier to find in Spotify searches. With next month's The Guardians & The Horde lists, I've attempted to program them in a way that will offer immediate appeal to the casual listener with five strong tracks from the primary genre kicking off proceedings. I've also made an attempt to ensure that I had the best material from each release on The Guardians list & have picked a couple of obvious classics in order to draw in the less educated audience. The Horde playlist is looking really bloody good now that it's 100% comprised of member's selections actually so I think that was a good move. I'm planning to start a social media marketing campaign for those two playlists in June to see what I can accomplish too.

May 30, 2024 08:36 AM


Ok, so I've updated all of the playlist titles, descriptions & images & they now seem to be much easier to find in Spotify searches. With next month's The Guardians & The Horde lists, I've attempted to program them in a way that will offer immediate appeal to the casual listener with five strong tracks from the primary genre kicking off proceedings. I've also made an attempt to ensure that I had the best material from each release on The Guardians list & have picked a couple of obvious classics in order to draw in less educated audience. The Horde playlist is looking really bloody good now that it's 100% comprised of member's selections actually so I think that was a good move. I'm planning to start a social media marketing campaign for those two playlists in June to see what I can accomplish too.

Quoted Daniel

All looks good Daniel.  I don't know how you find the time to do all this.  Dedication, clearly.

The above program direction sounds good and I will test this for July, although looking at the planed list for June I am not far off.

May 30, 2024 09:06 AM

Yes, it does all look good, Daniel and I particularly love the Fallen picture. Great work once more. I have tried to programme the June Fallen playlist along the lines you suggested and I am quite pleased with the result myself, but I would like to hear from you guys as to what works and what doesn't. 

It actually made for an interesting experience trying to produce something more ear-catching and re-ignited my enthusiasm for something that had felt like it was becoming a bit of a slog in all honesty.

I'm looking forward to hearing your lists,, Daniel, and I will even be checking the Guardians out, which is something I haven't done for ages (too much euro power metal in the past for me).

Here's hoping all your hard work has an impact and draws a few more metalheads sitewards. Onwards and upwards!!

June 01, 2024 10:26 PM

So, I've done a bit of promotional work for The Guardians & The Horde playlists over the last couple of days to see if I can drum up any interest:


1. Posted about them on the Metal Academy Facebook account (with links included) & shared that with my personal one too. Unfortunately, every time I try to do paid advertising on these posts I'm getting an error message telling me that I can't "boost" these particular posts & I haven't been able to figure out why as yet which is annoying because that's probably our best avenue for promotion.

2. Tweeted about them on Twitter with links.

3. Posted them in Spotify Playlists Subreddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/SpotifyPlaylists/)

4. Posted them in Spotify Playlist Exchange (https://community.spotify.com/t5/Music-Exchange/Playlist-Exchange/td-p/4529644/page/130)

5. Have just started to contact the bands I've included in these lists to see if they'll agree to share links to them with their followers.


Let's see if that makes any difference then!


June 02, 2024 08:14 AM

I'm not on Facebook or X myself and I'm not even sure I know what reddit is, but I can see that you are really working hard on this Daniel, so I thought I would just add my moral support for all your efforts. I really hope you see some reward for your hard work as it would be nice to see an uptick in site and playlist traffic.

On a related matter, getting people to visit the site doesn't necessarily seem to be a big problem, whereas getting them to stay or revisit does. Do you have any theories on why this would be?

June 13, 2024 11:48 AM

1. Gateway playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: 13)

2. Infinite playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: 11)

3. Revolution playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 31)

4. Sphere playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 25)

For the clans I've made the monthly playlists for, I've listened to the entire playlists! I'm grateful to Saxy and Daniel for their playlist works. I really dig the tracks I've reviewed in the Gateway and Infinite playlists made by Saxy, and I'm glad the playlists I've made have paid off. I recommend them to any fan of the clans' respective genres and anyone who isn't into those genres but wants to get into a great start in enjoying them. Thanks, Daniel, for accepting these playlists, and good work all!

July 09, 2024 12:18 PM

1. Gateway playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: 14)

2. Infinite playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: 11)

3. Revolution playlist - 4/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 33)

4. Sphere playlist - 4.5/5 (number of songs commented: ALL 22)

For the clans I've made the monthly playlists for, I've listened to the entire playlists! I'm grateful to Saxy and Daniel for their playlist works. I really dig the tracks I've reviewed in the Gateway and Infinite playlists made by Saxy, and I'm glad the playlists I've made have paid off. I recommend them to any fan of the clans' respective genres and anyone who isn't into those genres but wants to get into a great start in enjoying them. Thanks, Daniel, for accepting these playlists, and good work all!