Introduce Yourself

If you like atmospheric stuff, definitely check out Blut aus Nord.  They helped pioneer early atmospheric black metal.  If you like Sabbath, maybe start with their most psychedelic piece, Hallucinogen.  They also do industrial stuff and creepy stuff very well.

Welcome to Metal Academy, Lud! I gotta say, both songs are epic, but I choose "Another Side" as the correct side. Though if you're trying to promote your songs and get them more well-known and appreciated, maybe don't rely heavily on AI for your music videos. Just a suggestion. Nonetheless, you do you.

Thank you all for the welcome and advice. I'm generally happy with the clans I have joined - just wanted to point out that I probably don't consider myself any type of expert of any of them, but have interests across the board. A kind of Jack of All Trades, Master of None type of thing.

Howdy.  We definitely need more metalheads here.

Welcome, David! I would recommend the Iced Earth album The Dark Saga. It's a thrashy heavy/power metal concept album based on Spawn.

And I second this.

Hello Sonny, Ben & Andi, it's a pleasure to meet you.

Zachary, you'll be pleased to hear that I gave The Call of the Wretched Sea a spin and I must say, I dig it quite a bit. Since I'm new to the band (and fairly new to funeral doom in general), it's going to take a fair amount of time & subsequent listens before I fully wrap my head around it. That said, I'm genuinely impressed with how cohesively they managed to execute the theme and the lyrics are top tier. What's more, I can already say that I have two personal highlights: The Sermon (when he goes My song forever shall record that terrible, that joyful hour... - man, shivers down my spine!) & Ahab's Oath (this one is soul-crushingly heavy and i really like the synth parts here). Curious to hear which one is your favorite.

It's one of my all time favorites, and I am glad that you enjoyed it!

Here is my review: https://metal.academy/reviews/34371/6530

Welcome to the Academy Max! (I fuckin' love this guy). 

That's what's up Sonny. I'm so excited to get to the SubRosa stuff. I just have to knock out 5 more albums tonight... after mowing. I SHALL NOT SLEEP TILL IT HAS BEEN DONE!

Pretty sweet that we got two newbies who love reviewing albums in the last 3 days.

LOL. Kosie is my wife.

Gulasch666, have you checked out the Hall of Judgement as yet? It's where we assess the validity of a release's existing clan & genre assignment. We have a number of Hall entries that are close to being finalized so feel free to have your say on where these releases end up residing.

https://metal.academy/hall

Well this sucks.  I've been so busy the last four days that I didn't even notice two major editing errors on the book cover.  The background under the dragon's leg and arm are not there, and Nula's wing is improperly shaded due to a Gimp problem.  Fixed now.

Ah missed this thread.  Good to have you aboard.

A big welcome from me too! Given your clan selections, I think we're going to get on just fine. I'd be keen to know some bands that you consider to be your favourites. Not just a nice ice-breaker, but also creates the opportunity for recommendations.

Speaking of recommendations, we're always looking for ways to make the site better, so any feedback you have around your experience would be most welcome.

Thanks for the warm welcome and the info. Feel like more websites should have a rating of covers.

Welcome, nice to see a new member, especially with Pit clan membership.

Oh yeah, the playlists and monthly features! Thanks for reminding me, Xephyr!

Scarecrow, you might just find a lot of metal suitable for your interest via the monthly features and Spotify clan playlists. If you ever feel like submitting feature releases for your clans, please ask Daniel so he can add you to the roster. As for the playlists, I run The Revolution playlist, so feel free to check out the submissions thread and request a good song for me to the playlist. One track per non-members, maximum 30 minutes total for Revolution members. However, please submit your suggestion by the 15th or 16th of each month if you wish to get your submission into next month's playlist on time. I'm standing by that old rule because I often get so excited about how a playlist turns out that I'd sent to Daniel when I'm ready around that time of month. If you'd like to assemble the playlist for one of your clans, please ask Daniel so he can give you that privilege. The Fallen and Guardians playlists are already reserved. Saxy S is in charge of both The Gateway and The Infinite playlists, and while assembling two clan playlists is a rare treat, it could be quite some tiring work. So if you're up to taking over The Infinite playlist, please check with both Saxy and Daniel. And finally, make sure to send your monthly feature submissions and playlists to Daniel via private message to add a bit of anticipation. Enjoy!

Also lately we've been discussing some ups and downs about our lives, so feel free to join in the conversation as well (unless you prefer to keep your outside life private). Our discussion is right here: https://metal.academy/forum/23/thread/1047

hey. sorry i havent been replying, got schools n stuff. yes, me and vinny know each other from metal forum, another cool website. my intrests vary from some rob zombie to iron maiden, machine head and marilyn manson, ghost when im in the mood and the occasional slayer, darkthrone, immortal and many many other bands. hope this gives you a basic idea, but ill be updating my profile soon too. 

Welcome to the Academy Paul. We're very please to have you. The first thing I wanted to ask was whether you're happy with residing in just the one clan. All new members have to option to choose up to three. Let me know if you'd like to add any more & I can arrange it for you.

Thank you Daniel for your warm welcome!

I won't be shy and I'll try to review all the albums I own (excuse if my English sometimes won't be correct) and, yes, I realized that this website has some features I didn't find anywhere else before!

My warm congratulation for Metal Academy :-)

Welcome Joseph! I see you enjoy a few bands that are some of my favorites as well; Fallen bands like My Dying Bride and Neurosis, and Infinite bands like Cynic and Devin Townsend. We might just get on really well and be able to share each other's favorite metal bands, possibly discovering different bands that one of us has listened to but not yet the other. Sounds good? Enjoy this site, Jobro!

Welcome Theo, dive in mate and give us some reviews.

Welcome Chris! We're delighted to have you & would like to encourage you to be as active as possible. We love to hear our member's thoughts on all things music related & the more ratings & reviews we get into the database the more effective the site will be. Also, it sounds like you're gonna love the Hall Of Judgement so make sure you check that out under the HALL tab. Plus, you may also be interested in our clan challenges under the LISTS tab. We look forward to seeing you around here quite a bit.

P.S. Feel free to invite any other obsessive metalheads you might know to the site too. The more the merrier!

Years ago I had an iTunes account and what I really enjoyed about that was their recommended music.  You could type in bands that you liked or albums that you liked and you could see albums/bands that were recommended based off of that.  At this point I don't recall what albums I had been searching, but somehow I came across a band that I'd never heard of called SLEEP.  I saw that name and immediately new that I had to give this band a listen.  The album was Dopesmoker and I was blown away.  That was the moment that I knew that I had to further investigate the heavy metal underground.    

Just for clarification.  It's not like I'd never heard a heavy metal song before.  I grew up in the 80's and as anyone who grew up in that time knows you  couldn't escape hearing heavy metal on some level.  At the same time, I did not grow up in a heavy metal household.  I'd heard songs by Judas Priest and some Iron Maiden, but it wasn't enough to compel me to listen further.  One of the first heavy metal albums I listened to was Master of Puppets (this was around 87) and although I loved it.  I still didn't journey down the rabbit hole at the time.  People are always blown away whenever I tell them that the only Black Sabbath album I've listened to is Heaven and Hell and that was only in the past year.  I've heard many, many songs by Black Sabbath (Ozzy years) and I enjoy them.  I just haven't gone out of my way to listen to complete albums.  I surprised myself at how much I enjoyed Heaven and Hell.      

Welcome to The Academy Praemorior. We're excited you made it over & think you'll find our little community to be a rewarding addition to your life. Our intention was always to create the perfect metal site by ticking all of our own personal wish-list boxes & we think we're well on the way to seeing that come to fruition. It's open for debate as to whether "Metal Academy" will offer long-term appeal to the casual metal listener. It's far more relevant to the serious metalhead like yourself & as our membership grows I think you're going to see the percentage of "lifers" continuing to strengthen. I'd like to encourage you to be as active as possible because the more personalities & view-points we present the more powerful the tool becomes. Have fun with it & please... let us know if you find any bugs or can think of any improvement suggestions. We want the site to reflect our members needs.

Welcome to the site Caroline. Ben & I are thrilled that you enjoy our little podcast & are also so glad that you've decided to register for this website as it really is a labour of love for us. In fact, we've designed the site to fit in with our concept of the perfect metal resource & it's getting closer & closer to that ideal every day with all members having a say in how it looks & feels. I'm probably the more social of the two of us & having an avenue for self expression & communication with like-minded music fans has always been important to me so I fully intend to ensure that our forum becomes the most active in the entire internet metal scene. Plus, we're both tired of the prejudice & bullying that goes on at other major competitor's websites so there will be none of that tolerated here. It's a place where metalheads can be completely open in sharing their opinions without having to worry about being trolled due to their experience, age, gender, sexual orientation, musical preference, etc. So please don't be shy! Get amongst it & I look forward to hearing your thoughts on everything metal. Enjoy yourself!

Daniel

P.S. Where are you from if you don't mind me asking?

Why do I feel like we're gonna get along just fine Ded Bolt?

Welcome to the academy my friend, and welcome to the Fallen and Horde clans.

Another new member Steven is really doing his part in filling up those less dominating clans. Check out Steven's clan list!

Welcome, SilentScream!

I completely understand, and agree that though some of my favorite music is Melodic Death I don't even scratch the surface of most that would be included in The Horde. I personally am not a fan of Grindcore, but I see the appeal just not for me. I do think I'm personally more involved in my other 3 clans anyway. I'm enjoying the site so far and like doing what I can. 

Fellow Infinite and Fallen represent! Looking forward to seeing you around!

Fellow Guardian here! Love me some good old school power/heffy metal from time to time and even symphonic has a place in my heart. 

Daniel, I'm the opposite of you with The North. I love Folk/Viking metal but not a fan of black metal too much but slowly growing into it. 

The clan system is personally refreshing, it's a cheap way to get rid of bots at the same time makes sense when looking at the broad picture of what a clan can do for a respectful release. I almost feel like this could be a really good scientific study  to see how music genres are better represented by those that spend more time with it then others who don't. It's a cool research project to me haha. I too want to join a 4th clan at some point (The Horde i'm looking at you) but for now I really like this concept and see where it goes. Hopefully we'll all see each other around on here. :)

I have to admit that I don't mind a bit of "ggghghghghghghghghghgh.....thwack.....ggghghghghghghghghghghgh....thwack" every now and then.

Welcome! I'm actually going to see High On Fire this weekend!

Any Prog Metal guys are very welcome around here. 

Thanks man. I'm still in the process of moving and rewriting old RYM reviews over so the quality is all over the place. I don't have too many but it's a start. 

Another member that came to metal through Guitar Hero! I didn't realise it was responsible for bringing so many into the fold.

I'm thrilled that you accepted my invite and encourage you to continue contributing. I'm going to make a big push in the next few weeks to bring some more members in. The more this place feels like a growing community, the more likely they are to join in on the fun.

Cheers!

A big welcome from me too! I'm very happy that you accepted the invitation.

Let us know if you think of anything that could add more value to the site.

Ben (The Trickster)

Welcome Andi & thanks a lot for the positive feedback. Ben & I have always intended the "Metal Academy" website to be more of a community than a dictatorship. In fact, our members probably haven't realized it yet but they actually have as much access to change the site as I do at the moment because Ben is currently the only administrator & is responsible for managing all of the delivery aspects of the website project (yes he's an IT nerd). We share all of the decision-making on how it looks & feels & what functionality we'll include but I'm more heavily responsible for the creation of the "Metal Academy" podcast which takes up most of my spare time so I enjoy the website as much from a user point of view as anything else. To be honest, we'd really like our members to have as much say in how the site functions & is laid out as we do so please feel free to offer improvement suggestions. We've already taken up several positive & productive suggestions from our members.

Also, we're thrilled to see you joining The Revolution because that clan has been a little quiet early on. As have The Sphere & The Gateway so I'd like to openly encourage people to get involved with those clans. You won't see any clan shaming on this website so people should feel free to go with whichever clans they honestly feel they're most passionate about. It's actually essential for the clan concept to work to its full potential when you think about it. We want everyone to be able to be themselves & openly express their opinions here. The more ratings & reviews submitted the better so don't be shy. We're very keen to hear your thoughts on the music you love.... or hate for that matter.

And finally... spread the word! Let's make this into something valuable & long-term for fans of metal music!

Thanks for sharing your story Sonny92. It's awesome to find out a bit about the background of regulars here.

I'm really enjoying your reviews, and I'm keeping some mental notes of albums to check out based on your recommendations. As you know though, there are endless great metal albums, which is both a blessing and curse. Hopefully this site will continue to grow and one day be an excellent tool for discovering the very best ones that meet your own specific tastes.

Thanks for your activity and your support!

Welcome to the Academy Strig! More importantly, welcome to The Fallen, The Horde and The Infinite.

So I have notched up 30 years of listening to metal.  I started at the age of 13 with my cousins vinyl collection, furiously recording to c-90 cassettes the likes of Saxon, Iron Maiden, UFO and Rush to name but a few.  Within a few years I had developed a diverse and multifarious vinyl, cassette and CD collection that included the origin bands mentioned as well as so much more that I had discovered on my still developing metal journey.

I never ventured into performing in a band although I tampered with learning guitar on more than one occasion, just never got around to mastering it.  As I have gotten older my tastes have become more extreme I have found and although I respect everyone's right to listen to what the fuck they like and be proud to do so, I don't find the 'core' genres to be of any interest to me.  Most days in my hovel are spent listening to DM, BM or thrash nowadays but the NWOBHM and more traditional heavy metal sounds still get a blast regularly enough.

A bust ear drum means that my gig days are over unfortunately so I am denied the mastery of live music which is a massive disappointment.

I work on the road quite a bit so as well as having some physical formats (vinyl, CD and cassette still dwell on my shelves) the majority of my music library is digital or streaming service nowadays as this is the accessibility I need.  I write reviews (informally) for another metal site when time permits and try to get one a week written and published.  I also moderate on another forum and can still be found in the odd near-forgotten forum corners of the metal online community shooting the shit with fellow metal music fans.

Looking forwards to watching and helping this place grow.

I've been a huge fan of metal music since my brother (Daniel) introduced me to Metallica way back in the late eighties. I spent the first year or so almost exclusively listening to Iron Maiden and thrash metal (mostly Slayer, Metallica and Testament), but once I embraced the likes of Sepultura, Morbid Angel and Death, a whole world of amazing music opened up to me.

Despite the above pathway into metal, I now consider black metal and extreme doom metal (death doom and funeral doom) to be my favourite genres, but I can get excited about metal in just about all of its many forms.

Unlike Daniel, I'm not a musician, so I approach metal with much more focus on atmosphere, emotions and overall packaging than he does. It's for this reason that we decided to start the Metal Academy Podcast a couple of years back. We both have long histories with metal, but we often have completely different things to say about it. Since then, we've been chronologically exploring the genre, and the 20+ episodes we've produced to date have covered the years 1970 through to 1985. I love doing the podcast, and Daniel and I spend way more time together than we have in the past couple of decades, but I had another itch that needed scratching.

I've always wanted to build a clan-based metal community, where fans can find like-minded people and discover releases that those particular people enjoy. Metal Academy gave me the excuse to actually do it. Like all communities, this one might take a little while to grow, but Daniel and I trust that if we keep putting as much passion into it as we do with the podcast, well...something will happen. We look forward to finding out what that something is.