{{Infobox Website
| name = Encyclopaedia Metallum
| logo = 300px
| url = [http://www.metal-archives.com Encyclopaedia Metallum]
| commercial = No
| type = Music database, reviews
| registration = Optional
| owner = Morrigan, Hellblazer
| author = Morrigan, Hellblazer
| launch date = July, 2002
| current status = Active
| alexa = 2,649 <ref>[http://www.alexa.com/data/details/main/metal-archives.com ] at Alexa</ref>
}}

'''Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives''' (commonly known as '''Metal Archives''' per the URL or just '''MA''') is a the site rules for further information.

Encyclopaedia Metallum attempts to provide additional information on each band, such as a discography, logos, pictures, lyrics, line-ups, biography, trivia and user-submitted reviews.

The site also provides a system for submitting bands to the archives, and users are encouraged to use it. As of June 2008, the site boasts 60,000+ bands listed, 139,000+ releases, 36,000+ reviews and 157,000+ registered users (108,000+ of which are "currently active").<ref>[http://www.metal-archives.com/stats.php Encyclopaedia Metallum' statistics]</ref>  It is one of the top 500 most-visited websites in one country,<ref>[http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/metal-archives.com Encyclopaedia Metallum's traffic details from Alexa]</ref> and the fifth most popular music website.<ref>[http://www.alexa.com/browse?&CategoryID=27 Alexa - Browse: Music]</ref>

==User interaction==

As an incentive to get people to submit data, the site uses a "point" system, in which registered users gain points and move up ranks with the amount and value of data and information they submit. When joining as a member of the site all new members start off with the ranking of "mallcore kid". The more valuable and complete the information, the more points are awarded. Also submitting reviews of band releases is another way to gain points on the site. Typically though, the website offers more points to those who submit info about a band itself. The most points are given to users when actual bands they submit to the site are accepted.

The website is notably completely free of advertisements, and as of June 2008 is run completely independently. Some, however, question whether or not this affects the quality of the website. Since the middle of 2005, frequent visitors noticed that the site was often down, though the stability situation began to improve in the beginning of 2006. Through the first three months of 2007 the site ran relatively free of downtime, with the exception of late March. The site also went down unexpectedly for five days at the end of December.<ref>[http://www.metal-archives.com/news.php?months=12-2007 Encyclopaedia Metallum's news archive]</ref>. This was in part due to an issue with the company that hosted the site. When the company changed its business strategy, Metal Archives was left out of the process and was subsequently ignored.  The issue has since been corrected and the site is running normally again.

== Accepted bands ==
The site is known for its extremely strict rules, especially those which mandate band submissions. Encyclopaedia Metallum only accepts bands which it deems metal, but many bands that once were rejected were accepted later on, and vice versa. The only exceptions are: side projects of members of metal bands that have a release on a label with worldwide distribution, bands that are no longer considered to be metal, but were in the past and grindcore bands that bear close similarities to death metal. 

Traditional/heavy metal and NWOBHM genres have stringent rulings; users are warned in the rules section, to consider bands submitted under these classifications as "''ambiguous''", in the sense that if a band is submitted with these terms as their genre, the music will be extensively reviewed by the moderators before they decide whether or not to accept the band onto the website.<ref>[http://metal-archives.com/guidelines.php#bands Websites "rules"... heavy metal/hard rock to be considered "ambiguous"]</ref> This is because in the past, some submissions labeled with those genres have turned out not to be metal, according to the site's guidelines. Some bands which are commonly referred to as Traditional/heavy metal and NWOBHM, such as Def Leppard and Stryper, are on the website due to only one or two of the bands' albums meeting the website's specifications.

Additionally, there are some non-metal bands featured on the site that are considered to be part of the metal scene despite not being metal themselves (usually Nest, :Of The Wand & The Moon:, Autumn Tears, Stille Volk, etc). These bands are selected by the moderators "in an admittedly arbitrary fashion," and their submission by normal users is discouraged.<ref>[http://www.metal-archives.com/guidelines.php Encyclopaedia Metallum's Guidelines]</ref>

'''Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives''' (comunemente conosciuto come '''Metal Archives''' o solamente '''MA''' a causa dell'regole del sito per maggiori informazioni.

Encyclopaedia Metallum aggiunge anche ulteriori informazioni per ogni band, come la discografia, il logo, l'immagine del gruppo, i testi, la formazione del gruppo, la biografia, curiosità varie e recensioni degli utenti.

Il sito propone inoltre un sistema per aggiungere gruppi all'archivio, e gli utenti sono incoraggiati a farlo da uno speciale sistema "a punti". A febbraio 2008, il sito contava circa 55.653 band, 129.896 album, 32.806 recensioni e 141.165 utenti registrati (96.340 dei quali erano "attivi") <ref>[http://www.metal-archives.com/stats.php Statistiche di Encyclopaedia Metallum]</ref>

==Interazioni degli utenti==
Come incentivo perché la gente aggiunga informazioni, il sito usa un sistema "a punti", mediante il quale gli utenti registrati guadagnano punti e salgono di livello grazie alla quantità e alla qualità di informazioni che aggiungono. Più un'informazione è di qualità e completa, più punti l'utente guadagna.

==Band accettate==
Il sito è famoso per le sue regole restrittive, soprattutto a proposito dell'aggiunta di nuove band. Encyclopaedia Metallum accetta solamente gruppi che sono considerati metal, ma molte band che prima erano state rifiutate sono state accettate successivamente e viceversa. Le uniche eccezioni a questa regola fondamentale sono: progetti paralleli di membri di gruppi metal che hanno pubblicato qualcosa presso una casa discografica che distribuisce in tutto il Mondo, gruppi che non sono più considerati metal ma lo erano in precedenza e gruppi grindcore che hanno sonorità simili al death metal.

I gruppi power metal, gothic metal, black metal, death metal, thrash metal, speed metal e doom metal (con l'eccezione del drone doom) non hanno particolari restrizioni a parte la "''prova di esistenza''".

I gruppi heavy metal tradizionale e NWOBHM sono regolati rigorosamente; gli utenti sono avvisati nella sezione delle regole che il sito considera le band aggiunte sotto questa classificazione come "''ambigue''", nel senso che la loro musica viene ampiamente ascoltata dai moderatori prima di decidere se accettarle nel sito.<ref>[http://metal-archives.com/guidelines.php#bands Regolamento del sito]</ref> Questo accade perché nel passato alcuni gruppi catalogati in questi generi hanno poi cambiato genere diventando hard rock e non più heavy metal. 

In aggiunta, ci sono alcuni gruppi non metal che però sono considerati parti della scena metal nonostante non lo suonino (solitamente band dark ambient e folk, come Mortiis, Elend, Autumn Tears, Stille Volk, ecc.). Questi gruppi sono selezionati arbitrariamente dai moderatori, e la loro aggiunta è sconsigliata ai normali utenti.<ref>[http://www.metal-archives.com/guidelines.php Le linee guida di Encyclopaedia Metallum]</ref> 

==Band escluse==