Photo by Rachit Tank on Unsplash

Streaming has helped metal fans as much as it has any other genre of music. It lets us discover artists, connect with like-minded people, and introduce newcomers to the metal sphere. It's also limited by access and algorithms, where not all bands will appear on streaming platforms, and not all music is recommended equally.

If you’re as dedicated to finding new metal music as we are, these realities of the big platforms can make them not entirely useful. While we strive to shine a light on smaller, underrated, and upcoming bands here at Metal Devastation Radio, we can’t be everywhere at once. So, what other options are available to try, out there on the world wide web?

The Forgotten Classics

Even though the internet isn’t extremely old, plenty of its biggest and earliest standout sites dedicated to older metal have gone the way of the dodo. That doesn’t mean these earlier sites are completely lost to time, however, as projects like the Wayback Machine have taken great strides to capture memories of old domains that discussed older metal music. There’s even a project that helps search archives of old Geocities sites from arquivo which is a huge resource for fan favorites and otherwise forgotten bands from decades ago.

" Internet Explorer symbol " ( CC BY-SA 2.0 ) by  Christiaan Colen

You can also try the archive website that offers hundreds of thousands of live music and pre-recorded musical tracks. This service has already been a godsend for tracking down nostalgic performances, and it’s one of the most important tools in our listening arsenals today.

Larger Contemporary Guides

We could also consider guides made by general modern websites, even if they’re not dedicated to the metal genre specifically. Some of the best examples of the quality available here are demonstrated similarly in the online casino industry with services like casinoalpha. This website is built on comparing a wide range of different parts of the casino industry, like best overall casinos, best bonuses, best new casinos, and more . The same can be said for music sites, which we tend to overlook at metalheads thanks to an often not-so-stellar track record with our genre of choice.

Forums and Social Media

While some of us might not love the idea of engaging with social media sites like Reddit or YouTube, there's also no discounting that they can attract serious long-time metal fans. Sure, the comment sections on these might contain listeners of mixed expertise, but we can't discount that among the dreck can sometimes be found gold. Dive in and swim around for a while, and you can find not just suggestions for bands, but also possible download links to follow and engage with.

" Reddit Logo " ( CC BY 2.0 ) by  Mechatronics Guy

Bands being lost to time is a tragedy that we need to do our best to avoid. Metal conservation is important, in letting us listen to underrated or forgotten geniuses, or just mapping the evolution the genre has experienced. Whatever you do find out there, we have to beg that you do your best to keep your discoveries alive, so someone else might one day find a performance or song that changes their lives.