Hi! My submission for the band XR66 (Russia) was rejected as "Not a metal band; does not belong on Encyclopaedia Metallum"

But actually - and I pointed it out in my submission - it's a continuation/name change of death metal bands X-Rated 6ex6ex6ex (https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/X-Rated_6ex6ex6ex/115916) and Exrated (https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Exrated/3540405872)

Some info from the official bio:
"XR66 - metal act Konibsberg (Northwestern Russia)

XR66 takes its roots in 2006 when it was a Death Metal band called X-RATED 6EX6EX6EX which has released one album “Woodland Belt [Deadly Trap]” but split up during the recording of the second one. Only one man was left – their vocalist Anatoly, who gathered a new recording line up & finished the second album called SOS & renamed band to EXRATED. But the band couldn’t move forward because drummer Oscar Nilsson was from Sweden & it was impossible to rehearse due to geographical separation.
The new story of the band began in 2016. At that time Anatoly had joined a local rock band to fill in a role of a bass player. So rock band set off to the Hertz Studio at the beginning of autumn. There was something in the air and Anatoly got an idea to continue the story of X-RATED with a slightly different name and concept. The new band took best ideas from the old songs and started creating new ones."

Actually it's the same band, they even use and play mostly the same songs live (from X-Rated 6ex6ex6ex and Exrated catalogue) - and they even re-released a single "SOS" that was released in EXRATED's album and now re-issued under the new name of the band with the new artwork.

Yes, they changed their sound bit - it contains more groove metal and even core elements than their previous death metal incarnations, and they use screaming vocals instead of growling, but it's still metal enough.

Here are some excerpts:

Single "Alcoholicollapse":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChSrK17TF4c

Single "SOS" (that's originally an Exrated song jut re-released under new band's name):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjerE4Ec924

Excerpts from their live album:
https://soundcloud.com/xr66band/live-at-detroit39

And more importantly:
Anyway I understand it may sounds with a lot of core influences - but riffs are metal enough - and all band members are very well known and respected musicians on Kaliningrad metal scene - so in my opinion it should be added at least as an exception - because:
1. It's a name change of two metal bands that are already in the database (X-Rated 6ex6ex6ex and Exrated) - and they play/upgrade songs of those bands
2. We can count them as an exception for this points:
- "Side-projects of notable metal band members" (as I said all band members are big metal musicians on our local scene)
- "Non-metal projects included arbitrarily as they are seen by the staff to belong as a part of the metal scene." (see my comments - they definitely belong to metal scene - and played on only metal gigs and festivals with metal bands)
3. Band is on hold now since 2019 and according to their vocalist it seems they'll not release anything anymore

So in my opinion it will be better to add XR66 as an exception to the database - because its importance in Kaliningrad metal history and all other reasons I pointed above.

As a metal encyclopedist in my hometown Kaliningrad I think it's important to have this band on Metal Archives - even if it would be a very rare exception.

Thank you so much in advance!

Whatever they played before the name change doesn't matter when assessing them.

Whichever scene they belong to or which festivals they played etc etc doesn't matter either.

What matters is the music they actually play and in this case it isn't metal.


Do you really think we are going to make an exception for a band that existed for 1 year and released a bunch of non-metal singles just because people in that one Russian town know them?
This wouldn't be a "rare exception", everyone and their mother would demand similar treatment for their one-off fun projects because they are a "respected musician" in the metal scene of south-west Alabama.

How important can a band that barely managed to release two albums under two different band names in 15 years be to a scene that we need to list a random name change/reboot of theirs?

Sorry dude, I really appreciate your passion for your local scene, but your request just doesn't make any sense...

Okay, thank you so much for your explanation! I got it

Thanks!

Cheers