Hi there,

Just tried to submit my band GRUNK from the UK and it tells me that "Grunk" United Kingdom has been blacklisted.
Just wondering why, and if I can appeal it in any way?

Please and thanks.

It was blacklisted for being grind/powerviolence based on the album from 2020. I agree with that classification, so the blacklisting will remain. Sorry.

I find it odd, as I thought we had the riffs, and we have a lot of thrash influences. But okay

Hopefully our next album, when that happens, is metal.enough

I think Grunk should be allowed, I don't know what powerviolence is ( a new genre to me) but Grunk sound straight classic Grindcore to me (the Metal rather than Punk influenced kind), sure a few songs on the album are very violent in theme, are there any grind bands that aren't violent sounding? The difference is I understand you don't want bands that are actually seriously violent, twisted people and make that obvious with their songs, BUT Grunk are definitely to Grindcore the kind of thing Cannibal Corpse are to Death Metal - nice hard working every day guys, who try to make good songs that are a release of their anger and frustration. They even end the album with a slower song with some huge sludgy metal riffs that is about eating Mushrooms!! hardly powerviolence - so please re-consider this band are really good live and I look forward to their future releases. It's a shame they're not on the archive alongside Cattle Decapitation, Blood Duster, Napalm Death, Atrocity Exhibit etc. who are so obviously their main influences... thanks for your time

There are many definitions of it online, so feel free to study them. As for this band, it will stay blacklisted until there is a new release to consider. That's all.

How come Sulk made it on with their Grindcore/Powerviolence EP but we didn't? They're the same level of metal as us.
https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Sulk/3540477533

In the rules of this subforum among "things to avoid" it says "avoid comparing bands". So read the rules, please. Each band is evaluated on their own merits. Some have enough metal riffs, some don't. That's all there is to it.

Can I get clarity on what makes a riff a metal riff and what doesn't?

That's a complicated question that everyone has their own opinions on. The moderators sometimes have differing opinions as well, but to keep the site going have to come to a consensus, and on occasion there's some compromise involved - but we seem to be on the same page about it for the most part. Comparing the riffs of bands on the site to bands that have been blacklisted will give some clarity. There are a lot of different kinds of metal riffs. There are usually power chords (fifths) involved in the riffs, certain strumming patterns like a galloping rhythm found in some styles of metal, or slower riffs that ring out, and note selections that can be recognized as being of the genre. Palm muting (a chug sound) is present in a lot of thrash metal, but is also common in nu-metal. The difference is what is going on around that palm muting in those kind of cases. A lot of black and death metal has riffs where a single note is strummed quickly, and that single note moves around to different positions - another indication that you're listening to a metal band. Note selection has a lot to do with it, as well as strum patterns. Some bands are rejected because their riffing is more in a punk style, or there's too much start-then-stop, chugga style riffs that kill any kind of metal build-up that had been going on up until that point in the song. Hopefully this will help to explain it a bit.