There are many ways:

Forum reports
If someone violates site policies, if a new topic is utterly stupid and pointless, if something is generally wrong with a topic - use the Report to Mods button. The forum is huge, and Moderators can't possibly check every thread and every message. This would help us to keep the forum clean.

Edit bands and albums
You can edit details of the featured bands, add and edit albums, lyrics, videos, trivia and other related stuff. Go to the band pages and you should find the links easily. You have to be logged in to do that.

Add news and events
You can submit news and metal-related events, such as concerts, tours and festivals.

Write reviews, articles and concert reviews
You can now submit reviews for any featured album, by going to the album page and clicking 'Add review'. To submit an article or a concert review, go here. Please consult the rules and guidelines for submitting reviews and articles first.

Moreover, please never contact a band or a label on behalf of Metal Storm; you could get into serious trouble if you do so. For instance, we won't accept unapproved interviews.

If you have a great idea for the site improvement, you can post it on General website forum, or send an e-mail/PM to corrupt.

We welcome any submissions. You can help us expand the site and keep the featured information correct and up-to-date.

If you are not a member of the Metal Storm Staff, your review qualifies as a Guest Review.

- New releases are reserved for staff reviewers. Guest reviewers must wait 30 days after a release date or 14 days after an official review is published, whichever comes first
- as an exception of the rule, if you feel strongly about a particular album please contact the Editor-in-Chief
- Guest reviews do not appear on the front page of Metal Storm
- Guest reviewers are forbidden from contacting bands or labels as if on Metal Storm's behalf

Here is a summary of rules for submitting reviews to Metal Storm. Please read the Author Agreement for a full list.

- The review must be exclusively written for Metal Storm and cannot violate any global copyright laws. Breaking this rule will result in a permanent ban.
- Profanity should be avoided unless it is obvious that the review requires it. Slurs (racial or otherwise) will never be tolerated and result in a ban.
- The rating system should be used but don't give ridiculous ratings. Very few albums actually deserve a 10 or a 2. Be reasonable.
- "Song-By-Song" reviews are not allowed on Metal Storm.
- All reviews will be checked and proofread before appearing online.
- All reviews must be formatted in the following way:

Band names need to go in [band] tags. ie. Black Sabbath (without spaces) becomes Black Sabbath.

Album titles are in italics [ i] tags ie. [ i] Painkiller [ /i] (without spaces) becomes Painkiller.

Song titles are in quotation marks. ie. "Iron Man".

Lyrics are also in quotation marks.

Note: It is grammatically incorrect to capitalize genres. i.e. power metal not Power metal

Here are some guidelines to make your review better:

- The optimal length for a review is 250-500 words. Please don't go below or over this length unless absolutely necessary.
- Don't forget to save your review to your computer or other memory device! It's always good to keep a copy of your work somewhere, because if you submit your review and it gets rejected then it will be deleted. If you haven't saved it anywhere, it can't be retrieved. It is the user's responsibility to save their reviews.
- A review is an opinion but make sure you explain yourself succinctly.
- Follow the rules of conventional writing: include an introduction, clearly state your opinion, support it in the body and make a conclusion.
- If you are not sure about the spelling of a word, check it on dictionary.com or infoplease.com.

Pressing "Submit" on your review means that you have read and accept the rules and guidelines above and in the Author Agreement. Please make sure your review adheres or it might be rejected.

For more information, contact the Editor-in-chief

Acceptable sources are those considered "official" - that is, authoritative because of their proximity to the people to whom the information pertains. These include the band's or label's websites, Facebook profiles, Bandcamp pages, and any other social media or online platforms directly administrated by the band members, the record label, or someone similar. Liner notes and other physical elements of a release may be as authoritative as it gets, but we need to be able to verify your edits remotely, so unless you feel like uploading a scan of your album cover so that we can double-check your accuracy, just try to find an online source that is reasonably definitive; Discogs is acceptable as a reliable source and can be used to stand in for these physical sources.

Wikipedia, the Metal Archives, AllMusic, RateYourMusic, Metal Kingdom, Spirit of Metal, and other similar websites are NOT acceptable sources. They are unofficial, third-party compilers of information, and their own standards for sourcing will differ from ours. While these sites can be useful as a starting place if information is not readily available elsewhere, they should not be taken at their word and any information found therein should be verified through the use of an official source. In short, these websites should never be the source you cite when making an edit.

Streaming services occupy a tenuous position between "official" and "unofficial"; be very wary when resorting to Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, etc. as references. These days, streaming platforms are frequently the only places to find information about digital-only releases, which means that sometimes we have no choice but to accept them, but quite often they list incorrect release dates or track orders, and they won't often contain everything that would be useful or necessary to know about an album. You may use a streaming service as a source to add a new release if you cannot find the release referenced through more official means, but please do not use them as sources to edit existing releases; we've had many users attempt to change a correct release year or track listing because Spotify featured a recent remaster with different information or YouTube just put the songs in a different order.

In general, cross-check your data. If a name or date seems wrong, it very well could be; different platforms tend to be unreliable about different things, and even musicians themselves can be cagey or forgetful or simply misleading about certain information. In the end, we just want to be as accurate as we possibly can be.

There are several cases when you can upload an image with your edit/submission. These are pictures for albums, musicians and videos. I hope you understand that we can only accept images with a certain level of quality, so here are a few pointers for you:

1. For the love of God, never use Paint for working with images! Your best choice would be a professional image editing program, but in case you don't have one, there's a little free program called Irfanview, which produces quite satisfactory results.

2. Make sure there are no borders on the sides of the image. Crop all unnecessary stuff. Make sure the contrast level is right, and the image is not too pale or too bright. Make sure there are no compression artefacts visible. Seriously, just make sure it looks perfect before submitting it.

3. Try to save images with lower file sizes but still a good quality. Keep the compression level at 50-60.

4. For videos, choose the most recognizable and memorable image from the video. Make sure it's not too messy and one can actually recognize what's on the picture. Try to keep the proportions - it's always better to crop the image than distort the proportions too much. Crop out channel logos and other redundant stuff as well.

If you feel you can't fulfill these requirements, it's better to submit an edit without an image, than with one that is poor quality.

Band name / former names / also known as
Make sure the band name is spelled the "official way". If there are alternative spellings, put them in the "Also known as" box (example: Mötley Crüe / Motley Crue). All former names also go there. If there are two bands with the same name, the "bigger" one should have the normal name, but the other one should get it's country attached in upper-case, in round brackets: example Autumn and Autumn (RUS).

Picture
Add a picture, in which all the band members can be seen well; avoid distortion and pics with other people in them. If you can't find a promo picture, use a live one instead.

Country
If the country of Origin is different than the current location please fill out both fields. Ex: Inquisition

Label
Check the band's or label's website to go sure that the band still is on the same label as mentioned.

Years
Make sure the "formed in" date equals the one mentioned in the biography. In the process of the migration to MSv3, many founding years have been changed to the year of the first release, which of course is wrong most of the time.

Links
Try to list all of the band's official sites; no merch stores, label sites, or personal social media accounts. The Official site link goes at the top, all other links must be ordered alphabetically afterward. Link names must display as they do on their respective sites (meaning no abbreviations and with proper formatting), e.g. Bandcamp (not BandCamp), Myspace (not MySpace), ReverbNation (not Reverbnation), SoundCloud (not Soundcloud), VKontakte (not Vkontakte), YouTube (not Youtube), etc. Please note that certain websites are not considered appropriate for linking in a band's profile. Linktree, FanLink, and anything similar with "link" in the name are out, as are Twitch, Tumblr, TikTok, and anything that resembles an entertainment service platform, personal blog, etc. Pages from sites like the Metal Archives, Bandzone, and others that consist of third-party-compiled information are not allowed. Sites like Patreon will be allowed on a case-by-case basis if they are for the entire band and are relevant to the band as a musical entity. Basically, focus on websites that are 1) operated by or on behalf of the band; 2) pertinent to the entire band; and 3) primarily geared toward sharing music, announcements, press coverage, updates, and that sort of thing. We realize that with the number of social media platforms out there it is difficult to split the hair between what we want and what we don't want, but please consider these guidelines when updating band profiles.

We do allow more leeway for individual musicians. If someone in a band has a personal website or Patreon or Twitch or what have you that they would like to be advertised, we will allow those to be linked in their musician profile. Don't take this as license to start adding everybody's private Facebook profiles or Twitter accounts, however - we're not interested in compiling everybody's personal information, we're just allowing folks a platform to promote their side projects if they have something going on outside their main band.

Biography
Check the band's website for an updated biography. If the new biography concentrates too much on the newest releases and doesn't talk about the older stuff, find other sources (e.g. All Music Guide) or write one yourself. Please always specify the source in the end.

Visibility
Bands should only be made visible after their profile is completed - general info, biography, styles, lineup, albums, band image. If it's done, ask to have the band activated or contact a Staff member.

Styles
If you have any suggestions regarding the style/styles played by the band please report them in the Featured bands - report mistakes thread or send a PM to a Staff member.

Also check the Site news and announcements topic for the latest updates and changes.

Make sure the artist isn't already featured, before adding a new one! Multiple profiles for the same artist are a pain in the ass.

If a musician has been in the band for more than one period of time (departed and then came back), please add him twice, for both periods.

If there was a lineup change and a long break until a spot was filled, read up on old news whether guests or tour musicians jumped in during studio sessions or gigs (live musicians).

If in doubt whether a musician was a 'studio' or 'guest' one, Guest musicians are usually rather famous persons (most often, vocalists) from other bands, brought in for a couple of songs. Studio musicians usually play on all/most album songs, and fill in for a missing instrument.

When a musician has a pseudonym/aliases that they go by with their band(s), their real name is entered in the "Musician" field and their pseudonym/alias is entered in the "Alias (optional)" field.
You will also have to be sure that all aliases are entered in the "Also known as" field on the Musician profile, otherwise the Search function will not work when searching for a musician by their alias/pseudonym. Some musicians use different aliases for different bands, this allows us to show those aliases only for the respected band(s) the musician uses them for.
See example HERE

Additional information can be submitted in artist profiles - picture, biography, official website, birth date.

If the musician has other bands or projects as well, don't hesitate to add those - go his profile and click 'Add bands'. If you don't know when exactly he joined or left those, put 0000 as the year.

What can be added
- Only official album releases are accepted, no bootlegs.
- Only releases with a title and full release date are accepted (working title is OK too).
- TBA albums are not allowed !!! (read HERE)
- We also don't feature re-releases or remasters - however, we do feature re-recordings. Any and all info regarding re-releases and remasters is to be added to the "Additional info" field of the original album. Leaving a comment with reasons for adding/modifying album information (and providing an official source) greatly increases the chance of your edit being accepted by the Staff.


Release type
Most of them are self-explanatory, however, there are a few tricky ones.

- Single - usually very short, containing 1-4 songs. Most commonly has the same name as the main song. Besides 1 or 2 main songs it usually contains unreleased tracks, covers, demos, live and alternative versions.

- EP - normally has the same content as a studio album would, differs mostly in length (longer than a single but not enough for a regular album). In a lot of cases contains new material, not available anywhere else, sometimes with a few bonuses thrown in (live tracks, alternative versions).

- VA - Various Artists. Compilation CDs with over 4 different artists on them. Artists should be then listed in the tracklist, ex: "# Iron Maiden - The Trooper".


Release date
Although albums can have several release dates for different parts of the world, we use only the very first one. Other dates can be added in the "Additional info" box.


Splits and VA
Some CDs have more than one artist on them. Use the bands dropdown to add all featured bands to the album - the album will then appear in each one's discography. In the tracklist, either break songs intro groups (if each artist has several songs) with artist name and tracks listed below, or put artist name before each song (if each has only one song) - ex: "# Iron Maiden - The Trooper".

Pics
Please refer to the working with images section.


Tracklist
Tracklists are tricky, so please pay close attention! First of all, make sure you've seen and understood the tracklist code (if you haven't, click on "Tracklist code and instructions" below the tracklist box). Use the preview button to see the end result. Here are some of the most common mistakes:

- ALL song titles (regardless of language) must have the first letter capitalized! Every Word Must Be Capitalized.

- All brackets in song titles must be in (parentheses). All tags and any additional information that is not part of the song's title must be in [square brackets].

- Information in square brackets should be in lower case, except names and titles.

- For multi-CD releases, make sure that the [disc] tag is used properly. If there's a bonus CD on the limited edition, also put the [disc] tag in front of the original CD, otherwise it will designate the bonus CD as disk 1.

- Don't use such tags as [instrumental] or [non-album track]. However, if it's the instrumental version of a song, use the [v: instrumental] tag.

- Never add track length.

- Use '+' instead of '#' to mark additonal multimedia content - video track on an audio CD, wallpapers, images galleries and so on.

Most singles are usually accompanied by a video. We feature only OFFICIAL VIDEOS, released through the band's official channels or by their label. Which means: no live sound recordings! However, there are videos with live footage and studio sound - those are OK, but once again - only if the are OFFICIALLY released by the band or their label. "Lyric videos" are accepted now, but only if they are OFFICIAL - meaning they HAVE to be released by the band or their label.

We don't feature promotional videos by the band or their representatives which were made just to inform the fans that a new album is on the horizon or where to buy the new album!

There's a lot of custom-made videos floating around, usually with anime footage. Learn to distinguish between them.

If there are several significantly different versions of the video, add them all, the first one without anything additional, the others with (... version) added to the title.

Finding band videos
Check the media section of the bands whether they have videos. If yes, add those. You can also try to find information on fan sites. Most of the time you won't find many videos on the band's site. Check out YouTube.com then, enter the band's name and find the official videos.

Screenshots
Google Video and Youtube normally have good enough quality to take a proper screenshot (PrtScn button on your keyboard). If you can download the video somewhere, follow this short guide: http://www.videohelp.com/faq#screenshot.
Please take a screenshot that is representative for the video. Full view of the band isn't representative, every music video has that. Best is if you take a shot of a scene, which is crucial for the plot of the video.

Year
This is the year the video was released, not the album! If there's no way to find out - oh well, put the album year here...

Director
The toughest part. If you have trouble finding the director, browse through the archives of Blabbermouth or Brave Words and/or google interviews with the bands from that period. ("band name" "song name" video interview) as search query should do the trick.

What follows is the legally binding agreement that all Guest Reviewers sign by pressing the "Submit" button. This is the final and legally exhaustive document and please consult it first if you have any questions.

------------------------------------

Metal Storm Guest Reviewer's Agreement

The following are the terms and conditions governing article submissions by Guest Reviewers to the Metal Storm Web site located at http://metalstorm.net (hereinafter "Site"). We ask that you (hereinafter "Author") read the terms of the Agreement (hereinafter "Agreement") with Metal Storm carefully.

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING.

General
By submitting your article, review, concert review or other content ("Content") to this Site, Author agrees to these terms and conditions. The Site reserves the right, in its discretion, to change or modify all or any part of this agreement at any time, effective immediately upon publishing such changes or modifications. If Author does not agree, then Author should not submit any Content to this Site.

The Content
By submitting any Content to the Site, Author represents that Author has full rights to send us the Content and that sending us the Content for publication on the Site will not violate or infringe the rights of any third person or party, including but not limited to, rights in copyrights, patents, trademarks, service marks, trade secrets or other proprietary rights. Author also represents and understands that Author will not receive any form of compensation from the Site for the Content Author is submitting. Author further understands that submission of any Content to the Site does not in any way guarantee the Content will be published or appear on the Site.

Author grants to The Site the following rights to the Content:
- the right to proof-read and edit the Content prior to publishing or at any other time deemed necessary by Metal Storm;
- the worldwide and perpetual right to electronically publish and distribute the Content in all versions of the Site in any language and the right to translate and electronically publish and distribute the Content to other sites under license or contract with The Site;
- the worldwide and perpetual right to include the Content in advertising and promotion;
- the worldwide and perpetual right to include the Content in print and non-print products anywhere in the world.

Finally, we may delete any Content at any time, without any notice to the Author.

Author Represents and Warrants To Metal Storm that:
- Author is the sole author and owner of the Content and have the full power and authority, free of any rights of any nature whatsoever by any other person or party, to enter into this Agreement and to grant the rights, which are being granted by this Agreement.
- The Content does not and if published on the Site, will not infringe upon any copyright or any proprietary right at common law or otherwise.
- The Content is based on true facts and diligent research.
- Author will not enter into any subsequent Agreement or understanding with another person or entity which might conflict with the rights granted to The Site under this Agreement regarding the Content.
- Author acknowledges that the fee for the Content will be $0 and appropriate credit within the article on the Site.

Metal Storm is under no obligation to publish Author's submitted Content.

Author Further Represents That Author Will:
- Disclose any pecuniary or non-pecuniary interest Author may directly or indirectly, have in any security, company, or financial product, which is the subject matter of the Content. If a member of Author's family, or an entity in which Author is a shareholder has a pecuniary or non-pecuniary interest in the security, company, or financial product that must be disclosed as well.
- Make certain any hypertext links within the Content are active and working, obtain any necessary approvals from that company or entity, and make certain that such linking does not violate any copyrights, patents, trademarks, service marks, trade secrets or other proprietary rights.
- Make certain that the Content is formatted according to Metal Storm Publishing rules ie Band names go in [band] tags, Album titles are in italics, Song titles are in quotation marks and Lyrics are also in quotation marks.
- Not make any statement that Author knows, or should have reason to know is untruthful and/or unlawful.
- Not submit any Content that is defamatory, libelous, obscene, or in violation of any law.
- Not submit any Content that contains or contains hyper links to any viruses, "worms", "trojan horses" or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
- Disclose your true identity and not impersonate any person or entity, or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity;
- Not forge e-mail headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any Content transmitted to the Site;
- Not upload, post, email or otherwise transmit any Content that you do not have a right to transmit under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as inside information, proprietary and confidential information learned or disclosed as part of employment relationships or under nondisclosure agreements);
- Not publish the Content in violation of this Agreement. Author agrees to cooperate with The Site in its defense of any action related to the Content. In addition, you agree to indemnify and hold The Site harmless from any and all claims, losses and expenses that are a result of your breach of the foregoing representations.

Termination Of Service:
The Site reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to restrict, suspend, or terminate the Site at any time, for any reason without prior notice or liability. The Site may change, suspend, or discontinue all or any aspect of The Site at any time.

Indemnification:
Author agrees to indemnify, defend and hold harmless The Site, its officers, directors, employees, agents, licensors, suppliers and any third party information providers to the Site from and against all claims, losses, expenses, damages and costs, including reasonable attorneys' fees, resulting from any violation of this Agreement (including negligent or wrongful conduct) by Author or any other person accessing the Site.

Miscellaneous:
Author agrees that this is the entire Agreement between Author and The Site related to the Content and that this Agreement supersedes all previous agreements and understandings related to the Content. Any disputes related to this Agreement shall be governed by the laws of the European Union and Author consents to the jurisdiction of the courts of the same.

The Site reserves any and all rights not expressly stated herein.

-- End of Author's Agreement --