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