MetalTracker

Introduction

 If you are anything like me, then there is a good chance that you are sick of having to scroll through countless torrent files of mainstream pop garbage while you are trying to torrent songs and albums of all of your favorite extreme indie metal bands. We all know that metal is the only genre of music that truly matters. It is the most honest genre.

Unlike other types of music, metal embraces the darker sides of humanity. The sides that most of us like to pretend doesn’t exist because they make people uncomfortable. The anger, the evil, the hatred. The murder, the gore, the pain. The satanic, the hedonistic, the orgiastic. In both theme and sound, metal embraces the unsettling, the chaotic, the rebellious. True metal heads know that there is nothing else like it in the universe.

Which is why it deserves a space of its own … a place where likeminded metal heads can come together and torrent only the best indie metal music ever recorded. An online community of indie metal music fans where people can, in addition to torrenting their favorite bands, discuss new releases, classic albums, and indie metal news on a message board. There needs to be a torrent site and online community that is dedicated solely to free indie metal.

Well, finally, there is. The site that we will be looking at today is called Metal Tracker, and it is the perfect combination of free indie metal music torrents and lively forum and chat that we have all been waiting for. No matter what subgenre of metal you are into (of which there are many; metal is constantly innovating and broadening its horizons), you will be able to find a home at Metal Tracker.

Whether you are looking for free indie thrash metal, death metal, speed metal, epic metal, metalcore, doom metal, deathcore, folk metal, or nu metal, Metal Tracker has you covered. These are not even the only subgenres you will be able to browse on this site. Metal Tracker has what it takes to become your one stop shop for all your free indie metal needs.

Any metal head is all too familiar, too, with how difficult it can be to find their favorite free indie bands and albums on some of the bigger torrent sites. There are some bands that are extremely obscure outside of the free indie metal community, even if they are legendary within it. These indie bands are not always easy to find on the bigger torrent sites. Yet another area in which a site like Metal Tracker can excel. Made by and for true metal fans, even the most esoteric free indie metal albums are much more likely to be discovered here.

But how does Metal Tracker stack up against other free indie music torrent sites out there? We have already established that it can be a great community of likeminded music fans and that it contains multitudes of metal torrents. But is it a good free indie music torrent site in general? Does Metal Tracker have enough seeders, for example, to make for speedy and efficient downloads? The best torrent sites, after all, should ensure blast beat fast downloads, and the more seeders a torrent has, the faster it will download. And only active torrent communities have high numbers of seeders. So, we will have to see whether the members of Metal Tracker are as serious about torrenting as they are about free indie metal.

Also, the best free indie music torrent sites will also provide solid, user-friendly, and intuitive design. It can be hard to make a torrent site look cool. Most of them seem to just go with the boring grid style layout, more utilitarian than anything else. But some torrent sites do go out of their way to also put a little thought into style. We’ll have to take a look and see where Metal Tracker falls on this spectrum as well.

Does Metal Tracker have what it takes to become the king of free indie music torrent sites? Or shall we sacrifice it to the gods of Metal and forget it ever existed?

 History

 Once you enter the realm of Metal Tracker, you will be greeted with a quick overview of metal’s winding and tectonic history. “Heavy Metal (often referred to simply as Metal),” the greeting reads, “is a rock music style that was created in the late 1960s and early 1970s mainly in the UK and the USA. Rooted in blues […] and psychedelic rock, the bands that founded Metal created a ‘thick,’ massive sound featuring distortion, long guitar solos, expressive drum parts, and loud performance. The lyrics and manner of performing Metal have always been associated with masculinity.”

The history continues: “Early metal bands such as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple received a lot of criticism, which carried over to the whole style. Motörhead added punk rock sensitivity and increased performance. Representatives of the new wave of British Metal, such as Iron Maiden, continued this trend. In the late 70s, Metal began to attract a huge number of fans around the world, known as the ‘Metalists’ (‘metalheads’ or ‘headbangers’).”

Next the site gets us caught up through the modern era of metal music … “In the 80s, Glam Metal became dominant and created many new bands such as Mötley Crüe. The underground scene spawned many other extreme, aggressive styles: Thrash Metal broke through the mainstream with bands such as Metallica, while other directions such as Death Metal and Black Metal were not so famous. Since the mid-90s, new popular trends such as Nu Metal , which includes elements of Funk and Hip-Hop, and Metalcore, which borders Extreme Metal and Hardcore Punk, have expanded the boundaries of style.”

Today, new classifications of metal are being created and identified all the time. Metal is, by far, the most expansive, massive, and constantly growing genre of music there is. There are so many different playing styles, musical emphases, and thematic boundaries that dictate what kind of metal a certain band (or even a single song) can fall under. Metal can never die because it constantly spawns itself anew.

 Design

 Speaking of style, Metal Tracker has not neglected this element of the genre. The black and gray website is riddled with symbolism of metal lore. You’ll find dragon borders and crests, plus lots of spikes, steel, and leather. Upon entering Metal Tracker, you shall feel as if you have entered the digital realm of metal itself.

The site is not without practicality, though. One of my favorite aspects of this site is how efficiently one can browse by metal subgenre. Thanks to a list of different styles of metal on the left-hand side of the page, you can find the torrents you are looking for by style (doom metal, death metal, thrash metal, crossover, glam metal, grindcore, etc.), or you can search for whatever specific indie artist or album you might be looking for.

That being said, there are aspects of Metal Tracker’s design that bother me. Certain elements are annoyingly off center, for example, which really exacerbates my OCD. But maybe that’s just me. Either way, you won’t have any trouble finding just about any free indie metal band you can think of (within reason … your favorite local vegan black metal sludge hybrid that has played one or two shows together are not likely to be on this site. Let’s be real here).

 Content and Features

That being said, Metal Tracker has a gargantuan library of metal for your downloading and listening (dis)pleasure. Not only will you find one of the largest archives of metal music here, you will also be able to enjoy an active and fun forum and chat feature, letting you discuss your favorite metal genres, albums, bands, and whatever. Oh, and Metal Tracker also lets you browse torrents by making use of their own chart of popular downloads. This site was clearly made for free indie music, and it has all the features you would want from a free indie metal music torrent site.

 Mobile and Desktop Experience

 Great news for those of you who like to torrent on the go: Metal Tracker’s site is fully accessible and usable on your phone or tablet. The site, however, is not fully optimized for mobile use, in that the design is not any different than it is on your desktop (it may require some zooming in, in other words, to use). It’s totally doable, though.