What's all this then, Nazgul? It's the content of an email from a Metal Archives moderator in response to my post in 2016 about the deletion of Uruk Hai from that site.
Some months ago Nazgul received an unexpected email from one of the moderators on the Metal Archives site who was quoted in my original piece. I'll keep them anonymous for the time being, for no reason other than I've not discussed with them the prospect of identifying their ID in this post.
They were writing in response to my "The Slaying of Uruk Hai" post from last February, and let Nazgul just say here that he appreciates the time and effort for this individual to have formally replied. The email alluded to the possibility of a 'more comprehensive response' being a possibility in the future, but despite a little to and fro by email between the pair of us this longer response hasn't materialized as at today's date. One suspects pressures of time, work and life are doubtless the cause for that, rather than anything else.
However, seeing as the original post did generate a fair bit of interest and was one of the most read posts in the history of Honour and Darkness, printing the response here seems the fair and reasonable thing to do. Should anything further come in on the story, Nazgul will keep you in the loop.
"Wow.
I was made aware of this post by an MA user and might write up a more comprehensive response later, but for now I would just like to point out that Alhadis did indeed save the information as repeatedly claimed on our forum. The "nuking" part only refers to the removal of the entry from MA, not the deletion of the information per se. It's simply used synonymously among the staff for "to delete", nothing more to it. Though I guess to outsiders the choice of word might seem pejorative in a sense that it really isn't. As for the LotR GIF, it was a joke. We're not robots.
Again, please do try to contact Alhadis, if you are looking for the information the entry contained (his email address can be found on his MA user profile). While his Tome of Noise project has been in the planning stages for a long time now and considering his real life commitments it will probably remain in such a state longer still, he does very much save all this stuff locally."
In addition to that, and in (quick) response to the "metalness" of Uruk-Hai... well, we did review all the material that gets described as black metal regularly. As I remember, though, no single release favoured the metal over the ambient. It wasn't a rushed decision by any means. Whatever hostile intention might be read into droneriot's or other's posts, we assess these things as objectively as we can (what I was trying to say in the posts quoted in your article, is that I have no personal investment in the band one way or another).
There was no ulterior motive or vendetta or anything like that behind its removal. Neither should much be read into its long existence on the site, it was basically a chance inclusion that happened in an earlier period of the site when the addition of side-projects was far more lenient (we have been tightening this policy considerably lately) and simply endured for this long because no staffer ever really got around to re-assessing it thoroughly. That happens. "Site seniority" in that sense is irrelevant to us, the same rules apply to all bands.
It's also worth pointing out that we don't include bands based on cherry-picked songs across a discography (cf. Hugin's claim of "I easily could fill up 8 full albums with Metal songs", which is irrelevant as the fact remains that there is no single consistently metal release, as far as we could determine). In short, if we overlooked something, you are welcome to bring up any release(s) you think would qualify Uruk-Hai for re-evaluation in the appropriate thread on our forum.
As long as you maintain a polite and reasonable tone (and use the search function beforehand to ensure that the specific release(s) haven't been brought up and addressed already), you won't have to fear being assaulted by a flock of rabid moderators. If the release(s) you're thinking of have already been considered, well, agree to disagree."
All of which is, I think you'd have to agree, an eminently fair and reasonable reply and one that leaves the door open for some appropriate and respectful 'pushing' should anyone out there still feel strongly enough about the subject to resubmit material for the moderators' consideration at the Metal Archives site...