METAL-i started off in 2001 as a subsite of a larger website called i-Corp™, aka The Insane Corporate. All the site's sections were named i-Something or Something-i, that was the sort of in-joke and the trademark style. When it quickly became clear that METAL-i was the most-viewed section, it was decided to bring METAL-i to the forefront, and the other parts of The Insane Corporate were gradually phased out. The only other part that survived at the time was "i-PLAY", a games section which was incorporated into the newly-launched METAL-i as "METAL-i's MAYHEM!".

When METAL-i was first launched as a standalone site, it kept the name used when it was a subsection of i-Corp, always using a small "i". The first incarnation of the standalone site was a .com, and at the time featured a streaming MP3 channel with hundreds of bands, many of which we reviewed, via the now-defunct (pre-takeover by Download.com) MP3.com site. When we launched METAL-i version 2 back in 2004, we took the decision to go with a .co.uk domain on the grounds of lower cost for the domain and annual hosting.

When we decided to do a full bottom-up rebuild, rather than just the minor cosmetic changes that we do maybe twice a year to keep things from going stale, we decided to adopt - officially - Noise Matters as the title for the relaunched site. That ties the entire site in with our two ongoing projects, Noise Matters Records (NMR) and our first release, Noise Matters Volume 1 (NMv1), rather than just a page on the site. We will be keeping the METAL-i.co.uk domain as a redirect for the time being, to enable less-frequent visitors to find us, and to allow everyone to adapt to the change..

METAL-i, since its inception and now succeeded by NoiseMatters.com, has aimed to bring new music to the masses, to get unsigned and underground acts noticed, and to keep originality alive in this age of the copycat stereotype factory-produced politically-acceptable hyper-commercialised crap that you see these days in stores and in the charts. What's the catch? There's no catch if we feature your band (or you, if you're solo) on Noise Matters. Our mission is to promote and help to establish top-quality underground or up-and-coming acts and challenge the global domination of hyper-commercialised factory-produced "music".

Ok, so hopefully we've convinced you that our intentions are honorable. Next step is to submit your band for a review, maybe we'll even run a larger feature later. If we like what we hear, we'll review it. If we think you're not bad but could improve, we'll review it but tell you what we don't like. We rarely run reviews on stuff that we genuinely dislike or think there's no hope for, due to time constraints, we're a small operation even though we have a big heart. Even stuff that we do like, we can't always get you in for the next scheduled update of the site, but don't be disheartened, we try to get round to all the good stuff eventually. If you've got a Myspace page with your tracks on, send us the link and we'll at least get you added to our links page before getting round to a review. If not, email us a couple of tracks (not too huge preferably). Either way, provide us some info on the band/you, so we've got something to write about on your influences, where you're from, stuff like that, you know the drill. See our "Get On NM" page for submission details. We're allergic to spam and other junk mail though. Spam makes us turn green. You won't like us when we're green...