pymetal 1.0.1

metal-archives.com Python client with a relational data model

pymetal

A Python client for Encyclopaedia Metallum (the Metal Archives) with a relational data model that captures what flat scrapers lose: splits, lineups changing over time, and tracks reused across releases.

Built on curl_cffi for TLS-fingerprint bypass and pydantic for typed, validated data.

Why

Most scrapers model Track = (id, title, band, album). That collapses three independent facts MA keeps separate:

• a track may have multiple bands (split releases, collaborations);
• a band's lineup is time-sliced — "the same band" on two tracks may mean different humans;
• a track may appear on many releases (compilations, re-issues, singles).

pymetal models each as a first-class entity (TrackAppearance, LineupMember, ReleaseLineup) keyed by metal-archives ids so re-scrapes are idempotent.

Install

pip install -e .

Requires Python 3.10+. Pulls curl_cffi, lxml, pydantic>=2, random-user-agent.

Quick start

from pymetal import MetalArchives

ma = MetalArchives()

# Search bands with the full advanced-search filter set.
for hit in ma.search_bands(country="PT", genre="Heavy", year_from=1980, year_to=1989):
    print(hit.ma_id, hit.name, hit.country)

# Pull a release with all its tracks (per-band attribution on splits).
release, songs, appearances = ma.get_release(451600)  # Carcass — Heartwork
print(release.cover_url, release.total_length, release.label_name)
print(release.reviews_count, "reviews", release.reviews_avg_percent, "% avg")

# Lineup over time — Current / Past / Live / Last-known / Guest-Session.
for member in ma.get_lineup(14):
    print(member.status, member.artist_name, member.role, member.date_from, member.date_to)

# Lyrics by song id.
print(ma.get_lyrics_by_song_id(172090))

More examples in examples/:

• metalarchives.py — full API tour
• browse.py — catalog walks (country / genre / letter / labels / reviews / upcoming / RIP)
• portuguese_heavy_metal_pre2000.py — resumable lyrics-corpus crawl
• metallvm-rest.py — FastAPI server exposing every endpoint over HTTP

Endpoints

Search (advanced-search forms)

Function	What it returns
search_bands(...)	Iterator[BandSearchHit] — every advanced filter (country, status, year range, themes, location, label)
search_albums(...)	Iterator[AlbumSearchHit] — release type, format, label, catalog/barcode, year+month range
search_songs(...)	Iterator[SongSearchHit] — full-text lyrics search; carries band_id / release_id / lyrics_id

Detail pages

Function	What it returns
get_band(id)	Band — name, country, genres, themes, labels, comment, photo, audit
get_lineup(id)	List[LineupMember] — partitioned by status with role-date ranges
get_release(id)	(Release, List[Song], List[TrackAppearance]) — splits attribute per-band
get_release_lineup(id)	List[ReleaseLineup] — band / guest / staff credits
get_other_versions(id)	List[Release] — re-issues, re-masters, regional editions
get_discography(id)	List[Release]
get_artist(id)	Artist — real name, born, R.I.P., died of, place of birth
get_label(id)	Label — address, phone, styles, founding date, sub-labels, parent
get_band_recommendations(id)	List[BandRecommendation] — MA's "Similar artists" tab
get_band_reviews(id)	Iterator[Review] — every user review of every release by a band
get_links(id, entity_type='band')	List[ExternalLink] — Bandcamp/Spotify/merch grouped by section
get_lyrics_by_song_id(id)	Optional[str]
get_lyrics(...)	Iterator[str] — combined search + lyrics fetch

Catalog browse + discovery

Function	What it returns
browse_bands_by_country(code)	Iterator[BandSearchHit] — full country listing
browse_bands_by_genre(slug)	Iterator[BandSearchHit] — 23-bucket coarse taxonomy
browse_bands_by_letter(letter)	Iterator[BandSearchHit] — alphabetical (A–Z, NBR, ~)
browse_labels_by_country(code)	Iterator[Label]
browse_labels_by_letter(letter)	Iterator[Label]
browse_reviews(year, month)	Iterator[Review] — reviews posted in a given month
get_upcoming_releases()	Iterator[UpcomingRelease] — scheduled future releases
get_rip_artists()	Iterator[RIPArtist] — MA's deceased-artists list
list_countries()	dict[code, name] — all MA-known country codes
list_genre_slugs()	list[str] — the 23 genre browse slugs

All return Pydantic v2 models — .model_dump_json() round-trip works on every type.

Documentation

• Getting Started — install + first commands
• API Reference — every public class + method
• Advanced Usage — splits, lineups over time, pagination, caching, lyrics download
• Developer Guide — adding endpoints, capturing fixtures, running tests

License

Apache 2.0