This was one of those events that I didn’t really anticipate taking place but then again I never fully followed their happenings and inner circle gossip but despite this being the case, Peter Dolving has indeed quit The Haunted. He was a founding member back in 1996 with the Bjorler Brothers (formerly of the legendary At The Gates) so this kind of news came as a bit of a shock to me. As a journalist I have seen the band maybe four or five times and was touch and go with what they delivered to the audience. Technically I preferred At The Gates more but a lot of my friends and fellow media peeps were hardcore about their presentation so you checked them out to help support the larger Metal community.

According to some reports, the singer announced his departure on Facebook of all things. I guess this is the quickest way to get the word around these days. From what I read he sounded kind of pissed and amounted to someone who was standing by his statement. He lines out how he’s not answering any questions about it and that he has had it. Oh well. He will certainly be a difficult singer to replace because his stage persona was so intense and serious.

The band counter responded on their Facebook and stated how they will continue on despite the news. We wish all parties the very best in their future music endeavors and wonder just how stable The Haunted shall remain without their oft-imposing and unpredictable front man. Of course this stuff sometimes eventually works itself out and everyone shakes hands and works together again for the benefit of their worldwide fans.

Learn about the band via their Wikipedia Entry HERE

PS: The photos in this posting were shot by me when I last caught the band in 2009. You can check out other galleries that feature them in action by clicking HERE

The majority opinion rules so let the Metal Republic speak aloud and be accounted for in the categories for the Revolver Magazine Golden Gods Awards for 2012. There are some really cool categories here to choose from so click the logo down below to be taken to the Revolver Magazine website and follow the instructions to cast your votes. There’s best drummer, best singer, best album and best guitarists to name a few. We often scream about how the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or the Grammy’s ignore “our music” again and again, well those institutions are not there for us and this one is….Make it so, “Stand Up And Shout!!!!!”

The full ceremony will be streamed exclusively on XBox 360 on April 11th 2012 from the Club Nokia.

A few weeks ago I posted a narrative that discussed the 2011 year in my blogging adventures and how we had used the various criteria that get written about in this particular part of PiercingMetal.com – After this went online I got to thinking. What were the most popular posts for the year in peoples minds and what were they reading more than some of the other stuff that we had offered them? With that in mind I checked the statistics for the blog and listed the Top 20 Posts that were accessed in 2011. You will notice that some of them are from previous years in addition to what was written in 2011 and I felt that it would be interesting to see the whole list as opposed to just focusing on items that were written in 2011. Clicking on the title will launch the post so please do give them a visit. Perhaps you missed it when it was first written yourself, or meant to leave a comment and didn’t. There is truly no time like the present.

1. Black Veil Brides in Concert (4/15/2011)

2. Inside The Eddie Trunk Book Release Event (4/1/2011)

3. Slipknot’s Paul Gray Has Died (5/24/2010)

4. Vamp Collection by Fetty & Semi-Precious Weapons

5. Ronnie James Dio, The Godfather Of Heavy Metal Has Died (5/16/2010)

6. Black Veil Brides in Concert (7/25/2011)

7. The Adventures Of Powerglove At NY Comic Con

8. Kittie in Concert (3/23/2010)

9. The Haunted in Concert (4/19/2009):

10. R.I.P. Type O Negative’s Peter Steele (4/14/2010)

11. One Year Later: Type O Negative’s Peter Steele Remembered

12. A Piercing Discusssion with Alissa White-Gluz of The Agonist

13. 2Cellos in Concert (7/28/2011)

14. The 69 Eyes are Back In Blood in The New York Groove

15. Congrats to Revolver Magazine & Their 100th Issue

16. Sonata Arctica in Concert (4/5/2010)

17. Emilie Autumn in Concert (2/11/2011)

18. Cactus in Concert (4/2010)

19. PiercingMetal Goes To NY Comic Con & Anime Festival 2010: Day 2 (Part Two)

20. PiercingMetal Goes To NY Comic Con & Anime Festival 2010: Day 1 (Part Two)

I had to say that the list shocked me just a little bit as well, but beyond the shock I want to send super kudos and thanks to the fans of the Black Veil Brides who seem to be digging into my concert reports about the band with voracious appetite. I was happy to see some of my more unique pieces like the one about The 69 Eyes and Powerglove getting a lot of attention since they were done with a certain flair. While glad that my memorial reports on both Peter Steele and Dio got some serious reading, the loss of these two titans in Metal still bums me out almost two years after their passing. I did chuckle when I saw how a couple of the 2010 Comic Con items were popular reads while the 2011 ones had not yet built up any steam.

Thanks again to the readers for making the Official Blog of PiercingMetal.com so much fun to do. Maybe next year I will consider focusing this kind of item as narratives written exclusively in 2012 but maybe not. That all depends on what manifests as being the most popular during this calendar year.

In case you were wondering what this actually is let me give it my best shot; Ballet Deviare is a modern dance company that employs the use of crushing genres of Metal to bring its unique presentation to larger life. I first heard about them a few years ago thanks to some of my talented inner circle friends but sadly the scheduling of their events never seemed to happen on nights that I was free to attend. Bummer right? Do you feel my pain? Anyway, despite this being the case I have greatly enjoyed a number of their posted clips which are available on YouTube.com and that leads me to this post. Recently the Company released their new experimental nine minute film called “Disconsolate”. I copied the description for you below, so please check it out.

“Ballet Deviare presents DISCONSOLATE, a nine minute experimental dance film directed by Adam Waltner. DISCONSOLATE is a powerful, soul-entrancing depiction which illustrates the depths of human suffering. Set to “Waldlander im Herbst” from the Funeral Doom phenomenon Celestiial (Tanner Anderson), the piece evokes a feeling and mood that is as hypnotic as it is effecting. Prepare yourself for a bold and unforgettable experience. DISCONSOLATE’s staging and patterning were influenced by the ballet La Bayadere, Act II: The Kingdom of the Shades. DISCONSOLATE was Ballet Deviare’s recognition of its ballet foundation, while simultaneously redefining its classical roots.”

Stuff like this is just too cool not to share. Isn’t it amazing when one considers just how wide and encompassing the Metal geography actually is and how many exciting and different things are going on with its creative forces? I love it and feel that it just encourages and inspires you to keep on supporting it and perhaps even to brave your own ideas with a little more zeal and make them tangible. Congrats on the new film Ballet Deviare, I’m hoping to catch you perform hopefully soon.

For the 2012 Toy Fair, I decided to break into a few company specific posts in order to showcase some of the offerings that we got to see. This post in particular lends to the coolness from the Diamond Select Toys folks. The company was formed by it’s sister company Diamond Comics Distributors and they have been making high quality collectible figures that span a number of different and exciting character properties. Among these are the Marvel Select figures, Mini-Mates and more which I shall share some with you in the photos below.

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As I had previously blogged, I was heading to Toy Fair 2012 this week for the 109th edition of the incredible industry conference and after covering the event in 2011 (which you can read about HERE), I knew that I would have my photojournalist work ahead of me. With this being the case I decided to break the adventures up into numerous blog chapters that I felt would allow readers an easier digestion of what we saw while at the same time letting every item and company that gets spoken about have a chance to shine. I started my journey in the Press Lounge area and they have Internet access, some coffee and numerous candy dishes for you to load up on energy with and just adjacent to this region was the display of this years winners for the Toy Of The Year awards or the TOTY’s. Since this was not something I focused on last year, I said let’s start off with it this time around so without any further adieu, please check out the Toy Of The Year award winners for 2012.

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And I know that you think I am being obnoxious by making such a statement and alright, perhaps I am being just “a little bit” cheeky in this but let’s face it – the Foo Fighters pretty much won the Rock “Everything” at the Grammy Awards just a little while ago.

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and I would be lying if I said that I was not super excited about attending this year’s event as a professional representative of the media. In 2011 I covered Toy Fair for the very first time as a member of press and while some might have wondered how it actually related to my music adventuring, at the end of the day I am an entertainment industry scribe first and foremost. I just happen to do a lot of music review articles on the main site. The blog as you readers have learned is an entirely different animal and one that delves into numerous other aspects of life. I loved what we saw last year in terms of the licensed music and super hero properties and with the event being in February of 2011, movies like Green Lantern, Thor and Captain America had not yet been released even though some incredible products from these films were on display. This year I am curious to see what we shall find in the hero realm and expect a good portion of Batman, The Avengers and Ghost Rider to be there. I admit to being most interested in also seeing the new developments from company’s like N.E.C.A., Lego, Hex Bugs, Safari Ltd., Funko and Knucklebonz since they had some of the coolest stuff I had seen at the fair that time around.  You can bet your bottom dollar if I am allowed to present photos of anything that I will offer them up.  You might remember that some things were super secret and not allowed to have their images snared before the toys/games/electronics had been released.  Many of these companies are aiming for the 2012 Holiday Season already and don’t want competitors getting a leg up on them.

This year I will once again be joined by the amazing Skeleton Pete Parrella who is not only be providing some necessary photographic assistance to the Command HQ as we wander the halls of Javits, but also making his own notes for items to be offered up on his own website.  Since there are numerous new readers to the sites blog since that last round of postings, I’ve embedded some links to the past coverage of the Toy Fair of 2011.  I hope you enjoy them as much as whatever new ideas we will bring to the table with this go round.

PiercingMetal Toy Fair 2011 Coverage: HERE

Skeleton Pete Toy Fair 2011 Coverage: HERE

That’s all I have for now.  Stay tuned for the whole scoop from Toy Fair 2012 over the next few days.
 
Official Website:
Toy Industry Association: http://www.toyassociation.org

Thanks to our Comic Con adventures and numerous posts about the “The New 52″ titles from DC Comics, the readers of the PiercingMetal Musings blog don’t need me to tell them how we really enjoy the comic book medium over here. I will even say that I have had a serious appreciation for many of the live action movies from these characters over the last few years. With that being the case I wanted to share the recently released new trailer for the upcoming “Amazing Spider-Man” film by Sony Pictures. At first I thought this would continue the saga that we liked with Spider-Man 1, 2 and 3 but no….this film is a reboot of the franchise and when I heard this I was a little skeptical. Anyway, we can talk more on this in a moment, just watch the trailer first.

So what do you readers think? I have to admit that this trailer sure does look interesting and the casting appears to be sound based on what we get to see here. As you can tell by the trailer, the villain for the film will be The Lizard and I am sure that comics fans have been wanting him for years. Dr. Connors was in a few of the films already but it was a tease. With the reboot we get the big change and some deeper rationale for his transformation. You know how they change this stuff ever so slightly to make it work as a movie. Since some really good stuff has been done with Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America I am hopeful that the magic continues with Spider-Man because he is one of my very favorite heroes of them all.

I’d love to hear what you folks think about this or the film franchise. This one appears to be my second Summer movie as it comes out in July 2012. The first will be “The Avengers” and I’ve already mentioned just how excited I am for that one…….oooh I just got a chill. LOL.

It has to be cool to be Anthrax right now because the band has clearly been riding a high for the last few months and was getting more attention than they had over the most recent years. The reunion with singer Joey Belladonna found the release of “Worship Music” as their next CD and the response to the album had been terrific. Many sources cited this as the best Metal album of the 2011 year in case you wondered. So after some amazing tours and that small, unknown and hardly discussed Big Four Tour, the band was doing a co-headlining run with the mighty Testament and bringing Death Angel along for the ride.  I wasn’t going to miss a moment of this exciting event, and you can check out all the details and concert photos by clicking the logo below.  Then I encourage you to scroll on down the blog posting to see some of the other items that caught my attention during the night.

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