The summer heat was blazing down upon New York City and that meant it was best to get inside a venue and enjoy a smoldering Rock show with the comforts of an air-conditioner blowing around you. That made it the perfect reason to go check out the ladies of Lez Zeppelin who were doing a gig over at Abrons Art Center this evening, and since I had never seen anything at the space before I knew this was going to be a special night. Check out some side images and video from the night by scrolling down this post.
Archive for June, 2012
Lamb Of God’s Randy Blythe Arrested For Manslaughter??? WTF!!!
Last night I am out and about doing my usual thing and I suddenly see a mess of postings on Facebook that stated how Lamb Of God’s singer Randy Blythe had been arrested in the Czech Republic for manslaughter. If there was any reason to offer up a WTF it would be now. Here is what I have pieced together from the various reliable news sites that are available to The Metal Republic.
Back in 2010 there was apparently an altercation of some kind with a fan. The end result of this reported altercation found the fan succumbing to his injuries and passing away. That is truly terrible stuff to hear happening but what was the root of this altercation many were wondering. Was it outside of a show beforehand, during, or after it was all said and done? Was it in a bar? Who knew at the time. I could not do much research since I was only dealing with the phone for my supply of updates.
I’ve long dealt with the Lamb Of God publicity team of Adrenaline PR and their official statement to the world came early this morning and I have pasted it below for your edification because it brings a lot more about the overall issue to light….Please read on.
“Lamb of God Management will be issuing an official statement on Monday regarding the charges made against singer Randy Blythe. As no formal charges have yet been made and the case is only in the investigation stages, it would be premature to make an official statement filled with false truths or innuendos.
“Having said that, management wished to address today one false piece of information that has been included in many of the news stories released so far. Under no circumstances was there a fight of any kind involved. This incident deals with a fan that three times during the concert jumped the barricade and rushed Randy during the performance. It is alleged that the third time, security was not able to reach him and that Randy pushed him back into the audience where supposedly he fell and hit his head.
“Again, until the investigation is concluded this weekend, nothing more will be released, but clarity and the facts needed to be addressed on this one reported point which is totally inaccurate.”
Let’s see what management has to say come Monday. This is some serious business because if he is convicted he will face from five to ten years in prison based on the law. I got that from the guys at the Metal Sucks mansion who had posted the actual charges being made (bodily injury resulting in death). My personal view of the whole situation is that this is a terrible cycle of events that sadly led to the death of one of the bands fans. As I am honored to be in the photo pits of the Metal shows that are staged in my region I can tell you that sometimes the fans are way out of control during the events and they are dying to be on the stage with their favorite performers. However, since the terrible incident/murder of “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott back in 2004, the bands are not too hip on having you join them up there because you really never know what can happen. Add to the fact that these musicians are in their zone and entertaining the masses and not paying attention to anything else. One cannot fault someone for pushing an intruder away from them. I strongly doubt that Randy would have ever expected that his quick action would result in someone’s eventual death but it did happen and that is a shame. When the management statement gets out I will append to this piece. Let’s see what happens.
Below please find the official statement from Lamb Of God regarding this terrible situation.
7/6/2012
July 6, 2012
First of all, thanks to everyone who has reached out in support of Randy and each of us in this terrible situation. It’s noted and very much appreciated.
We have been keeping our heads down and not speaking out due to the fluid nature of the situation and the constantly changing information that even we receive daily.
Within an hour things can do endless 180’s. It’s maddening to try and make heads or tails. We’re taking the time to speak to you as it has been a significant period of time since this situation began and while nothing is immediately clear to any of us, we are not trying to keep anyone in the dark.
We have reached out and are making use of the resources we have acquired to help our brother who is still detained in Czech jail. In the two years since, we were never notified of anything related to this incident. Randy is our brother and we assure you, we are all staying very positive for him, working endlessly behind the scenes to provide any and all assistance possible.
The best we can do is to stay positive and continue to support our friend that we know is innocent. We know that justice will prevail and we will continue to do our part to support our friend.
- LAMB OF GOD
Presenting The New Kamelot Singer…..Tommy Karevik
A young Swedish singer by the name of Tommy Karevik has officially been selected as the new singer of one of our favorite bands here at the PiercingMetal Command HQ and of course you long time readers should know that I am speaking of the one and only Kamelot. Karevik is a member of the Swedish Metal band called Seventh Wonder, and while I think that I might have one of their CD’s in my massive library, I do not recall them off the top of my head. This is not a slight at all, but just the sign that we have far too much music at our fingertips in this collection of mine.
Tommy Karevik by Jenny Hellström
I’ve been a fan of Kamelot since I first got my attention turned to them back in 2005 and while they were around for a few years before that, I caught up on their earlier stuff and always tried to be on point when they would visit our region because I just enjoyed them so much. It was horrible to find their singer Khan leaving for personal reasons a couple of years ago because I felt he was such an amazing presence, but lucky for the Metal fans of the world, this would not be the end of the band and they would soon enough press on with Rhapsody Of Fire’s Fabio Leone on vocals for their touring commitments. After seeing them deliver the goods together in NYC last year I will admit that I was one of the many people who had hoped that Leone would be offered the position in Kamelot and bring the bands next chapter. Obviously this would not be the case.
Online quotes from founder/guitarist Thomas Youngblood cite “We had around 800 candidates for the vacant position, among them a number of really renowned musicians, and having to reject them really wasn’t easy. We want to thank all the applicants, thank you for your understanding and we wish you all lots of success in the future! (on YouTube) “I listened to a clip of a studio production featuring Tommy and have to confess that his performance really amazed me. His approach to melodies and themes suits Kamelot perfectly, and during our European shows we had plenty of opportunity to find out what a great guy he is.”
Since Thomas referenced some YouTube clips, I went online and did the same thing to get a quick refresher course in what Mr. Karevik brings to the Metal table and I will say that he does sound pretty damn good. He just might be the perfect fit for Kamelot but of course only time will tell if the larger fan base will embrace him in the lineup as he aims to execute their much loved tunes. Either way, I wish him the very best of luck and will surely be on point supporting the band when they return to our region so I can bring the scoop to our readers. Apparently he will remain a member of Seventh Wonder as well which will be interesting to see if its possible given Kamelot’s rigorous touring schedule.
Non-Spoiler Thoughts On “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter”
It’s very seldom that I get to see a movie on it’s opening day but I made an exception with this one since I was really dying to see a film after having been put off on what “Prometheus” was all about from far too many of my friends in the media realm. Granted a few of my buddies enjoyed it, but the real Science Fiction and Comic Book purveyors that I confide in all left me feeling I would be disappointed. That one we wait for DVD I guess. Anyways, the trailer for “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” struck me as interesting and rather clever so I marked it on my calendar to see and this afternoon I did just that.
The film presents the secret life of our nations beloved 16th President who ends up becoming a vampire slayer as he seeks revenge for the murder of a loved one. The core of the film takes place in his life as a young man and there is a lot of action, a decent amount of vampire gore and some really cool special effects. Without going too deeply into the plot, the story illustrates how vampires had infected our still young country and were a menace that needed to be eliminated at all costs. We see how they added extra menace in the Civil War and seek to make the United States of America a country of vampires. That’s all I am saying about the plot since this is even the Wikipedia entry for the film spoils the whole thing. Check out the trailer below to see some of what I am outlining here.
Benjamin Walker plays Lincoln while Dominic Cooper is Sturgess, his trainer in the art of hunting vampires. Rufus Sewell does a great job as Adam, the sinister leader of the vampire hordes in this Tim Burton/Timur Bekmambetov co-produced bit of coolness. When we were in the theater I had to admit that I originally thought that this might have been based on a comic book but I was incorrect. There is an actual book which was written by Seth Grahame-Smith and he also adapted the screenplay for the film which was a pleasant surprise. To me that means that the film is a lot closer to the book than you might have gotten otherwise. You can order a copy via Amazon.com below. I know I am going to do that soon, and definitely will be picking up this movie on Blu-ray when it is released.
I still have a few weeks to wait before “The Amazing Spider-Man” is released but I can honestly say that this is a two thumbs up recommendation and a hell of a good ride from beginning to end. Perhaps I need to say “two-horns up” since we are a Metal site after all.
PiercingMetal & Social Networking: Official Facebook Fan Page
For a number of months I have been offering up our readers a veritable cornucopia of Social Networking posts here in our our sites blog and speaking in relation as to how we were using them to better generate attention to the PiercingMetal.com brand identity. Since site launch back in 2005, I’ve seen networks come and go and while some have even remained active all this time, their own reach and considered impact on the larger geography has waned while others took the reigns and rose to new heights. MySpace in particular was one that is no longer deemed relevant by a large faction of Net savvy people. On the other hand, Facebook is now without question one of the most popular, if not THE most popular and powerful Social Network that is currently online. It seems that everyone you encounter in your travels has a Facebook page and while people used to ask for telephone numbers, I now hear “can I add you on Facebook” much more. Not long after I created my own personal account, I learned of being able to create a focused page that could be dedicated to my website and this community page was limited in its quantification and use to the readership. That left me with some serious doubts about its benefit.
Click This Logo for the Official PiercingMetal Facebook Page
Queensryche Fires Geoff Tate!!!
Back at the beginning of the month I posted a blog narrative which spoke to the developments that had been going on within the Queensryche camp and touched upon the issues that were brewing with their founding member, vocalist Geoff Tate. You can read HERE first if you need a little bit of refresher. It was not a pleasant set of circumstances to say the least. Here are the latest developments….
Queensryche members have announced that Todd LaTorre is their new singer after officially parting ways with Geoff Tate. I’m really of mixed opinion on all of this because I love Geoff as a legendary Metal vocalist and really enjoy what I have heard Todd bring to the table as a member of Crimson Glory and in his samples of the classic Queensryche tunes. I really never wanted to see it come down to this because it also divides the fans in some sense. One has to envision this as similar to the time when the world saw Tim “Ripper” Owens taking over the vocals in Priest. The band did record some solid tunes but they really suffered as far as attendance and album sales.
As a fan of Geoff’s overall creativity and legacy I wish him well, and as a very longtime fan of what Queensryche has meant to the Heavy Metal music scene I wish the guys well in this interesting new chapter. I don’t think I ever mentioned to my readers that I first saw Queensryche when they had opened up for KISS on the “Animalize” tour back in 1984 or 85. They were brand new to the larger Metal audiences back then for sure.
Read more on the Bravewords report from Billboard.com HERE; Let’s see what happens. I expect a veritable shit storm of postings on all of the news sites and many already feel we shall find more postings on these resources than we found happening when Mike Portnoy decided to leave Dream Theater. Only time will tell right?
Acey Slade & The Dark Party in Concert (6/15/2012)
I’ve been a fan of the creative force of music known as Acey Slade for a few years now and since I first started using the website to report on his adventures have watched him perform with Wednesday 13, heard him rock the socks with Trashlight Vision and now continue to surprise his fans with The Dark Party. Sadly its been awhile since I had been been able to catch him perform which made this evenings performance at The Studio in Webster Hall something that I just did not want to miss out on. The show would be a dose of Rock and Roll interesting from local opener to headliner as the young Rockers Stiletto would start it all up and be followed by The Wild Ones, Bad Dog Bad and the Black Angels NYC. Whew, this sounds like a lot to enjoy doesn’t it? To see the comprehensive show review just click the logo below to be brought over to the main PiercingMetal site and then by all means keep scrolling down this blog posting to enjoy some side images and video that I am only presenting to you here.
Presenting DC Comics “The New 52″: The Third Wave
I’ve been reviewing as many of the titles as possible here on the PiercingMetal Musings blog for the big September 2011 initiative by DC Comics that they called “The New 52″ and now that the first and second wave have passed it is time for, yep you guessed it, the Third Wave. It sure seems kind of soon but oh well, I am not in charge of how they do things over at DC Comics. So what does this one entail? Well according to what I have read the latest titles to get the chopping block are “Justice League International”, “Captain Atom”, “Resurrection Man”, and “Voodoo”. I was always kind of 50/50 on these books in the first place and am not surprised to see some of them go. I did enjoy “JLI” and “Resurrection Man” but even the redo of this last character was better the first time around. “Captain Atom” kind of lost me, and “Voodoo” never really did it for me. Sorry to those creative teams who put them out there, I mean no offense to your work. I guess I am getting fussy about what I sit down and read these days.
The other day DC Comics let on what the Third Wave of titles would be and those are “Talon”, “Sword of Sorcery”, “Phantom Stranger”, and “Team 7″. Let’s look at where they will land as far as the existing family of titles go. Nothing is being added to the Justice League, Young Justice, Green Lantern or Superman titles with this bunch but “Talon” falls to the “Batman” related titles and now gives that family of releases thirteen titles. Holy printing press Batman that is a lot of titles to keep up on. One title joins “The Edge” roster and two more become part of “The Dark”. What do I think for this go round?
I’m curious about how “The Phantom Stranger” will do in a full on title because the overall mysterious nature of the character leaves him to be most exciting when used in a sparing fashion. “Sword Of Sorcery” brings back Amethyst Princess Of Gemworld to the DC Universe and offers a backing feature with Beowulf. As far as Team 7 goes, I am not sure. I was only ever a casual fan of the title when it was originally in the Wildstorm world so let’s see what happens. What do you readers think?
Official Website: www.dccomics.com
Readers can peruse all of our existing blogs about “The New 52″ by using this tag – http://www.piercingmetal.com/wordpress/?tag=the-new-52
Prepare For Into Eternity’s “North American Devastation” 2012
I’m going to continue to show some touring love whenever possible via the PiercingMetal Musings blog, and this is going to especially be the case when it comes to bands that I consider a part of my own Metal Family. The band Into Eternity and I go back as far as to months before I had officially launched the PiercingMetal.com site and after seeing them in action on numerous occasions I came to consider them Brothers in Metal.
The tour is a short run of sixteen dates and I didn’t copy them down into this posting since the official poster is large enough for you to read. They are in the NYC region on August 18th and 19th respectively, and I shall be doing my damnedest to be a part of the show when it hits my vicinity. It has truly been far too long since I’ve enjoyed the music of Into Eternity in the live sense. The band has gone through a number of dramatic and yet still interesting changes since the last time that I have seen them. Their singer Stu Bloch has now joined the ranks of Iced Earth and his replacement in the lineup comes care of the very lovely Amanda Kiernan. Some seem skeptical about such a transition but I am surely open to see what it sounds like under her vocal command. The band is also no longer on Century Media Records and that means all the cash expended on the run will come from their pockets. That is all the more reason to stock up on merchandise when you hit the show. As far as the support bands go, their names are on the new side to me so I am curious as to what they will bring to the Metal table.
Let’s get excited for the band as they make their long overdue return.
Celebrating The 5th Annual Gretsch Day (6/2/2012) – PT2 “The Videos”
As I had previously reported here in the Musings, just the other day out in Bay Ridge Brooklyn over at Street Sounds Music, we found the Fifth Annual Gretsch Day taking place. It was great to be in attendance at this fun event because it features a whole lot of music, interesting people and demonstrations along with the enjoyment of all things Gretsch. The affair was hosted by Fred Gretsch himself and there were a number of wonderful performances throughout the course of the day. Among the performers were the young up and comers of Foxy Studs, Paul Pigat and Cousin Harley, Nik and Sam, The Octanes and the headliner of the day, Fountains Of Wayne. Check out the events poster below.
