Believe it or not, today is the 15th Anniversary of the PiercingMetal.com website. That’s 180 months or 5475 days or 131,400 hours depending on how you like to look at things. As a numbers guy I always find it amusing to showcase a length of time in that fashion. So here we are and what a world this is at the moment. Back in February, I was making plans for this anniversary with friends as it was supposed to be a super-duper busy one. There were tours like Tyr, Mayhem and Life Of Agony coming through on this weekend along with the Big Apple Comic Con and instead of a flurry of activity the city and actually the world at large are hunkered down trying to be safe from this dreaded Coronavirus Pandemic. Those and numerous other events were postponed for the duration and some cancelled in full during this very precarious time. My annual photo for this anniversary reflects the time spent and the current necessities.
With this issue weighing heavy on my mind and news reports coming at me like a machine gun fire I will keep the annual summary short and sweet. Thinking back on the way things were when I launched this little enterprise against the overall now is quite amazing. In 2005 there weren’t as many websites focusing on this kind of music and the other entertainment items that we shine the spotlight on and you were chided for not being a print outfit. Today that’s quite different as not only is everyone online but at almost every turn there are bloggers, reporters, photographers and “influencers”. The number of entertainment outlets is innumerable and we thank every single person whose found some level of enjoyment at our offerings. If you are just joining us or have only recently learned about the site, please know that there are over 7.1K articles and more than 25K images and counting from shows, special events and conventions. PiercingMetal has done more than “260” Contests and given away more than 1,700 tickets to shows and special events. I use so many of the important social networks for the outlet and have shared the most watched video on our Official YouTube Channel. At the time of this writing, this clip by Lez Zeppelin has been viewed more than 177K times. Give it a watch to keep that going and please subscribe to the channel so we can serve up more coolness going forward.
Since being able to use it in 2012, my other most used social network is definitely our Official Instagram. As of today I’ve loaded up more than 8.7K images to that alone with plenty of more to come. I was hoping to surpass 9K by the anniversary as I was using some of the time to catch up but then the constant alerts about this crisis began and it was more important to keep pace with that news. I do love using Instagram, and especially at the conventions. There are probably a couple of thousand cosplayers presented from our Comic Con adventures over the years and of course the Hardest Rocking bands on the Earth. One of my favorites comes care of the legendary KISS which I am sharing below. Please come follow that account as well and do some “like-bombing” as my cousin called it. I encourage topical comments to know you’re out there so let’s chat.
The other links to what we’re all about are below and a summary of some of the changes to this outlet can be found on our ABOUT Page. I can’t wait to get back to normal living and keep you entertained with the very latest in Metal and Hard Rock Music along with the Geek Films, Comics and Toy Releases. Thank you all for making PiercingMetal.com something very, very special to do. Remember if you are enjoying what we do you should also come “LIKE” the Official Facebook Page and invite your friends to join you or follow our Official Twitter to be “in the moment” with us when things are happening. Based on the content flow I’ve been citing the tagline that PiercingMetal’s a website “Where Heavy Music and Pop Culture Collide” and I’ve so much more to show you. Please be smart and safe during this crucial time. I want everyone to remain as healthy as possible. My last photo came to my mind only this morning as I made the morning coffee. It seems that the expiration date was quite topical so I’ve included that as well. To much better times….
Before I go, I’m going to treat you all to a historic visual from the original site memory banks. Back in 2005, a lot of websites used a type of header page that would only show an outlet logo and perhaps a little text. When the logo was clicked the site visitor was brought to the content that was behind door number one. Nowadays, this kind of thing goes by the term “Landing Page” and while this was a common thing when we started out it was not my favorite aspect of the site. I worked in tech support and part of me felt that people visiting my website might be turned off by needing to click again after opening a page. This also helped with “hits” to the website at the onset and I wasn’t going to argue with our designers at Hoffman Digital Design since they knew more than me. Over the years I learned how to rework a number of the coded website HTML pages to make them more fluid to what I knew how to do and this was something that I moved on from. Now in 2020 we are fully using WordPress so all of that other stuff is just a part of our interesting history. Onward we climb.

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Fantastic Post Ken! Congrats on all you have accomplished! To better days ahead!
Thanks Gail. I greatly appreciate the support and kudos.
Long Live Metal…and PiercingMetal!! ????
Congratulations on 15 years! I’ve been a fan since the beginning. Your work has introduced my friends and I to so many new bands over the years. Kamelot and Sonata Arctica in particular were bands years ago I had not heard of, but absolutely love. Thank you for spreading the word on so many great acts in an often underrepresented market. Great photos, reviews and updated tour calendar. It’s also great that you cover so many other events, conventions, comics, movies, new series etc. You are very diverse in what you cover and a top notch journalist and photographer. Much love and respect for your efforts! Thank you for the hard work!
Congrats on another milestone!
Congrats on 15 years Ken!!!!!