Good afternoon my fine Metal friends, I’m here to tell you that today is the 12th Anniversary of the PiercingMetal.com outlet. In some sense it feels like yesterday that I decided to branch out on my own from the couple of brands that I contributed to and at others it does not and instead feels like a lifetime. My how the times have changed for this stuff over the years. Back then the magazines were still one of the best ways to enjoy the myriad of Metal bands that were out there but unless you were reading the European offerings you rarely would have heard of so many of the bands that are now almost common discussion among fans. Facebook and Twitter were still pretty new and now they are a focused part of our day and yeah I’m using them for the website on a regular basis so I hope that you are with us for that social networking ride.
Since I always do a look back on how this site started against what it is now I have to say that it’s a world of difference from the original premise that was launched twelve years ago. Back then, I only wanted it to be reviews and concert photos and yeah I did those in massive amounts but I was never going to blog about stuff. Then a blog was created which let me discuss so many other side topics that related to the stuff on the once separate review side. I was also never going to use these newfangled Social Networks for site promotion but I am using all of them nowadays. I wanted to make the whole site into WordPress and a conversion began in 2014 and I’m happy to report that PiercingMetal.com is now 85% in WordPress and constantly working towards full transition. There are still a few hundred or so legacy articles that bear some re-editing and format for inclusion in the way it looks now. The constant happenings in the music world today find the older items taking a backseat while the more “spur of the moment” items are addressed. Though I don’t treat the outlet as a newsfeed site like the great Bravewords.com and MelodicRock.com handle, I do offer up the touring plans, the band lineup changes and the occasional record label signing to keep some level of newsy article being featured when it’s best to do so. Creatively speaking our archive of content has just surpassed the “4600” mark in terms of postings and these posts span a wide gamut of topical review, photo galleries and features that inform on numerous different interests. When I merged the once side blog into the main presentation I decided to also up my game in the Pop Culture stuff so as you peruse the Comics and On Screen or Toy posts you will see there is a lot more there. It makes sense since bands write and star in comic books and there are numerous toys for them as well. Continue reading PiercingMetal Celebrates Twelve Years Online (2005-2017)→
Ladies and gentlemen today I am saying goodbye to “PiercingMetal Musings”, a presence that has served our readers well as “The Official Blog” for PiercingMetal.com for just over seven years at the time of this writing. I see that you look a little sad at that announcement but let me tell you why you should only be smiling at that little bit of news.
I’m about a month into the redevelopment of my PiercingMetal.com site and since I am now using WordPress to deliver all of the content that you have come to this dotcom to enjoy, there was no longer a need for a side presence to the brand name that used this same software. When I first installed WordPress and created the “PiercingMetal Musings” Blog it was to expand my creative voice outside of the context of objective reviews. It worked very well but as we steadily approach the websites tenth year online it was time to make a change. Over the last few weeks I have been importing all of the posts that you’ve enjoyed for the past seven years and have appended their categories to fit nicely into the new framework. Continue reading Merging “PiercingMetal Musings” Into “The All-New PiercingMetal.com”→
I am happy to report that PiercingMetal Is Seven Years Old Today!!!
Can you believe it? I know that it surprises me when I say it aloud but yes it’s indeed true as my PiercingMetal.com website is now seven years old and was officially launched to the world on this day back in 2005. I remember saying when we hit year six that while the domain was “live” for two months already that it was such a different technological landscape back then. Incredibly enough, a whole lot more has changed since I wrote that last anniversary narrative some 365 days ago. I also admit that I felt as if I had just posted my yearly editorial thoughts for 2011 but that was already months ago so you can tell time is flying as we get further into 2012. You’ll have to pardon me if I repeat some of the same thoughts and views as I reflect a little on the site and share where my head is at on the whole thing and what I want for it going forward. I had a little fun with the images for this one so please enjoy those as well. Continue reading PiercingMetal.com Is Seven Years Old Today!!!→
I have to laugh when I realize just how much I love having a blog for PiercingMetal.com and that is because when I first toyed with the medium it was hardly on my plate of interests and really something that was being scoffed at by the more “traditional” music journalists and the various publicity representatives that someone like me has to deal with on a day to day basis. I kid you not because there was a time when I distinctly remember hearing “this ISN’T a blog is it???” when I would reach out to some press people for products or show tickets to do reviews for the site. Nowadays there are blogs everywhere and not only do the record companies have them, but so do the bands, the publicity firms and of course the writers and photographers who are aiming at doing the best work possible for the various topics that they focus on. Oh yeah, and everyone else outside of those folks seem to have one too. These days the once maligned medium is not only accepted but practically expected of a creative resource and since I really love doing it, I say fantastic to that news. Anyway, so while I realize that I have some thoughts about blogging in my Editorial for 2011 over on the main site, I wanted to use this narrative on the Musings to look deeper into how we were using it in 2011 and what we hope to accomplish going forward in 2012. In that, I decided to point out a few of the most commonly used categories and discuss my overall thoughts about them and what I loved or didn’t about some of the categories this past year. Read on my friends.
The Concert Reviews: This is my most populated blog category of them all and that’s because we do tend to see a lot of concerts. Very early on in the blog’s beginnings the Concert Reviews were merely signposts that had a brief introductory sentence and a band logo. When the readers clicked the logo they were teleported over to the main PiercingMetal.com site where they could now enjoy the full on report and images from the show. That started to change slightly in 2009 and 2010 but really took on some life of its own in 2011. Periodically I would find myself taking photos of the fans that I meet on the front barricade or shots of the available merchandise. There were even times when we ran into other Metal personality at a show and snapped an image of them with the other talent. These kinds of images were worth sharing but did not truly fall into the context of the live concert galleries so I began to post them in these signposts. From time to time we have even posted videos that were captured at the shows in these blog posts and while they also “live” on our YouTube.com channel for the site, they are best enjoyed right here in the blog. I love sharing this kind of stuff with the readers because it brings everyone into an often unseen side of the bands adventures. I also enjoy hearing the fans thoughts about these same shows in the comments section and here is the only place that PiercingMetal.com can have comments. Our existing design does not allow us to have them on individual review articles. Fans should watch for a lot more in this area in 2012. Continue reading PiercingMetal Musings: 2011 – The Year In Blogging→
Although it is not a new service by any stretch of the imagination, it is relatively new to me and I am speaking about Blog Talk Radio. I had heard it discussed a few times over the past year but never really deeply investigated into how I could use it for what we do over on PiercingMetal.com, but I admit that there is some level of interest in my mind to using it. Blog Talk Radio is a pretty descriptive title and allows you to follow talk shows that you have interest in, or even push your own personal envelope a little further by hosting your own show for all the Internet to enjoy. It’s been an active Internet presence since 2006 and with that being said, I recently learned about a Heavy Metal show being hosted by an old friend from the NYC Metal scene Tommy Falanga and his buddy Mike Catricola and they call it “The Heavy Metal Mayhem Show”. Continue reading PiercingMetal Ken meets The Heavy Metal Mayhem Show→