Well my readers we have arrived at the end of 2016 and what a year it has been. I wanted to just toss together a little editorial about what’s come down the pike this past year and what some of the plans are for the future. I’ve decided to make this year’s edition much shorter than I have been known to do and that is more based on the timing that I have to sit and wax creative. I hope you don’t mind, but right now I would rather keep the process going than talk about some of the “where it’s been” stuff. With that in mind welcome to the “State Of The Site” address for 2016. Let’s go.

The modifications of the site have not been many outside of the changes that the author of the currently used template offers up. Some of these I like and some I do not but this theme works fine on mobile devices and computer systems so I am keeping it. When we first did the revamp into WordPress we were aiming at using a customized them but that didn’t work out and here we are. Speaking content for a moment, I do still have a considerable amount of legacy work to re-introduce to the site but it’s all being done as time permits. The need to be on point with current news and happenings finds me sitting down to re-integrate old reviews and images when the news and reporting week has been slow. I am of course making strides but there is still a lot to do. More than 600 new posts went online in 2016 and in addition to these there were about 250 posts added from our legacy stockpile.

Music: One of the things I have been making sure to do a lot of over the last year is to also feature the advance singles that we find coming out. This keeps the music content flowing and allows for easier band support, especially when a new album is still several months away. I look forward to doing a lot more of these kinds of posts in 2017.

Video: The video reviews section has greatly expanded since it now features not only the overviews of product releases on standard and Blu-ray and now offers up the critical eye on music video offerings and any movie reviews of current films that we have enjoyed. With 2017 looking to be a busy year for films that our readers are lining up for I predict a very busy category.

Concerts, Events and Book Reviews: Nothing at all has changed with these three offerings and its business as usual with our posts that fall under them. Of course, I have added a few more conventions to my adventures and they are helping inspire the geek masses. As far as the concerts went, I think I saw about 100 different concerts this past year and since many had three bands to the bill or more my checklist on bands seen has grown considerably.

Comics: There’s been more expansion with the comics category this year as well because there are just so many initiatives in the comic scene that they need to be reported on to get those orders in to the comic book store. Yeah, the monthly solicitations are regular but now there are more news items and even some focused insight on a particular issue. As a lifelong comics geek, I am passionate about the hobby and want to spark others into either collecting them or just reading them on a tablet device. As many of you know we’ve been going to NY Comic Con since 2010 and that event only gets bigger and bigger so it’s important to keep lots of comic book things discussed on the website.
Continue reading PiercingMetal’s Editorial For 2016 →

I don’t know about you readers but to me it sure seemed as though 2015 had begun and was over in a flash. My guess is that there was just so much to do and so much going on in our Metal and Media scene that it felt like there was barely a moment to breathe it all in. As I close up on my own creative year here at the PiercingMetal Command HQ I wanted to just go over a few personal highlights and some changes to the presentation that we did. Think of this as the “State Of The Site” address for the outlet  Let’s go.

Site Modifications: At the time of this writing, PiercingMetal has now been using WordPress as its model for 1.5 years and believe it or not there is still some conversion of the older articles going on. It’s like that based on my needing to touch every single legacy piece and get it properly set up into this no longer new format and that has taken a little bit of time. For the duration, I opted to present all of the legacy content in a menu option which depletes as time moves forward but since I have to keep up with current news and Metal trends it’s a process that I do whenever time allows me to. When I began the redevelopment in the middle of 2014, PiercingMetal was made up of over five thousand pieces of content in terms of articles and photo galleries and each of these items needed some reworking in the new model. Brick by brick the new Metal Command HQ is continuing to be built and it works out so awesomely when more items are added to the new mix. This legacy option will be gone by the sites eleventh anniversary in April as the plan is for all of these articles to have been integrated by that point in time. The redevelopment finds me taking no less than five different parts and making them into one big place and a lot of progress has been made here.

Music: The sites music reviews now encompass not only the CD releases but also the digital only editions and the occasional early single release and vinyl when we are asked to offer up thoughts on them. Instead of numerous menu options I’ve tagged what it actually is to be more succinct but all of these reviews now fall under the “Music” section at the end of the day and I am enjoying the slight broadening of opinion and chances to talk about even more great music. With so many music fans not even knowing what a CD looks like anymore this was a move that needed to be made. You might be laughing at that thought but tell me, when was the last time that you actually went out and bought a few CD’s?
Continue reading PiercingMetal’s Editorial for 2015 →

Editorial: The Year in Reviews for 2014

2014 was a year of some seriously dramatic changes for the PiercingMetal brand and while I feel as though I say something similar each and every year to you loyal readers, it’s the absolute truth when it comes to this past years happenings. I’ll be using the Editorial Soapbox to go over the most dramatic ones and keep it as brief as possible. Here we go with this year’s “State Of The Site”.

The Relaunch: At long last PiercingMetal.com has been relaunched and instead of making a big ole announcement about it, I pulled the trigger while you were sleeping and blew away my nine and a half year old design and replaced it with a WordPress installation. As much as I loved my traditional presentation, it had gotten too big and too complex to deliver the simplest thing to you and needed to be moved to this widely used blogging tool. Cutting to the chase a functional theme was found and put in place, numerous utilities installed that give you super coolness and then the rebuilding process began on getting all of the original site content into this new format for your greater appreciation. Check out the changes below….

The Changes In Presentation: For just over nine years the website had been organizing the core Reviews into their proper filing under CD, DVD, Book and Concerts and while most of that is the same; the new format finds me swapping the titles on a couple of them and listing them now as Music Reviews and Video Reviews. Doing this allows me to not worry how to load into an old database the occasional LP or MP3 only release that I am asked to examine. Using “Video Reviews” as the heading allows for the Blu-ray and streaming only content that we find our readership purchasing more and more these days. Events and Book Reviews are also presented under the one larger heading and they are joined by the Concert Reviews which originally stood on its own as an option. It feels better to me as the creative and I think it’s been appreciated by the readers so far. Now you might be wondering about all the legacy content that had been done since our launch back in 2005.
Continue reading PiercingMetal’s Editorial for 2014 →

Is it that time of the year again? Well I guess that it is and welcome to the annual Editorial for PiercingMetal.com where I’ll line out some of the highlights and major happenings that took place over the last year in terms of the website itself. It’s been a rather productive year when it all comes down to it and as longer tenured readers know there are now a few different aspects to this whole presentation. We have the traditional review side, and the more loosely structured blog side but also a comprehensive calendar and gallery area as well. Four walls build this Metal Media House and now I will just address some of the practices we’ve put into action over the past year.

Site Modifications: I’ll start with this one since its easiest and to be honest I didn’t do anything that would be considered a modification but over on the blog I did add a couple of additional categories. I’d like to do more news related things in the coming year and that is what those items will focus on.

CD’s and DVD’s: With this year’s editorial I have decided to merge the two topics for the sake of brevity. The review process for the CD side has remained the same with less and less product being sent out and more resources relying on the digital servicing when it comes to review. The times they are a changing and I cannot blame them in some sense given the cost of getting the products and shipping it out to every interested party. Sure it lessens the music library just a little bit but what can you do. On the music review side I’ve been trying to add the occasional single review to the mix because sometimes an album is not coming out for months after a debut single is released and since I want to keep your music hunders fed it doesn’t hurt to have those be posted when we know they are available for summary.

On the video side of our fence we’ve been doing more and more Blu-ray disc reviews and I don’t mind this at all since I personally prefer the quality. Sure you will begin to see some older DVD reviews be duplicated once we get our hands on a copy of the release on Blu-ray but that is fine since it amounts to more content and that also means an additional Amazon.com code. Folks like Eagle Rock Entertainment sure do keep the video library stockpiled with some amazing stuff. I will always do their reviews because I just love the releases. It’s the main reason that I add the Amazon.com code to each summary. I’d love for you to read our words and be prompted to purchase.
Continue reading PiercingMetal’s Editorial for 2012 →

Editorial: The Year in Reviews for 2011

Wait a second. Didn’t I just write one of these year-end site recaps? I didn’t? So you are telling me that the last one from 2010 wasn’t just posted the other day?

OK. So I realize that I am being slightly ridiculous here but there are few who would argue about how 2011 seemed to move like a breeze as far as years were concerned. The year was here and before you knew it was over and done with. This is starting to bother me because family members are saying it’s because I am showing my age and with that being the case time is fleeting. I would like to think that this is not the case at all and barring some hesitation that I am as youthful and chipper as ever. So anyways here we are again with another one of our Year End Editorials or as it’s been referred to at times as my “State Of The PiercingMetal Site” for this particular year. For those who have never read any of these articles before based on their being new to our brand name, I use this to reflect upon each individual segment of PiercingMetal.com and explain how I used them and what my thoughts about each happened to be for the year in focus. I also try to discuss what I deem to be notable changes about the presentation that I am giving you. It’s not a Year End “Best Of” List as we post that feature separately but there is always the chance of my making mention of something that was astonishing in my editor’s eye for examples sake. Getting down to brass tacks it seems that the finances of the fans and the recording industry were even tighter than they were last year and that had some effect on how things were being done and at the same time the dynamic of doing review had morphed a little more across the board. Here we go.
Continue reading PiercingMetal’s Editorial for 2011 →