PiercingMetal Musings

You had to give  some credit to how those guys in Between The Buried and Me do their Metal thing because they push the envelope of convention right over the brink in terms of their musical compositions.  They had been around for a couple of years before I heard their amazing release “Colors”, but it was an album that sold me for sure and after this I began to catch them as opener on a number of great shows.  Tonight the band would be headlining what they had coined as “The Great Misdirect” Tour and it would support the album of the same name.  The show was sold out well in advance and how could this be anything than the case when you considered how upstart instrumental youth like Scale The Summit would be starting it off and how both Devin Townsend Project and Cynic would be leading us into the sure to be smoldering set by BTBaM.  Click the bands logo below to be taken to our item on the main PiercingMetal.com site.

The guys in Between The Buried and Me had this interesting and yet puzzling arrow pattern as their backdrop sections on the stage.  We snapped a photo of it for good measure.

Follow The Arrows with BTBaM

The fans up in the front were an amusing batch of youth this evening and I had to say that while the HIM shows draw a mostly female audience….this evening’s event brought in one that was primarily male.

They were sporting everything from BTBAM shirts to Dream Theatre and Death and it was a very interesting and fun spirited lot.   I was pretty sure that a healthy number of them were musicians since this is the kind of show that brings that crowd together.

One of the pre-show activities was the tossing about of inflated condoms which were being handed out at the merchandise area.  No, we don’t have any photos of that but we wish we had the one face that Devin Townsend made as an air-filled Trojan slowly made its way down to his feet.  Priceless.  Ahhh to be young again.

The brutal cold was finally upon us in my city of New York, and while this is often the kind of climate that finds one remaining in the warmth of one’s home, the need for some bracing air and wandering were upon me in a much stronger sense. With this being the case I set forth to traveling the village streets of Bay Ridge with my comrade in arms The Beehive Hairdresser. This neighborhood is a place that I’ve lived in for most of my life and the region is very interesting for the most part with it’s numerous parks and some cool history. The region was primarily the home to a lot of Norwegian folks for many years and while it has become a little more diverse since those decades past their influence and culture still resonate in the neighborhood. This influence led me on what I coined my “Quest for Vikings” today and how could you blame me when we found this gigantic rune monument erected in the honor of the famous Norse explorer Leif Ericson.

Rune Monument to Leiv Eiriksson in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn

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Even though we got into this band a little later than we would have liked to we feel that we began our own interest in them at a very crucial point in their career. The band is Traditional Power Metal and is the brainchild of guitarist Jon Schaffer. The musician is very passionate about his beliefs and ideals and this reflects in the bands music. His love of history and science fiction found him being able to deliver his fans some really unique albums and this made our own adventures in supporting the band a lot more fun. The band has had a number of lineup changes since their inception but this is all in accordance with what Jon’s overall vision is for the body of work he is doing. They have a lot of great stuff and we’ve been glad to support it. To learn what we have said about them you can just click the logo below to launch the query of all Iced Earth content on PiercingMetal.com – we hope you like it.

“Design Your Universe” was the mantra being spoken by Dutch Symphonic purveyors Epica and this new album was being supported with a rousing tour and making a stop in good ole’ New York City.  I must admit that I was excited about this one because we would find them receiving support from label mates Threat Signal and also fast rising up and comers Blackguard.  Our area show would find local support coming from both Cypher Seer and Phoenix Reign, and we really wanted to catch everyone doing their thing tonight.  The show would be held at the Gramercy Theatre and be a total sell out which was amazing to find being the case especially with some recent shows being dismal in their attendance.  To learn more about the show and to see photos of every band that performed just click the link below to be taken to the full article on the main PiercingMetal.com site.

The dramatic backdrop of the Epica stage.  This is the cover of their brand new album “Design Your Universe”.

Epica's Backdrop for "Design Your Universe" Tour

Yes it is that time of the year again and that means we once more take stock in what we delivered to the Metal Faithful over on PiercingMetal.com.  It was an interesting year to say the least as far as the site activity went and as many readers know this is far different from our  “Best Of The Year” listing.  Instead this is a narrative compiled about what we presented to the audience in the various sections of the site and how we perceived the goings on in the Metal realm when we left the cloistered inner sanctum that is PiercingMetal Headquarters.   As always, we address the site in a section by section manner and offer up our own views about the things we liked and disliked about the scene upon which we walked.  Remember these views are primarily our own and as result you might disagree with some of our findings.   That’s what keeps this all interesting.  The full article can be accessed by clicking the link below and we thank you in advance for reading this lengthy narrative.  We tried our best to keep it as interesting and to stay on point as much as was humanly possible.

PiercingMetal.com’s Editorial For 2009

We lead into this narrative via our official blog since we want to give the readers the chance to offer up their own insights on what we are doing for their entertainment dollar.  Should you have relevant or topical views to offer up we welcome you to do so but please avoid belligerence as no one truly benefits from inane ranting.  As always keep the horns raised high for the Metal.

Arch Enemy was back for the attack and doing a headlining show at the Nokia Theatre in Times Square this evening and to make matters more Metal was doing so with the legendary Exodus as direct support.  The pair of talented Metal heavyweights alone was worth the price of admission but we would also get Arsis and Mutiny Within as well and we were not going to miss a minute of it.  While a little tricky to photograph the proceedings based on incredibly bad light during the few numbers we get to partake in, we did document the whole show and you can see the scoop by clicking the logo below.  It will take you to the article on the main PiercingMetal.com site.

Here is a shot of that snazzy Nokia Theatre Times Square marquee.  As you can see the show was sponsored by those folks over at Metal Sucks – Nice work chaps, congratulations on that.

The Marquee: Arch Enemy in NYC