We here at MetalReviews, while awesome, are not the only folks on the internet who want to tell you what metal albums to buy. I'm quite new to the team and don't know how many of you use MR as your primary or sole destination for metal criticism vs. how many also read elsewhere, but for those who might care, tonight saw an unfortunate development at one of those other potential stops.

Some if not many of you probably know THE A.V. CLUB, at least as the pop culture insert in the back of the satirical fake newspaper THE ONION. What some ONION readers don't realize is that AVC is actually its own fully independent publication, which comes bundled with THE ONION in their print editions but also runs its own operation. That operation is very thorough--especially in its online incarnation at avclub.com, which has tons of new content every weekday--and highly intelligent and professional; it really operates on a vastly higher standard than any other pop culture webmag.
For a long time, one of the few major holes in the publication was a lack of strong metal coverage. That changed in June 2009, when AVC staff member and established music/literary/film/TV critic Leonard Pierce, a very talented writer and lifelong metalhead, took on the responsibility of covering as much of the metal world as possible on behalf of the entire publication. Pierce began writing Metal Box, an instantly popular monthly column featuring insightful reviews of metal albums both mainstream and underground.
MB was well-written and diverse and attracted a community of comment-board regulars that were articulate and passionate even by the generally high standards of the A.V. CLUB's comment sections. Pierce himself was also an active and entertaining presence on the boards. Between the quality of the writing and the great vibe of those forums, MB immediately established itself as a terrific place to discuss old favorites and discover new bands. (In fact, for those of you who hadn't been reading, digging through its archives wouldn't be a bad way to spend some time, especially if you're willing to sift through the boards for some real ear-to-the-ground recommendations from a commenter using the handle "The UMD," which of course stands for Underground Metal Douchebag.) Pierce quickly cultivated a fun and vocal culture of metalhead A.V. Club readers, which was eventually large enough to justify such awesome things as Pierce interviewing Kerry King and Angela Gossow for the paper and even getting to write full-length, main-page reviews for major metal releases like Slayer's World Painted Blood. THE A.V. CLUB's readership is fairly large and very diverse, making Pierce's work a truly important step for serious representation of the genre.

A few hours ago, A.V. CLUB editor Keith Phipps published a news post titled "An apology from THE A.V. CLUB," in which he reported that readers of the annoyingly-named comic book fansite ComicsComics had blown the whistle on an A.V. CLUB comics column from November 5th of this year. That column included a blurb review of the book Genius Isolated: The Life & Art of Alex Toth, which ComicsComics pointed out was not only unreleased but in fact unfinished at the time the column was published. Phipps wrote that he had spoken to the writer of the piece and confirmed that, for whatever reason, that writer had fabricated that review without having read the book. Phipps expressed his regret and embarrassment over the breach of ethics and made clear that the writer in question had been permanently terminated as an AVC contributor. Though the paper's brief comics reviews are published without bylines and Phipps refused to give the writer's name, it wasn't long before Leonard Pierce published the following statement on his personal blog:

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As those of you who have followed this link know by now, the review of the Alex Toth book was fabricated. I based it not on a reading of the book, but on secondary sources and second-hand information. This is unforgivable, absolutely the worst thing a critic can do, and my association with the AV Club is at an end because of it.

That I had never done it before and will never do it again is meaningless. The fact is, I did it, and by doing so, I scuttled 20+ years of tireless work as a writer and did my reputation near-irreparable harm. Worse, though, I damaged the credibility of the AV Club, the finest publication I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with, in a way that they in no way deserved. I caused them no end of headaches through a rash, impulsive, and foolish decision.

There is no excuse for my behavior, so I offer none. I can only apologize to the AV Club staff, to IDW Publications and the authors of the book, and to all those who have read and supported my work in the past. I’m sorry for my unaccountable, stupid actions, and urge you not to bear the AV Club any ill will, but to place all the blame with me, where it belongs.

Again, it has been confirmed (in a de facto fashion) that Pierce will no longer write for the A.V. CLUB. While no official announcement has been made as to the fate of Metal Box, my speculation as a fan of the column and of the site is that MB is dead--it was a very personal project for Pierce, who was clearly the only member of the staff with enough expertise to write it, and while it was popular, I can't imagine it was popular enough to justify hiring a new staff member or freelancer to take it over. This likely means the regrettable end of what has for a year and a half been a significant, passionate and truly high-quality source of heavy metal opinion writing.

As you may have inferred, I am a longtime A.V. CLUB reader and a huge fan of Pierce's writing, both on metal and on other subjects. It was Metal Box that inspired me to seek a gig with this site, and my experience here so far has been meaningful to me in part because I relate it to my experience with Pierce's column. When the MetalReviews staff post our picks for the best releases of 2010, any of you who read AVC will see that my list has a great deal of albums in common with Pierce's, largely because it was in his column that I was introduced to many of my favorite bands. For all these reasons, I've been very personally affected by this news (you're free to mock the nerdiness of that; you're not wrong) and so I thank you for indulging this lengthy post, and I hope you'll understand why I found this worth noting here. Pierce is an undeniably talented critic with a strong wit, real talent and excellent taste, and all his archived work is recommended, both to those looking to discover bands and to those interested in the practice of pop culture writing. While none of this vindicates his baffling and unethical decision, and while his prompt firing was unquestionably the right way for his editor to handle the situation, as a pop culture enthusiast and metalhead I cannot do other than to wish him well in the future. Assuming the humility in his blog post is genuine, and assuming it leads to acceptable and professional conduct from here on, we should wish Leonard Pierce luck in finding good opportunities for well-read work elsewhere. God knows I'll light up Twitter about it if he does.