UPDATE, 6:43pm EDT: According to a post on the Sumerian Records Facebook page by label owner Ash Avildsen, this whole episode was a publicity stunt that was done without the label’s knowledge. Here’s the post:

I woke up to a ton of missed calls and just saw all this stuff about Danny Leal of UABB posing as that he’s been abducted or kidnapped. My phone hasn’t stopped ringing since. As a child, we all learn the story “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” and it sticks within our consciousness for a reason. I do not condone this type of publicity stunt. This was done behind my back and I am not OK with it. In my eyes, there’s never a time to use the possibility of real-life abduction, injury or murder of someone you care about to promote anything, especially an album. If you need to resort to that, then you have lost the plot. We as a society should have evolved past that way of thinking by now and especially within the rock/metal community, given all the tragedy that has happened in our world over the past few years. There are some people who owe us an apology. -Ash Avildsen, Creator & CEO of Sumerian Records.

We’re obviously relieved that nothing bad happened to Danny, but we agree with Ash that pulling a stunt of this sort to generate publicity for a band’s new album is total weak-sauce. Yet another reason to hate this BS band.

It’s certainly worth considering whether Ash has been in on this stunt from the get-go and that the above post is part of it, but we generally know Ash to be a pretty earnest fellow. I guess we’ll never know.

Original Post:

San Antonian deathcore outfit Upon a Burning Body have posted the following message on their Facebook page:

“Breaking News: Danny Leal (singer of Upon A Burning Body) has been reported missing. He was last seen in his home town of San Antonio TX on Monday, June 30th.”

This would obviously be upsetting pretty much no matter what, but the whole thing becomes that much more disturbing when you see the last two messages Leal posted to his Facebook and Twitter accounts:

This same sketchy car has been driving past my house over and over for the past 3 days straight. — Danny leal (@Dannyuabb) July 1, 2014

Wide awake now… I could’ve sworn I heard someone in my house!!!!! — Danny leal (@Dannyuabb) July 1, 2014

Soooo… okay that’s scary.

The way I see it, there are four possibilities here:

Leal was high as hell and either totally paranoid or hallucinating (Vince points out that both Slash and Nikki Sixx have shared similar stories). This doesn’t really explain why he’s missing, though. Leal is playing the world’s worst practical joke, and his tweets were an attempt to set up said practical joke. Someone has been stalking Leal and has now either kidnapped him or done something far worse. This is all somehow just a big coincidence.

I know we’ve never been the biggest supporters of Upon a Burning Body here at MetalSucks, but it should go without saying that we don’t wish Leal any harm, and we’re hoping against hope that #3 is not the actuality. Sometimes, musicians disappear without any real explanation or a bullshit explanation and turn up a few days later — irritating as that is, it would (obviously) be far preferable to anything truly awful happening to Leal.

We encourage anyone who may have some information with regards to Leal’s whereabouts to contact the band ASAP… or contact us and we’ll pass it along to their management. Thank you.

Thanks: Samuel F.