Don't know what people are referring to in regards to them squeaking, mine are totally quiet.
The rivets and eyelets are silver and not black as they appear in the picture but the rest of what you see in the picture is perfectly accurate. Some black paint or even a black sharpie will fix this easily.
These are actually very comfortable boots once broken in, 3-4 days of wear will do this quite well. I've been wearing mine to work and they've done great. The first two days kinda sucked but after that it's been a joy to wear these. The only complaint I have had about the fit is the lip of leather that sits right in the blister zone above your heel, but this is so common on work boots and such that I'm kinda used to it. This lip softened up pretty quick though so it's really only an issue the first couple of days. For this reason I'd wear them one day then wait 2 days to wear them again, after the second time wait one day then wear them regularly, it worked for me and I don't see why it wouldn't work for others. Oh, and these run a TINY bit wide so for those of us that stand all day they allow for plenty of foot/toe spread. Also, they don't breath very well so expect sweaty feet.
I would never call these Herman Munster boots, they look perfectly fine with my slacks at work and do not stand out at all... I'm a Retail Manager and have to dress very professionally, these blend right in.
Oh, I do agree that the strings suck, I'll be replacing these with Armor Lace boot laces soon. They don't NEED strings that tough but when it comes to boot strings I've always gone with Armor Lace because you only need to buy them once.