San Diego\u2019s Pierce The Veil has been bubbling in a pot of \u201cbelow the mainstream\u201d bands. Until I heard Misadventures<\/i>, their fourth album, I had only been aware of their existence because they\u2019ve shared the stage with a who\u2019s who of upcoming bands. Now on a headlining tour in support of this album, Pierce The Veil will stop in Clive, Iowa, tonight. It\u2019ll be an energetic show, and before they take the stage as openers, I Prevail and Neck Deep will have ratcheted up the crowd. <\/p>\n
Misadventures <\/i>is an energetic, well-produced release. The album starts out on a high as \u201cDive In\u201d showcases the talents of the individual members. Vocalist Vic Fuentes is going for the bleachers. Using some piercing (pardon the pun) vocals, his ability to be calm and intense within the same tune is commendable. His brother Mike behind the drums can pound frantic rhythms. Their parts are built on the foundation of guitarist Tony Perry\u2019s riffs and the low-end rumbling of bassist Jaime Preciado. \u201cTexas Is Forever\u201d and \u201cThe Divine Zero\u201d are equally intense.<\/p>\n
The highlight is when they slip into the mid-tempo groove of \u201cFloral & Fading.\u201d Preciado and Mike Fuentes firmly establish a groove that is a pleasure to bob your head along to in unison with the pulse. The next track \u201cPhantom Power and Ludicrous Speed\u201d returns to the metal tendencies of the first three cuts, especially Perry\u2019s riff in the middle of the song. <\/p>\n
Lyrically, it\u2019s a lot to internalize. The imagery of lyrics in \u201cDive In\u201d paint abstract portraits of the pain and suffering that comes with relationships with other human beings on Earth. Cryptic lyrics are included within tunes so you can\u2019t just nod your head and dismiss the band as being \u201cdeep\u201d \u2013 they are present so you can accept the challenge to analyze those words and walk away with a connection with the band. That challenge is laid out as follows:<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanna be the tattoo ink that swims down through the needle in your skin
And I wish I was poisonous
Like a bottomless sound, like a violent drug
I was lying to you, but you were lying too
So what\u2019s left to do
What\u2019s left to say
Stop making friends, just us
I\u2019ll decompose with you.\u201d <\/i><\/p>\n
Perhaps the most glaring weakness on this release is the way these tunes don\u2019t really sound different from each other. It\u2019s the familiar tightrope: how to write tunes that are unique while acknowledging that their sound is their sound. I don\u2019t have the magic solution \u2013 just the observation that, while intense, these tunes tend to melt into one another. Did the band take enough risks on this release? Except for \u201cFloral & Fading,\u201d my answer is \u201cNo.\u201d This is 45 minutes of intensity for sure, but that doesn\u2019t make the material especially memorable. <\/p>\n
Ultimately, I commend the band for their ability to assemble crunching guitars and searing vocals. But there are a lot of bands to choose from in today\u2019s not-quite-mainstream music scene that are sweating night after night in smaller venues, such as I Prevail, Neck Deep, Beartooth, Miss May I, We As Human, and From Ashes To New, and I recommend seeking out those bands. While this release is energetic, I don\u2019t predict that it will get more than a smile and an occasion listen. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":32843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[9878],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-44616","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-pierce-the-veil","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/44616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44616"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=44616"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=44616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}