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Welcome Back Pierce the Veil!
Pierce the Veil is one of the quintessential emo/rock bands that many alternative kids grew up with. They’re loved far and wide for always delivering the absolute best music. They almost never miss. Back in 2016, it felt amazing to have their new album Misadventures come out after what felt like an eternity from the last hit Collide With the Sky. We wish that was the case nowadays. Four years felt like forever but almost seven years feels like a lifetime. Finally, after a seven year hiatus, Pierce the Veil is back with their newest album The Jaws of Life. The highly anticipated album debuted February 10, 2023, conveniently on Vic Fuentes’ birthday. Prior to release, the band released three singles “Pass the Nirvana,” “Emergency Contact,” and “Even When I’m Not With You.”
“Pass the Nirvana” came out swinging and was an explosive return song. Completely different from songs in the past, “Pass the Nirvana” was grungy and new. Having grown up on the band Nirvana, Pierce the Veil is inspired by them and wanted to give their try at grunge music. In this case, I think it worked. The song is incredible, despite being different from their usual sound. Pierce the Veil experimented with a new sound and succeeded.
“Emergency Contact” and “Even When I’m Not With You” are both more like the typical Pierce the Veil song. “Emergency Contact” feels like it could sit on Misadventures or Collide With the Sky pretty comfortably without sounding out of place. It’s my personal favorite of the three singles. While “Even When I’m Not With You” had more of A Flair for the Dramatic vibe. It’s a beautiful love song. It’s much more relaxed and slowed down, allowing you to just close your eyes and sway along. It feels much more peaceful and relaxing and is a nice break from the rest of the album. Many people seem to resonate with the song, of missing a loved one and loving them despite the circumstances.
The starting track is “Death of an Executioner,” which was released as a regional single in Australia just a day or so before the album released. It’s a powerful start to the long awaited album and seemingly a fan favorite. The chorus is extremely catchy and one of the first off the album I learned. Towards the end of the song, the screechy guitar is phenomenal and gives goosebumps. The song sets the tone for the rest of the album, giving you a feeling of something different while still giving you a Pierce the Veil feel. “Death of an Executioner” is followed by the three singles, so it’s just banger after banger. The three singles are followed up by “Flawless Execution,” another fan favorite. The pacing of this song seems to follow “Even When I’m Not With You” (“EWINWY”), keeping a slower pace to sway along to at the beginning. Though, this song picks up the pace a bit more and builds up to a beautiful little guitar solo. Both this song and “EWINWY” have more of a sing-a-long and sway beat to it and giving more of old Pierce the Veil vibes. But somehow, “EWINWY” is disliked and “Flawless Execution” is a fan favorite, even though they have similar sounds and vibes to them.
The next track is the title track “The Jaws of Life.” This is not a bad song by any means, but it does not stick out as much as some of the other songs do. One would think the title track would be the one that sticks out. It’s not my favorite but not my least either. It’s something that one can dance to a bit and easily learn the lyrics but nothing stands out as much as some of the other songs on the album.
“Damn the Man, Save the Empire” is a unique song with the start of it being their bassist Jaime saying “Take 4679, Part two, hour eight, hour eight,” giving listeners a little chuckle before the song starts. Another song with a catchy chorus, talking about social media never truly knowing Pierce the Veil and how they only show us what they want and when they. So the band only hears what they want and when they want it, as many people do. We only show what we want and when we want, we rarely show the bad since no one wants to really see or hear that. It’s a powerful song with a groovy beat to back it up.
“Resilience” is also unique in that it starts with a quote from the movie Dazed and Confused, followed by what sounds like a gunshot. The album takes another break to slow it down. The guitar solo in this song is so soothing and calming. It’s pretty good and another to just close your eyes and relax. I think it’s a song that showcases Vic’s vocal talents more clearly. The instruments feel more like a background noise than the main act, while Vic’s voice feels like the main show. It easily gives goosebumps as you hear him belt it out, quickly being followed up with a guitar solo. An absolutely beautiful song.
The next song is a two parter with the interlude “Irrational Fears” leading directly into “Shared Trauma.” I will say I’m biased and hate interludes. Most times I do not understand why that interlude just couldn’t be added into the song it’s leading into. Interludes just seem like a waste of a song. Especially since there are two other songs on this album that have talking before the song and they’re just integrated together into one cohesive song. “Irrational Fears” makes no sense to me as a separate “song” since it’s a flight attendant talking before leading right into “Shared Trauma.” It’s a good song though. It’s one of the songs that feels more obvious that they used electronic drums this time around, but it sounds nice and fits the theme of the song well. There’s a hauntingly beautiful sense to the song.
“So Far, So Fake” feels more grungy and angry than any of the other songs on the album. It gives the song this fire to it that the others lack. This feels like something to get you dancing or moshing at a show. They were going for more of a 90s grunge vibe with this album and this one gives me that feel more than the other songs, other than “Pass the Nirvana.” The riffs in this song just hit different and makes you feel more of what Vic was feeling at the time. A definite banger off this album.
The final song is “12 Fractures,” conveniently being the twelfth song. The song starts off with a groovy bass. This song wraps up the album nicely. It brings the upbeat and grunge vibes down and calms you before the end (and if you listen on repeat like me, it’s picked right back up with “Death of an Executioner”). A beautiful and soulful end to the album, it brings out some feelings. This song showcases Vic’s progress in growing. He no longer has that whiney voice from 2007. It’s matured significantly since then and shows that he can sing beautifully. He’s always been insanely talented but it seems like there were a lot of unclean vocals in past albums and we didn’t always get to just hear Vic sing normally. This is also the only song with a feature with Chloe Moriondo showcasing her gorgeous voice. It meshes well with Vic’s and creates this beautiful and soulful song.
Overall, Pierce the Veil knocked it out of the park with another killer album. The sound is definitely different from previous albums, but there are elements to each song that harken back to their older albums, reminding you that you’re listening to the iconic Pierce the Veil. Pierce the Veil has been around since 2006 and each album they keep improving. We’ll never get another album like “A Flair for the Dramatic” and that’s okay since the band has matured and are no longer angsty young adults. The album has many examples of their maturity and growth. They’ll only continue to grow and improve with each album. This goes down as another 10/10 album from Pierce the Veil.
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