Pierce the Veil - The Jaws of Life

Seven years passed between Misadventures and The Jaws of Life, which is a long time for any band and an eternity for one whose audience grew up in the meantime. Pierce the Veil came back in February 2023 with a record that sounds looser, dirtier and more curious than anything they had made before.

"Pass The Nirvana" set the tone as the first single, all fuzzed-out guitar and a chorus that arrives with none of the theatrical build-up the band used to favour. "Emergency Contact" is the most straightforwardly great song here, a pop hook wrapped in distortion. "Death Of An Executioner" opens the album at half speed before detonating, and "12 Fractures" closes it as a duet with Chloe Moriondo, quiet and unresolved.

Vic Fuentes wrote the lyrics and plays guitar throughout, Jaime Preciado engineered, and parts of the album were recorded at Royal Studios in Memphis and Marigny Recording Studio in New Orleans, which is not where you would expect a post-hardcore band from San Diego to end up. That geography shows in the record's warmth. It is less polished than Collide with the Sky and considerably more interesting for it.

Standard black vinyl pressing on Fearless Records. A genuine reinvention rather than a comeback.