It's time to admit that Misadventures is the best Pierce the Veil album.

 

Misadventures is the fourth record by San Diego post-hardcore band Pierce the Veil, it’s also widely looked at as their worst ever. Collide with the Sky as well as a lot of their back catalogue of singles get a ton of love with most of the scene being split on whether “King for a Day” is the greatest song ever composed or the worst thing to ever happen to us. With the return of this band seeming likely to be this year, I wanted to come out and say it; this is the band’s best material by a mile. It was the first I was aware of Vic Fuentes’ arguis songwriting process. Locking himself in the studio to really get tracks down pat, leaving several years between albums at a time. Fuentes has talked at lengths about honing in his musicianship and being inspired by the events of the world outside his bubble on this one especially and I wanted to explore it’s many upsides to present them to you.

The record comes in strong with “Dive In” an opener that takes a simple riff and slowly builds upon itself one instrument at a time and then remains the entire framework for the first minute and a half. While Pierce the Veil come from a facet of post-hardcore that’s closer to heart wrenching rock this one is especially true to the genre. It’s got the breakdown complete with an edgy mosh call and palm-muted chugging. It even has the spanish-influenced guitars that Fuentes loves to play around with. The outro of the track takes from the band’s Selfish Machine days leaving an atmospheric sound led by an almost mechanical, yet soulful, scatting. Now, every track one of a Pierce the Veil record is basically the same but Fuentes improves upon it each and every time. Lyrically he describes a relationship but in a way that’s more akin to a horror movie than a love story;

“I wanna be the tattoo ink that swims down from the needle to your skin, I wish I was poisonous, like a bottomless sound, like a violent drug. Do you remember the knife I kept? The sharper it got the more you wanted me to use it.”

That and the later “hold your breath and swim under the ice” line is proof that he’s gotten better at painting this picture. The entire track is the whole band at the top of their game and at five minutes even never once feels stale. They continue that trek with the next track, “Texas is Forever” as well.

The next track, the first on the record to be released, “The Divine Zero” is another perfect offering except for the fact that it has a fade out ending but I know that’s probably just a me-issue. Another perfect example of that rant-like, storyteller style of lyricism;

“Maybe I could swim into your thoughts like your drugs do. Paralyze your body sick and tired of waking up to burning eyes and cigarettes I’m falling into the couch like a suicide mission tonight. My God, here comes the downside.”

When I give you an example of how he writes I can’t just give you the line, I have to read you the entire passage. It’s as if Fuentes enters the booth without something written and just tells the mic a story from the recesses of his mind alone. This goes off so well in fact that you aren’t even paying mind to the mad-scientist-esque musicianship that he’s pulling off in the background. A lot of little production choices are snuck right by you from a flute sounding intro, a drum and bass section at the end of the first verse, highlighting a lyric with amp feedback. No instrumental of the song ever even really repeats except a chorus and even at that, chorus three is sonically totally different. All these little things make it so much more than a post-hardcore song, it’s a demonstration of how hard Fuentes works to make all these tracks pop. It’s no wonder these records take so long to come out, he leaves not a single bell or whistle unchecked.

Now, so far we’ve only covered the three tracks on this record that the fans actually do jive with, but now we’re venturing into dangerous territory. There is a tone change on “Floral & Fading” but it’s not an unwarranted one and I’m going to try to be open minded to the negatives here, if I can find any. “Floral” isn’t built upon a riff or a harsh vocal, it’s built upon a rhythm section. It’s a tool so unlike Fuentes that he uses it as an intro, a post-chorus and an overall framework that, despite not changing, never truly feels out of place. I’m gonna hit you with an idea you might find questionable but hear me out; this song has a classic rock ground working and delivery. No, not just because Fuentes literally calls on guitarist Tony Perry to start the solo up, a lot of the melodies sound very… dated? In a positive way. You can almost see his mouth movements on the line about the thorn tearing his skin out. Structurally it is very basic; verse-chorus-verse chorus. Sonics aside though, lyrically it’s as if Fuentes is trying to speedrun every lyric type he’s ever done within single passages. Exploring love in all it’s wonder and agony;

“I want devil horns, I want to breathe in your rush, I wanna leap when you want me to fly, but darling I don’t mean to beg but these thorns on the stem are nearly tearing up my skin.”

We take it to the pit on “Phantom Power and Ludicrous Speed.” It’s probably the heaviest song on the record and sounds built for live performances taking some influence from old style hardcore with it’s spoken word bits. Lines like;

“Thanks for your concern and calls.” as well as;

“Your words were written in cold blood.”

Get me on a delivery level every single time. It’s a side of Vic Fuentes he never really shows us; pissed off. All that and it still has that raw, angsty emotion and the chorus is peak Pierce the Veil. Fuentes also doesn’t ease up an inch with the bare vocal production on the outro backed by what sounds like a theremin of all things.

“Circles,” which was the single off this record that I remember getting a bit more care put into it, sounds like the band’s attempt at radio rock. Don’t worry, more so in a Chunk! No, Captain Chunk! “True Colors” way not in the last three Asking Alexandria albums way. The song was inspired by the 2016 France shootings in a pretty tasteful direction. In the song Fuentes is envisioning what it must be to be locked in that sort of dangerous situation with a loved one and knowing you could lose each other at any moment. Other than that we aren’t doing too much new. We again hit a verse-chorus structure that never feels too repetitive, the chorus, which is huge by the way, has a really impressive drum roll in it’s last go around that’s designed to keep you interested. It’s the perfect idea of a festival song; has a relatable subject matter, a catchy chorus that hits you three times and an entrancing riff.

The band is pulling from all their past selves on “Today I Saw the Whole World.” If you enjoyed A Flair for the Dramatic you’d appreciate the back and forth surround sound effects on lines like;

“Zero friends followed your voice into the sea of crosses.”

As well as the influctions used in those screams. If you were into Selfish Machines the entire ambiance used toward the end of the second verse and entering the first chorus will take you right where you want to be. There’s even some of the more metalcore attitudes of Collide with the Sky laced throughout. I also want to quickly shout out “Gold Medal Ribbon,” as there’s not much new to report at this point but it has some killer basswork and is a shining example of that side of this band.

“Bedless” is a peak example of Fuentes’ lyrical storytelling. This thing is less so a post-hardcore song, even less so a collection of quotes and one offs, it’s just him going off and telling you a story that flows beautifully. The instrumentation, despite my earlier comment, is so well crafted for what this track is. When you listen to that opening riff you get a sense of a curtain on stage opening up and painting the picture of the moment you’re bearing witness to. We also take it back to the history of Pierce the Veil once again with the last minute and a half of this song being a built in interlude that goes into the next. A songwriting tool that was all over the band’s first record.

We sneak in one more crunchy riff, jam out, post-hardcore song before the finale with “Sambuka.” This is a crash course in moshable Pierce the Veil and goes through all their heavy elements in the scant run time. It’s still a little proggy even at that with both chrouses running a tad differently. Again with impressionable passages, it’s been six years and moments like;

“Damn, not even from my lifeless cold dead hands.”

Hit me the exact same way it always has. All in all if you don’t vibe with this, you probably don’t vibe with the record, it’s a lightning round of every single idea it has.

I’m going to be totally frank with you, “Song for Isabelle” is the perfect closer. It has a small breakdown that’s preceded by a moment that almost sounds like you’re in a movie theater. It has the Fuentes brand storytelling only this time he calls out the girl directly by name, something he’s never done before. We get even more director like production, the backing vocals on;

“All we have are parking lots and nowhere to go, if you love me show me more.”

The bass grove that matches up perfectly with the “I know you like when” section. The “back in the days” outro that leads into the keys that close out the whole record. We even get some classic Pierce the Veil Spanish guitar sections, which, this album admittedly has very little of.

The deeper and deeper I dove into this thing it proved itself more and more at being a production record. I also start to see what I already knew; it’s this band at their absolute best. Misadventures is heavy where it needs to be, somber exactly where it needs to be. I really tried to see the negatives when writing this, I tried to level with you and see what it really is that makes this such a disaster, but I’m ultimately left scratching my head. It's everything turned up to eleven, it’s this band’s perfect form, it is a check mark of everything they have ever done and they not only do it; they do it better. I’m sorry, but I cannot find anything wrong here other than Mike Fuentes still being present as a performer, it’s better than every other Pierce the Veil record, even Collide with the Sky.