Pierce the Veil: American post-hardcore band from San Diego

Before 2007: Before Today

Before forming the band Pierce the Veil, the Fuentes brothers played in the group Before Today, which they also formed. This was originally called Early Times, but had to change its name to Before Today due to copyright infringement. The group was backed by guitarist Joe Tancil and bassist Mitchell Ballatore. The release of their EP Roots Beneath Ideals brought the band to the attention of Equal Vision Records, who signed them. 2004 saw the release of An Celebration for an Ending, the group's only album. The band disbanded in 2006.

2007-2009: Foundation and debut album A Flair for the Dramatic

Pierce the Veil was formed in 2007 by brothers Mike and Vic Fuentes in San Diego, California. After their first band Before Today broke up, Mike and Vic Fuentes decided to form a new band. The brothers continued to write their songs alone in the home studio near Mission Bay near San Diego, which was funded by their parents, in order to have enough material to produce an album with the new band Pierce the Veil. The album, which the brothers worked on with Casey Bates in Seattle, Washington, was released on June 26, 2007, and is titled A Flair for the Dramatic.

Shortly before the production of their debut album, the Fuentes brothers recruited two new musicians for the group, bassist Jaime Preciado and guitarist Tony Perry. Initially, guitarist Perry was invited by Vic and Mike Fuentes. The latter suggested a little later that Preciado join the band as bassist. Perry and Preciado previously played together in a local metalcore band called Trigger My Nightmare. Work in the studio took a total of two months. The group toured the United States more frequently three months after the album's release. In the first two years after their formation, the band completed concert tours with All Time Low, Sleeping with Sirens, Tonight Alive, A Day to Remember, Chiodos, Emery, From First to Last, and Mayday Parade.

The group completed their first major concert tour between September 23 and October 2, 2007, supporting The Devil Wears Prada and Chiodos. This tour ended for the quartet after seven concerts. Just two days later, Pierce the Veil made their first appearance in the United Kingdom. There the band played as support for The Blackout. At the end of 2007, the group was again seen as support for Chiodos in the USA. Pierce the Veil also played at the San Diego Music Awards at the end of the year.

In November 2007, Pierce the Veil also played a concert on the Warped Tour. The following year, the group toured the entire Warped Tour. According to Fuentes, the group's 2008 Warped Tour performance was the first turning point in the band's career. Between January and March 2008, the group completed an extensive concert tour of the United States. As part of this tour, the group performed at more than 40 concerts. Pierce the Veil opened for Mayday Parade, As Cities Burn and Emery. Their first concert tour as headliners was The Delicious Tour, which took place in October and November 2008. Emarosa, Breathe Carolina, and Four Letter Lie performed as support. The group was part of the Taste of Chaos Tour in 2009 with Bring Me the Horizon, Thursday, Four Year Strong and Cancer Bats. The Fuentes brothers were confirmed for the line-up of the short-lived music project Isles & Glaciers, which was formed in 2008 by Jonny Craig, former lead singer of Emarosa and Dance Gavin Dance, and Craig Owens - lead singer of D.R.U.G.S. and Chiodos. The project released a single EP in 2010, which managed to enter the official US charts. While Jonny Craig stated that Isles & Glaciers was a "one-time thing", Vic Fuentes announced that he could definitely see himself releasing another album with the supergroup's musicians one day.

2009-2011: Selfish Machines

In August 2009, the band announced that they were in Los Angeles, where the group worked with producer Mike Green on the second album. The group recorded the first demos for the album while still on the Taste of Chaos Tour. In total, the group spent eight weeks in the studio between December 2009 and January 2010. The drums were completely recorded in a single day. In an interview, it was stated that work on the album initially went well. However, singer Vic Fuentes had to spend the rest of the time alone in the studio to record the last vocal parts, while the other musicians had long been at home in the meantime. In total, he had to spend a month alone in the studio to finish the album. The album Selfish Machines was released on June 21, 2010 via Equal Vision Records. To promote the album, Pierce the Veil played several major music festivals in the US, including Bamboozle Left, SXSW, Never Say Never Festival, and again Warped Tour.

Pierce the Veil covered the hit song (Don't Fear) The Reaper by the group Blue Öyster Cult for the Punk-goes-Classic Rock series, which was released on April 27, 2010. The group was featured on Attack! Attack! Part of the Take Action Tour, which toured Australia and New Zealand. The group also played in Japan. This was on the Versus Tour of Confide. It was the group's first appearance in Australia, New Zealand and Japan. The end of the year was followed by the This Is a Family Tour, which featured the band with Emmure, In Fear and Faith, Of Mice & Men, and Attack Attack! This tour ended on December 19, 2010.

The group played as a surprise guest on the 2010 Alternative Press Tour at the Fox Theater in Pomona, where August Burns Red, Bring Me the Horizon, Emarosa, This Is Hell and Polar Bear Club also performed. On November 1, 2010, the group announced that they would be playing with several scene greats including Silverstein, Miss May I, The Chariot, and A Bullet for Pretty Boy as part of the Winterizer Tour in the coming year. The group also toured mainland Europe for the first time in January and February 2011. On that tour, the group played alongside Bayside as the opening act for A Day to Remember. The Gamechanger's tour followed in April with A Day to Remember, Bring Me the Horizon and interim label mates We Came as Romans. Pierce the Veil also co-headlined the second leg of Escape the Fate's The Dead Masquerade Tour.

After not spending the summer touring to work on new material for the next album, the group was ready to go on a South American tour with Sum41. However, this concert tour was cancelled as Sum 41 singer Deryck Whibley had to undergo surgery. At the turn of the year, Pierce the Veil toured Europe with Motionless in White in support of Blessthefall and co-headlined the No Guts No Glory Tour with Miss May I, which kicked off shortly after the European tour ended. The band covered the song Just the Way You Are by pop musician Bruno Mars for the Punk Goes Pop 4 compilation. This was released on 21 November 2011.

2011-2015: Move to Fearless Records, Collide with the Sky and This Is a Wasteland.

Pierce the Veil changed their label after their record deal with Equal Vision Records expired and signed a new contract with the Californian punk label Fearless Records on 23 August 2011. In an interview, vocalist Vic Fuentes explained that the contact to the record company came about through a close friend of the band.

In late December of 2011, the musicians announced that they would be moving into the studio next year to work on their third studio album. Vic Fuentes revealed four days after the announcement that he had finished writing the songs, which were written during a winter tour with The Amity Affliction, Miss May I, Woe, Is Me and Letlive. In February of 2012, the musicians moved into the recording studio in Elmwood Park, New Jersey with producers Dan Korneff and Kato Khandwala and began production on the album. Collide with the Sky, the title of the album, was released worldwide on July 17, 2012 via Fearless Records. The elaboration of the songs took place in several locations, including Big Bear Lake, Florida and San Diego. In an interview with Sebastian Berning of Powermetal.de, Vic Fuentes revealed that the contact to the producers came about through label colleagues Mayday Parade, who had already worked with Korneff and Khandwala in the past.

In the first week of the album's release, just over 27,000 records were sold in the United States alone, allowing the album to enter the national album chart at number 12 and stay on the sales list for nine consecutive weeks. To promote the album, the band played the main stage of Warped Tour between June 16 and August 5, 2012, with the group performing in front of 10,000 people in Philadelphia. The band was joined as guest musicians by Kellin Quinn of Sleeping with Sirens, who is featured on the single King for a Day, during Warped Tour. Following the Warped Tour, the band completed their first and nearly sold-out headlining tour of the United Kingdom. In November, the group played at California Metalfest in San Bernardino.

In February of the following year, Pierce the Veil played a concert tour with Sleeping with Sirens through several states in Southeast Asia, before a performance at the Soundwave Festival in Australia followed at the end of the same month. This was followed by a small concert tour in the company of Memphis May Fire, Letlive and Issues. In April and May, the band played a co-headlining tour of North America with All Time Low, before another tour of the UK followed in the same month, this time with Hands Like Houses and Woe, Is Me as supporting acts. During the first concert of this tour, bassist Jaime Preciado broke his foot, forcing him to complete the entire tour with a walker. Between May 25 and 27 of the same year, the band played at the Slam Dunk Festival, before the band's first appearance at Rock am Ring and Rock im Park followed less than two weeks later. In July, the band played in South America for the first time after a tour planned in 2011 had to be cancelled. A concert tour of Canada with The Ghost Inside and A Day to Remember followed in August. A month later, Pierce the Veil played again with All Time Low and A Day to Remember. At the end of the year a European tour followed as support band for Bring Me the Horizon. That same month, Collide with the Sky was reissued along with the documentary This Is a Wasteland, allowing the album to re-enter the charts and spend another six weeks on the album charts. The DVD won an award in the Best DVD/Best Video category at the Revolver Golden Gods Awards. The day after this music award was presented, the US music magazine announced the inaugural Alternative Press Music Awards, where the band received nominations in seven categories, including Best Live Band and Artist of the Year. Pierce the Veil won an award in the former category, as well as in the people-related categories of Best Bassist and Best Drummer. On the day of the awards ceremony, the musicians announced a world tour with Sleeping with Sirens. Later, more tour legs were announced for this concert tour.

In November of 2014, Pierce the Veil was announced for Reading and Leeds the following year, where the band had already played the main stage. Prior to that, the band headlined SelfHelp Fest, organized by the musicians of the band A Day to Remember. Between July and August 2015, the band played again on the full Warped Tour. A week before the start of this festival tour, guitarist Tony Perry was seriously injured in a mountain biking accident, requiring Jesse Barrera of My American Heart to fill in for him for some time. Despite his injury, Perry played a concert as part of the 2015 Alternative Press Music Awards in Cleveland, Ohio as well as on Warped Tour at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, despite doctors advising against it. In the meantime, Collide with the Sky was awarded a gold record by the RIAA for selling half a million units in the United States.

2015-2018: Misadventures

During the Spring Fever tour, which the group completed with All Time Low, Mayday Parade and You Me at Six, the musicians were already working on new material for their fourth studio album. The group planned with producer Tom Denney to move into the studio as soon as possible. On December 23, 2013, Jaime Preciado and Vic Fuentes confirmed that the album would be released in 2014. However, it was not until March 22, 2014 that it was revealed that the group had entered the studio to write tracks for the new album after completing their European tour with Bring Me the Horizon, which ended in December 2013. In an interview with Impericon, it was said that the musicians took their time writing the tracks and didn't want to rush anything. In total, the writing of the tracks for the album, which took place in San Diego and later in Big Bear Lake, took five months. In an interview the group did with Poppy Reid of The Music Network in March 2013 during their time at the Soundwave Festival in Australia, Fuentes revealed that Jenna McDougall, lead singer of the pop-punk band Tonight Alive, would be featured as a guest vocalist on one track on the new album. This was called too premature in a later interview with Kerrang!

In mid-May, the musicians began preliminary work on the new album in the studio. On June 5, 2014, Tony Perry announced on his Twitter profile that the musicians would enter the studio soon. On the same day, it was said that the group was flying to Long Island to move into the studio. Pre-production on the album began in June 2014, and in August the group moved into Sonic Debris Recording Studio in New York with Dan Korneff. On August 4, 2014, it was announced that the album would be released in early 2015 due to a delay. According to Kerrang! the album was scheduled for release in January 2015. On September 17, 2014, it was said that the album was almost finished. However, in an interview with Yahoo on 6 February 2015, it was said that the fourth album was due out in the summer. On June 18, 2015, the first single from the fourth studio album, The Divine Zero, was released. However, a release was again postponed for unknown reasons, so on December 22, 2015, the album was announced for 2016. On March 15, 2016, the name and release date of the album leaked through a rumor. According to this, it is titled Misadventures and is scheduled for release in May 2016. Three days later, this rumor was confirmed. Misadventures was officially released worldwide on May 13, 2016. Within its first week on sale, the album sold over 50,000 copies, charting at #4 on the US album charts. The album also charted internationally for the first time, including in Germany, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

On May 13, 2016, an album release concert was held at Pabellón Oeste del Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City. From June 5 to 26, 2016, the group played a concert tour across the United States to promote the album. While there, the group played the album in full at each concert. The tour was accompanied by I the Mighty and Movements. The day after the US tour ended, the band made an appearance on the late-night show Conan with Conan O'Brien. In July, Pierce the Veil played a small tour of Latin America with stops in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico. Between August 16 and 23, 2016, the band completed a headlining tour of Australia, accompanied by Beartooth, Silverstein and Storm the Sky. This was the group's first concert tour of Australia since their appearance at the Soundwave Festival in 2013. Immediately following the Australian tour, the group completed their second tour leg in the United States with Neck Deep and I Prevail. Back on March 26, 2016, another leg of the Misadventures tour was announced. This began on October 29, 2016 with a performance at Le Trabendo in Paris, France and ended after 29 concerts on December 6, 2016 at Dublin Academy in Dublin, Republic of Ireland. The band toured Spain, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Austria, as well as Switzerland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

On October 13, 2016 Pierce the Veil was announced together with Sleeping with Sirens, Beartooth and Motionless in White in the first wave of announcements for Rock am Ring and Rock im Park. Furthermore, the group was confirmed for the first time for Greenfield Festival, Download Festival and Nova Rock. A concert tour with Rise Against in the United States and Canada followed in September and October 2017. Meanwhile, the band's participation in the tour with AllTime Low, which was scheduled to take place in the United Kingdom in March 2018, was cancelled by the musicians after drummer Mike Fuentes temporarily left the band due to several allegations of sexual misconduct leveled against him in November.

Since 2018: New album

On July 6, 2018, it was announced that Musicians had begun work on their fifth studio album. On August 25, 2020, Vic Fuentes shared that his brother Mike has not been a part of the group since 2017 and will not be featured on the upcoming album. However, Mike Fuentes still played a Quarantine concert with the rest of the group in April.

Music

On their debut album, the group's music was described as a mixture of emo, screamo and progressive rock. The musical compositions on the debut album are kept complex, so that a comparison with Sparta, Trail of Dead and at times also with Queen is possible. On the album Selfish Machines, which was released in 2010, influences from punk can often be found. Furthermore, the musicians resort to rather genre-untypical instruments such as pianos or acoustic guitars. With the release of their second album, the group was compared to The Used, Chiodos and Emarosa. The group has also been compared to Alesana. The group has earned much praise in the past for their ability to blend the "ferocity of hardcore and metal with the songwriting and melodicism of pop music."

Vic Fuentes' vocals alternate between pure vocals and screams. In many tracks the sound varies. So there are frequent changes from slow to fast riffs, from hard to soft, from rock to pop. The group emphasized that they would always work with their musical roots. The musicians don't see Pierce the Veil as a metal band, but have their own definition of hardness.

Elmar Salmutter from the German Metal Hammer described the music on their debut album A Flair for the Dramatic as "mature and multi-layered". He thinks that Vic Fuentes' vocal range is very reminiscent of Claudio Sanchez from Coheed and Cambria. The critic writes that the group was also influenced by Silverchair on their debut album. Sparta was also mentioned by Salmutter as a musical influence on the album.

Florian Kapp mentions prog rock passages as musical highlights on the third album Collide with the Sky. He describes that the music sounds poppier compared to the previous albums. The critic also praises the use of Spanish guitars. In the scene, the term "Mexicore" has become established due to the musicians' origins. Vic Fuentes himself said that the term Mexicore represents a "mixture of hard music with Spanish feeling".

The band is known for using instruments that are untypical for their music style. For example, the track Bulls in the Bronx features acoustic guitars, castanets and bongos. Even though Pierce the Veil's music has nothing to do with grindcore, Tom Araya, a musician from the band Slayer, described the group in an interview with the German-language edition of Vice magazine as a representative of "the new metal" that he personally identified in "grindcore".

On Misadventures the band orientates itself very close to the border of pop music. Also influences from pop-punk can be heard. Groups like Panic! at the Disco, Atreyu and My Chemical Romance are mentioned as musical references.

Texts

Singer Vic Fuentes is primarily responsible for the group's lyrics. He was rarely supported by other musicians or friends, such as former A-Day-to-Remember guitarist Tom Denney, Curtis Peoples and Dave Yaden in writing the lyrics. Many song lyrics deal with personal experiences of the musicians. Fuentes said he doesn't follow any concepts when writing the songs, but instead draws inspiration from current or family events, personal experiences in relationships, on tour and from friends.

However, there are also several tracks where he was inspired by fans of the group. For example, he wrote the songs Bulls in the Bronx and Hold On Till May for Olivia Penpraze, who hanged herself on April 3, 2012. Friends of Penpraze wrote a letter to the musicians, as Penpraze had been a fan of the band.

The song I Don't Care If You're Contagious was also dedicated to a fan of the band. The musicians told in an article with Alternative Press magazine that a female fan had contacted the musicians and reported that her former boyfriend had died in a car accident. Both had met at a concert by the group. Fuentes wrote this song as a gift for her. The song Million Dollar Houses (The Painter) is addressed to Fuentes' parents, specifically addressing his father. The song is about how his parents did not split up despite financial problems, no matter how bad things got for them. He wrote the song A Match Into Water from the album Collide with the Sky about his girlfriend at the time, who had to be hospitalized a lot for breast cancer.

In an interview with Alternative Press, it was said that Vic Fuentes was holed up alone in a room while writing lyrics. So Fearless Records owner Bob Becker rented a cabin for Fuentes to write lyrics for the band's 2012 album Collide with the Sky. An article in the U.K.'s Rock Sound described the group as "a band for the lost, the broken and the lonely, based on the musicians' lyrics." Fuentes said he wants to make sure that every lyric to every song spreads fun and inspiration to listeners.

For the song lyrics from the fourth studio album, Fuentes took a few camping trips in 2014 in addition to the regular writing sessions in order to be able to write on more song material, which makes them even more personal than older pieces of the band. This album also features songs he wrote about his former relationships. For example, the song Gold Medal Ribbon is about his first great love, while Texas is Forever revisits the story of a failed relationship he sang about in songs from past albums. Floral & Fading he wrote for Danielle Perry and Song for Isabelle Fuentes dedicated to a fan from overseas. The band's first song to address recent history is Circles, in which he addresses the massacre at the Bataclan theater during the November 13, 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris. The background for writing the song was the statement of the band Eagles of Death Metal performing at the Bataclan that night, according to which some fans had tried to protect their friends from the terrorists.

Band name

The band name comes from the song of the same name by the previous band Before Today, which can be found on the only released album An Celebration for an Ending. The name is inspired by the English term "piercing the corporate veil", which means to get to the root of problems and eliminate them.