Pierce the Veil - Selfish Machines
Rating
RIYL
EmarosaSaosin
Isles & Glaciers
Chiodos
Release Date
06/21/2010
Label
Equal VisionTracklist
01. Besitos02. Southern Constellations
03. The Boy Who Could Fly
04. Caraphernelia
05. Fast Times at Clairemont High
06. The New National Anthem
07. Bulletproof Love
08. Stay Away From My Friends
09. I Don't Care If You're Contagious
10. Disasterology
11. Million Dollar Houses (The Painter)
12. The Sky Under The Sea
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Pierce the Veil have certainly carved for themselves a distinct and sizeable niche among pop and post-hardcore fans alike. Their merch designs are obnoxious, haircuts dyed and asymmetrical. Their promo shots are heavily photoshopped to pop with colors unnatural to our planet. They’re anathema to the typical mall-goer who narrows their eyes at a Hot Topic and silently judges its denizens. But appearances can be deceiving; this four-piece from San Diego has some serious song-writing chops.
Selfish Machines isn’t so much a progression as it is an extension of their remarkable debut, A Flair for the Dramatic. Think Circa Survive, from Juturna to On Letting Go. Think Jersey Shore’s The Situation popping two extra abs out of his 8-pack. Just as Alex Davies pointed out in his review of their debut album, Pierce the Veil pack layer after layer of sound on top of the next. A typical song might feature Vic Fuentes’ signature scratchy, high-pitched vocals and raspy screams over female vocals courtesy of Vanessa Harris, over a chorus of vocal harmonies, coupled with a guest appearance by A Day to Remember’s Jeremy McKinnon, over two noodly guitar lines, bass, and drums, over keys, piano, and programming, over bells, over handclaps—there’s probably even a triangle thrown in the low end of the mix for good measure. Selfish Machines is in essence the musical equivalent of a Graveyard. But just like the drink may send the casual drinker to its namesake, the album can overpower the casual listener.
Not only are each of the individual tracks on Selfish Machines intensely dense and layered – like an onion, or an ogre, if Shrek has taught me anything – they are frenetic and constantly changing, like the channel on a TV with a new satellite package in the hands of a toddler with ADHD. The opening track, “Besitos,” features a markedly Latin-tinged intro that melts into a swarming mass of double-tracked vocal harmonies tangoing over flourishes of guitar, which are interrupted by a heavier interjection, complete with growls and chugging bass, which in turn gives way to Miss Harris, accompanied by a jaunty piano tune that carries itself into the chorus. That’s just the first minute of the album. It’s incredibly apparent that the band and producer Mike Green bled their equipment dry in perfecting Selfish Machines.
Awesome instrumentation and songwriting aside, Selfish Machines really suffers from its lyrical content; it’s precisely the hackneyed content the same dubious mall-goer I mentioned above would expect the band to write, given their genre, appearance and fan base. This is a real shame because the album just oozes singability. You’ll be silently cursing yourself for singing, “Nights like this run up my wrist,” at the top of your lungs after a just few spins. Selfish Machines is heavy and even technical at times, but rife with pop sensibilities; the kind of album I imagine The Fall of Troy kept trying to make after Doppelganger.
Now, it’s not like Vic Fuentes hasn’t always written a touch theatrically—their debut album was called A Flair for the Dramatic, after all. The same man who wrote the lines, “Now the doctor’s dancing in, / while the ambulances sing. / Another boy without a sharper knife,” returns with such lyrical stinkers as, “But you don’t know what it’s like / To wake up in the middle of the night, / Scared at the thought of kissin’ razors. / This blood evacuation is tellin’ me to cave in,” and, “I laid down, / Drank the poison / And I passed the fuck out.” My personal favorite is the refrain to “I Don’t Care If You’re Contagious,” which goes, “So live and love, and DIE! And I don’t care if you’re sick, / I don’t care if you’re contagious, / I would kiss you even if you were dead.” That’s a real tear-jerker.
“Southern Constellations” puzzles me, because it’s actually kind of sweet. “It’s cold, but you pretend that you are warm with me. / Before I get you home, you’re nearly frozen. / But I’ll never let you freeze / Without me.” It’s like Barry White, just thickly coated in a Tim Burton filter.
Bottom line? Selfish Machines, though it has a flair for the melodramatic, is lush, busy and constantly engaging. If you can get past the garish, gaudy sheen, it’s a pretty incredible album.
--Zach Roth
Comments
Minnesota
Uggghhh, I'm so torn. I like what you had to say about the band, but I also can't stand their image (and Vic Fuentes' voice gets annoying after a while) so I'm not sure whether I actually want to listen to this or not... Good bands shouldn't be able to dress like total toolboxes.
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Illinois
i agree with rick, this band's image turns me off so much
but the album is pretty good if you set the vocals aside.
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Baton Rouge
Not taking anything away from this review, but I just attempted to get through a couple of songs from this album and quickly discovered that this is definitely not for me. The vocals kind of felt like wet fingers in my ears.
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Fishers, Indiana
hahaha. For all the time I took to talk down their horrible image, I suppose that I failed to address Vic's vocals being just as much of a potential turn-off as well.
I dig em, but I've liked these dudes since they were Before Today, so I've had years to get accustomed.
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Wilmington DE
I dont usually listen to bands that dress like this too but there is something about there instrumentation that I find entertaining. And maybe its been myyears of listening to bands like the blood brothers but I can handle my share of high pitched vocalists. To me if youfind his voice annoying I am led to believe that you also cant listen to bands like Circa Survive.
Listening to:
Tides of Man
Oceansize
The Contortionist
We are the City
Periphery
san diego, ca
If Vic's singing is a little too much, check out Early Times.
Wilmington DE
I just checked out the band Early Times and do you think they have better vocals (more pleasing to the ears) then Vic's?
edit: I didn't see that you put "if" in the beginning of your sentence so I originally had the wrong context.
Listening to:
Tides of Man
Oceansize
The Contortionist
We are the City
Periphery
san diego, ca
Pierce the Veil used to be Before Today who used to be Early Times.
Atascadero, CA
oh man the good old days when Early Times, Underminded, and Lower Definition used to play local all day long. Alpine community center. i saw ET, maybe early BT in rancho santa fe at some girls' 16th bday party one time too.
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san diego, ca
Haha hell yeah, definitely good old days. Mike drumming for both bands, almost always playing 2 sets each show. And Lower D had Esteban.
Cincinnati
This CD is fantastic. Their first disc was good...this one is better. Tracks 3 - 7 are five of the catchiest tracks I've heard on the same disc in a long time. This has been on repeat since it came out. Unless I'm going to hang out with this band on the weekends, I could care less about their "image" though. I'm just buying their music. And I can see the vocals not being for everyone, but you have to admit, they are unlike anyone elses.
Minnesota
Ok, so I decided to actually give this a chance. It's not that bad, although it feels pretty derivative of Chiodos if you ask me. Still, after I get past the image problems, get used to Vic's voice, and try not to think of the band as a simple Chiodos clone, it's pretty listenable.
Find me EVERYWHERE:
Fishers, Indiana
That's a lot of concessions to make in order to enjoy something. :P
I'll agree that they do sound a lot like Chiodos, but for some reason I despise Bone Palace Ballet-era Chiodos, yet I eat up Pierce the Veil like eyeliner-and-neon-v-neck-flavored candy. I think it's because Chiodos try to be really heavy and metalcore and have that overbearing macabre ambience to their songs (didn't the last video take place in a graveyard?), whereas Pierce the Veil songs are catchy and poppy as fuck-- they're just incidentally heavy sometimes.
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Kansas
This album is incredible. The lyrics are quite terrible, but man this is catchy as hell
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Fishers, Indiana
Benny, have I ever told you that you have impeccable taste in music? :P
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Kansas
haha why thank you zach.
http://rateyourmusic.com/~benny06