metal
“We will bring the tidal wave!”
Pierce The Veil as a support for Bring Me The Horizon on The Crooked Young Tour were incredible! I’ve only recently really gotten into them, and for personal reasons, I’ve fallen in love with them.
I’d only really listened to Caraphernelia (from their 2010 album Selfish Machines) before, but then, on a whim, I decided to get their last album Collide With The Sky (2012). This album made them so much more popular, I feel, because after it came out and I listened to it, the band were suddenly everywhere. I didn’t go to any of their headline shows, but still wanted to see them live. I got my chance on Wednesday, as they were supporting Bring Me The Horizon, along with Sights & Sounds. I didn’t bother going to see Sights & Sounds (because I was working, and so were everyone I was going with, so we ended up missing them), but I got to the venue about 5 minutes before Pierce The Veil took to the stage.
They were incredible. They opened with Bulls In The Bronx, and straight away the energy in the venue rose completely. I’ve been to a fair share of gigs, and I can safely say that the energy for support acts is not always that high. You need to have an amazing support for the crowd to be as pumped as if they’re already seeing the headline band. I stayed at the back, by the bar, and so had a very decent view and room to breathe, drink, and dance (which I definitely did!).
The song I was most excited to hearing was Hell Above. I’d been listening to that on repeat for about a week before the gig, and was so excited to hear it, that as soon as they started playing May These Noises Startle You In Your Sleep Tonight (the minute-and-a-half long intro to Hell Above on the album) I could hardly control myself; I screamed along so hard to the line “THIS IS THE STREET YOUTH RISING UP!” I thought I’d already blown my throat out.
Caraphernelia was another highlight; obviously Jeremy McKinnon didn’t make an appearance (but my year would have made if he did…) but it was still incredible to just hear Vic’s voice singing the way through. They ended the set with King For A Day, which obviously led to a crowd sing-a-long for probably their most popular song. Or should that be a scream-a-long..? In my partial drunken state it seemed a good idea to attempt to sing Kellin Quinn’s parts as high as he does. Obviously that wasn’t such a fabulous idea. It hurt my throat. It was a lot of fun to sing to though, and Siobhan and I got waaaaay into it at one point… Harmonies were attempted. That’s all I’m gonna say.
If you’re a fan of Pierce The Veil then I won’t bother telling you that you need to go and see them. But if you’re not a fan, or haven’t heard their stuff, then I seriously recommend you check them out. It’s not for everyone (I once had a friend tell me that Vic’s high vocal range seriously puts him off listening to them, because it’s “too girly.” Each to their own, I guess…) But they’re still so good, incredibly talented, and amazing to see live. You can tell they love their fans, and know the issues that they go through, and appreciate them so very fucking much. They’re good role models to have, and they know it, which is evident in the way they speak to the crowd, and the lyrics they write. I wish I’d found them sooner than I did, but I’m so glad I have their music in my life now.
Misfits: Danzig V Graves
Misfits have always been cited as one of the most influential bands for bands today. Boasting fans as massive as Avenged Sevenfold and Metallica, the Misfits are most definitely a band that every metal head and punk needs to know, and there’s no denying the impact they’ve made on music today. However, with the number of line-up changes and new singers, the band as it stands today is even more unrecognisable than Guns N’ Roses. The only band more warped than Misfits as far as line up is concerned is probably the now defunct Sugababes – where not a single member is an original ‘babe’.
With the different line-up’s of the band, the two most prominant era’s are the Glenn Danzig era, VS the Michale Graves era, and this is an argument that every Misfits fan will have atleast once. “True” fans will be adamant that Danzig was the greatest singer for Misfits, because he founded the band, where the more “musically minded” fans would argue that in fact Graves is the better singer. With two very different styles of singing, this is one of those arguments where you can only be on one side or the other.
Glenn Danzig is… indescribable. Misfits, as an image and lyrically as a band made him come across (to me atleast) as a complete bad ass. His singing that sounded so brutally punk, yet something that you could definitely sit there and want to hear more of, made him seem terrifying to me, especially when he sang that “if you don’t shut your mouth, you’re gonna feel the floor” line from Attitude. *gulps* But then I watched him in an interview. I swooned. He was so.. adorable in that interview, and came across as one of the truest, most humble punk rock stars, which totally contradicts EVERYTHING that punk supposedly stands for.
People generally love Danzig for the ever lasting argument of “he created the Misfits”. Yes. Yes he did, well done. While it’s true that without Danzig there would be no Misfits, is that really argument enough to prefer him? Surely his vocal’s should be the deciding factor? The truth is, Danzig’s vocals are everything that punk is. Nobody cares whether or not you can truly sing, as long as the guitars and drums are loud enough. You could, theoretically, just be standing there screaming utter bullshit, but if the guitar’s are tight enough people will like it. And this isn’t just the case for punk music, but for any band (you need only listen to Bring Me The Horizon’s first album for proof. How that sold, based on his vocal’s, is beyond me). Getting back to it, Danzig has a good voice, which fits in with the sound of the Misfits. It’s rough and gritty, but has an amazing melodic tone to it; it’s not annoyingly dark, and is a voice that you could definitely learn to love.
Then we get to Graves. The voice of Misfits that was cleaner, and more melodic. Graves has the voice that made my jaw drop when I heard it first, and then proceeded to turn me into a pile of goo. Never will the phrase “dig up her bones” sound so romantic, unless Graves sings it. He has the ability to actually SING, and not just speak or shout lyrics at the audience, but he can make it sound grittier when it needs to. He can do clean vocals, and punk vocals, meaning he already has a wider range than Danzig. I could quite literally sit and listen to Graves sing for days on end, and never tire of it; he has a soothing effect when he sings, but some songs can still make me want to just get in a pit and fuck bitches (I can’t pull that phrase off, can I? It may be the lack of penis I have).
Even when I hear Graves acoustically, he manages to captivate me with just his voice. It’s so clean, and just so gorgeous, that it feels good to just sit there and listen to him sing. The acoustic sessions he’s done take the music, and strips it back to it’s bare minimum of an acoustic guitar, bass, drums and clean vocals. It just makes it that much more sweeter when you listen to an acoustic song, especially when the original is so heavy and fast. The single greatest example I can give of this is ‘Dig Up Her Bones’. The original is one of my favourite songs; it’s fast, loud, and something that inspires a fat pit with whiplash-inducing headbanging, while you scream along until your throat bleeds. But the acoustic version.. that is something magical. It manages to strip everything punk away, replacing it with something beautifully simple. The horror-punk aspect is shied away from, replacing it with a much more prominent romantic aspect. Basically, if a guy sang this version of the song to me, I’d marry him.
While Graves has the amazing vocal range, Danzig has the swagger and the punk-as-fuck vocals. I personally prefer Graves as a vocalist, but appreciate Danzig far too much to let anyone say he did little for the band, because that’s just not even a little bit true. Danzig is the brains behind the band, and gave a brilliant image for it. I fucking love them both!
This is an old post from my Tumblr account (which has since been deleted), and I promised something a bit more substantial in my last post… So, here you go. This is literally just to get this blog started and give you something to read while I get my bearings around this new website!!
This Seems Dangerous 