Wretched or Divine?

Black Veil Brides is a glam metal/rock band from California. The 5 current members are (respectively) Christian "CC" Coma, Jinxx, Andy Biersack, Jake Pitts, and Ashley Purdy. Let me just start by saying: Yes, they are guys. Yes, they wear makeup. Yes, they (mostly) have long hair. I know, rough concept, haha.

Anyways, Black Veil Brides was started in 2006, however, the only founding member remaining is Andy Biersack. In 2009, their first single, "Knives and Pens", was a massive hit, and they came out with a video for it. This song is actually one of my favorites by them, even though they were just starting out here. I personally think it was a great video as well.

Their three albums, "We Stitch These Wounds", "Set the World on Fire", and "The Wretched and Divine", have all done pretty well too. Their most recent album, "The Wretched and Divine", was released in December 2012. This album came with a movie counterpart, which I have heard was "creepy, but awesome". The album was supposed to tell a story, which the movie played out. Now, since i haven't seen the movie, I can't say if it was any good or not. You can read the idea behind the movie here.

However, I did preorder the album, and it was AMAZING. Their single from this album was entitled "In the End" and there is an amazing video to go with it. The video kind of gives you an idea of how the movie was. I, personally, think they have come a very long way.

...And the Award Goes To: Pierce the Veil!

If you have heard of Pierce the Veil, good for you! If you haven't, you're probably listening to the wrong type of music. Just kidding, I'm not one to judge, but they are amazing. I mean, I made my through-and-through country fan listen to Pierce the Veil and she is now a committed fan.

Pierce the Veil is a pop-punk / post-hardcore band that originates out of San Diego, CA. The members are (respectively) Tony Perry, Jamie Preciado, Vic Fuentes, and Mike Fuentes. Yes, the Fuentes' are brothers. (:
This past year has been particularly rewarding for the band, as they have come a long way from 'struggling artists'. After the 2012 Vans Warped Tour, in which they headlined, Pierce the Veil announced their own headlining tour, which is now coming to an end. In addition to that, they have a second headlining tour quickly approaching, and they will be on the AP Tour with All Time Low, You Me at Six and Mayday Parade (!!!). They have come from small garage band to doing 3 headlining tours a year! I, for one, am proud, as I know their fan base is too.
Live picture, by me, from Warped Tour.

Pierce the Veil was recently featured on AP Magazine's cover as well. There are three different covers for the magazine, one of Mike and Vic Fuentes, one of Tony Perry and Jaime Preciado, and the one of the band together. The AP Tour is also sponsored by this magazine.





The Best of 2012 Reader's Poll, conducted by this magazine, also ended very, very well for Pierce the Veil. In it, they won nine titles in total. This included: Best Live Band, Album of the Year, and Artist of the Year. Another music magazine, Rock Sound, ranked them #33 on their album of the year list. The album creating all this fuss is "Collide With the Sky". I truly believe it is some of their best work yet, and I applaud them. Another site, allmusic, listed Pierce the Veil's peaks on various billboards here.

 The song that made it high on the Rock Billboards was "King For a Day" featuring Kellin Quinn (Sleeping With Sirens). I have a (shaky) video of this from Warped Tour, as you can imagine, it's pretty hard to record in a crowd like that, but to give you and idea of how good it was, I almost cried. This song was a single from their album Collide With the Sky. Seeing them live was definitely one of the best days of my life.

Pierce the Veil also released a new video for one of the songs on the album, Hell Above. They used real live footage from Warped Tour and their headlining Collide With the Sky tour. Basically, besides this video being awesome, it either makes you want to cry because you HAVEN'T seen them live, or just makes the post-concert depression way worse.

The band truly cares about their fans, too. This is what I love about the music I listen to. A lot of the artists are truly humble people, they care about their fans and they know that the fan base is the one who made their fame happen, they are grateful. I hear all over Tumblr, stories of fans meeting them, and I have never heard anything but the best about them. This is a status that the lead singer posted on Facebook.




I just think that everyone should listen to Pierce the Veil at least once. They truly are heroes, leaders, and role models to many teenagers around the world, they're mine, that's for sure.

Review: Of Mice & Men, No Longer Just a Book

Yesterday (February 12th, 2013), I saw Of Mice & Men live in concert at the Bottom Lounge (1375 W. Lake Street) in Chicago. They are a metalcore band from California. They have 4 members and a touring member, Austin Carlile, Tino Arteaga, Phil Manansala, Alan Ashby, and Aaron Pauley.














I'm going to start by saying, OH MY GOD. It really was amazing. They had 4 openers, Volumes, Capture the Crown, Texas in July, and Woe, Is Me. The openers were all good, they did their job getting the crowd ready for the headliners to come out. I usually don't know most of the openers for concerts, so I was surprised that I knew 3 out of 4, that was nice. None of the openers were bad either, they chose good bands to open.



When Of Mice & Men came out the crowd literally went insane, obviously, they were the reason we were all there. The first song they played, O.G. Loko, was the song I took the lyrics from to paint on my nails ("Meet my dedication, inspiration), it was awesome. (: This isn't my video, but I was standing in the same area as the girl that filmed this was. The first minute is kind of just the band entering the stage.

 (Caution: some explicit words and 'scary' metal music, haha)



After this, they continued to play all of my favorite songs. Honestly, almost all of my favorites were played. Some of them included: Product of a Murderer, The Calm, The Storm, The Flood, The Depths (the 4 songs from their re-released album). During the song The Depths, Austin likes everyone to get down on to one knee because the first words are "Get Up". Once he says this, every person in the crowd jumps up and screams the lyrics along with Austin. Being a part of this for the first time was really great, it shows how dedicated all of the Of Mice & Men fans are. The same girl that taped the previous video caught this on film too.

This was supposed to be the last song of the night, but as the exited the stage, the whole crowd chanted "One more song" until they came back. Austin announced that he would not play one more song...he was going to play TWO! The two songs they played were amazing, 'The Great Hendowski' and 'Second and Sebring'. The Great Hendowski is my favorite song by them, i eventually will get a tattoo with lyrics from that song, it's a meaningful song for me. The greatest thing about the band, Austin in particular, is that he truly is a good person. Before he started he said, "I want all of you to go home and listen to these lyrics, because this song was written for you". I could cry.

The very last song, Austin told us he wanted us to sing the song to him, and, being the dedicated fan base that we are, the entire crowd, in unison, sang Second and Sebring to Of Mice & Men. It is a moving experience to be part of a crowd like that, it feels like home, like a family. The last lines in particular "This is not what it is, only baby scars, i need your love like a boy needs his mother's side", I know they hit home for every Of Mice & Men fan, it's the song that brings us all together.

This band knows how to make people in the crowd feel like they belong and are loved. Austin recognized one of the fans and had him come on stage, he had met him before. Austin called him on stage and announced to everyone that the kid was in a local band, and that we all had to go home and look it it because "we all start somewhere, I was this kid at one point, support your local music". It touches me how much a huge famous star cares so much for his fans. This picture is actually my own.


So, overall, I would call this small concert, one of the greatest that I've been too. Truly amazing.