Pierce the Veil

Pierce the Veil write songs that slip from hushed verses into full-throated choruses, with Vic Fuentes singing at the centre of them. The three-piece came up through post-hardcore and emo and has never fully left either behind, even as the arrangements around the band have grown wider and less predictable.

Tony Perry threads intricate guitar figures through Jaime Preciado's bass lines, and the later records make room for synthesizers and heavier, lower-tuned guitars drawn from nineties guitar rock and grunge. Five studio albums trace that arc, moving from a debut built on technical flourish toward writing that trusts a plain melody to carry the weight. "King for a Day," cut with Kellin Quinn, found a second audience online long after it was released.

On stage the band plays to be sung back at, and audiences oblige at volume, following Fuentes through the loudest passages and the quietest alike. The playing stays precise at full force rather than dissolving into noise. What comes across is a group treating its own catalogue as living material instead of a keepsake.