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#music #emo #NuMetal #PierceTheVeil #webcomics #art #comics

Not sure if this will technically be a review of the album... But it's the one album that I've been listening to a lot lately. I only had a mild fascination with Pierce the Veil when they first came out. After I'm done ranting about music today, I'll talk a little bit about MTK Ultra tomorrow, which is a web comic I'm working on and developing.

The album Pierce the Veil put out earlier this year though, is really good. It still has an emo feel to it, but it's much more hard rock, a bit nu metal at times. Even has some progressive influences. Much more diverse than their previous efforts. I'm kind of happy that “King for a Day” blew up on TikTok, I don't think they would have put out a new album if it hadn't.

Mike Fuentes not being in the band anymore does seem to have influenced the music a bit, but it has also been several years since their last album. I've read some articles about what happened with Mike, and my understanding is that it had to do with under-aged girls, but I don't know the details. Regardless, it's probably for the best that he's not in the band.

Unfortunately, there's no record of their musical growth over the past 6 years. We're just getting hit with the final product. Seriously though, the new drummer is fucking ace. Some of the stuff they've put up on YouTube is them performing at the When We Were Young festival. I would have bought tickets, but that show absolutely exploded and tickets were sold out almost instantaneously, so I'm happy they made some official videos out of their performances from that weekend. Seriously, just watch the new drummer on the “Pass The Nirvana” video from that festival, it's worth your time.

The album's title at least really resonates with me. Some of the lyrics do, but the music itself is really the appeal... Not that I don't like Vic Fuentes' voice, I do, his melodies are great and his singing is less “whiny” and much more metal, but the depth of the lyrics just isn't there for me.

I think if you're a person who likes rock, but you don't necessarily identify with a specific genre, or you're open to listening to new things, this is a great album.

Life has been pretty crazy.

The storm that hit here in Vegas a week and a half ago left our house with some damage. It's the first time I've ever filed an insurance claim in my life. I've only been in one auto accident my entire life and that was damn near 20 years ago, the other party was at-fault and it never even went to my insurance.

Just had a tooth pulled... That was an experience. Apparently only about 1.8% of people who are given lidocaine combined with epinephrine experience a vasovagal response. What a trip. That was one hell of an experience. Pretty thankful that my wife drove me to my dentist appointment. I was fine at the dentist, the tooth came out, and we paid and proceeded to leave, to go to the pharmacy to pick up the ibuprofen and amoxicillin that was prescribed to me, and I started to feel funny while standing in line. I remember saying that I had to sit down and felt like I was sweating profusely. We got back to the car and that's when it hit me. According to my wife I passed out in the car on the way home (which was literally just down the street), and then snapped out of it, but then passed out again when we reached the front door.

When I came to, my wife was on the phone with 911 freaking out. I was shaken, but pretty stable after that. The whole experience was only about 15 minutes total—from the time walking out of the dentist until we were home.

One of the paramedics said that my blood pressure was better than his.

In any case, happy to be alive. So with that, I've been spending time working on my own comic. I've given up caring about the quality, and I'm just doing it, just putting it out there knowing that the more I work on it, the better it will get. I'm not getting any younger. You have to actually try at some point rather than just saying that you will. Saying I'm doing is just semantics at this point.

I'm excited about it. I like the story that I have thus far, hoping to bring some people along with me for the ride.