This week we took a look at Pierce the Veil’s brand new album “The Jaws of Life,” and look back on the memory of our late editor, Toby, who died in the wreckage of an eighty-Zamboni-pileup at the “Hardcore Hockey ‘13” expo, at which the actual jaws of life were also present.
First a little background. Pierce the Veil started back in 2006 and quickly developed a knack for crafting infectious, emo-tinged post-hardcore ballads. “Hardcore Hockey ‘13” was a mash-up beatdown hardcore / penal hockey bloodbath held in an old, weird gym in Paramus, New Jersey, in 2012. Our editor, Toby, was first in line for tickets.
Way back in 2018 Pierce the Veil announced that they’d begun working on “The Jaws of Life.” Also in 2018, we were still making weekly trips to the coroner’s office to identify chips of bone that were still being pulled out of that Zamboni massacre with regularity and volume.
“The Jaws of Life” is a major step forward musically for Pierce the Veil after a long hiatus and much perspective gained. The actual jaws of life also proved to be a major step forward for the fire department in using them to free the three surviving Paramus Institute For the Violently Insane convicts from the wreckage of the mass Zamboni demolition derby.
Ironically, those three were the exact three who initiated the crash in the first place.
When we think about Pierce the Veil, it reminds us of being back in high school and experiencing the joys of screamo for the very first time. When we think about Toby, we wish he hadn’t lied about having insurance so we could stop selling office furniture just to keep the site running.
So overall, “The Jaws of Life,” pretty good. Also, the actual jaws of life are fucking invaluable – otherwise they never would have been able to recover what was left of Toby’s face from that tangle of auger conveyors.
Score: 7 out of 10 criminally insane hardcore Zamboni operators