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With a much louder and more hardcore sound this time around, Senses Fail have taken a turn from the emo genre of things to a more heavy and more metal tune with Life Is Not A Waiting Room which may leave some longtime fans with mixed feelings, and newcomers drawn to the band for the first time.

The Good: Louder, faster, some great singles, very addicting vocals, guitar, drums, and vocals mesh together almost seamlessly, more of a metal sound, new direction will draw in newcomers, heavier vocals provided by Heath Saraceno, amazing photography done for the album

The Bad: Another departure from their first two albums, may leave longtime fans with mixed feelings, lyrics definitely need some revamping, loss of Mike Glita’s backup vocals, bass work is almost entirely overshadowed by everything else, a lot more mainstream than previous albums

Senses Fail is back and this time around they’ve brought along a new arsenal of songs to blow you away with on their latest album entitled Life Is Not A Waiting Room. With this new album came a lot of new change and a whole new sound, which you’ll either hate or come to love.

Mike Glita left the band as the bassist, and backup vocalist a year after completing their previous album Still Searching. With this loss came around one of the biggest changes to the band lineup, Heath Saraceno became the new backup vocalist providing a whole new sound to the band. Where Mike Glita had the typical screamo vocals, Heath Saraceno brings about a more metal sound to the album. Although many will come to accept this as the new norm for the band, there are many longtime fans that will miss Mike Glita as the other vocalist for the band and will feel that this was a huge step in the wrong direction.

Overall this new album will leave the longtime fans with mixed feeling over whether this was the right choice for the band and will probably end up losing a portion of their fan base because the sound is a lot more mainstream and has taken a direction that has totally veered away from the sound of their first two albums. On the bright side of things though, this will draw in a lot of newcomers, replacing those who have shunned the band for their new style.

With the new change in vocals we can also find that the band as a whole is playing much louder and a whole lot faster adding to the overall metal image of this new album and striving further from the emo genre of the past. Everything on this album from the guitar to the drums just feels so much more fast paced and just bursting forth with energy that it literally takes your breath away with every minute that passes. All this together; the vocals, the guitar, and the drums just all mesh together so perfectly and sound so synced that it makes the entire album as a whole a lot easier to listen to and is one of the biggest reasons why this album has hit so much more mainstream success than other previous attempts.

The second reason why this album has hit off with so much mainstream success would most definitely have to be the vocal stylings of lead man Buddy Nielsen, who has some of the catchiest vocals of the genre to date. Although his sound hasn’t changed all that much from previous albums, he just sounds not only a whole lot faster but seems to be a lot more energetic and diverse in his vocal range. But not even his addicting vocals could save him from the continual monotony of his lyrics. It just seems that every single album so far has just dealt with the exact same subject and it’s basically one of the only things that has remained completely faithful to their previous works. The subject of suicide and death gets quite dull especially when this is the fourth time around, this is the one area that Buddy really needs to work on even though most people won’t even listen for the lyrics instead just hanging onto the tune of his voice.

The single off this album was “Family Tradition” which actually feels closer to the older Senses Fail than anything else that coincides with their newer material, but what really struck me was that I actually liked a lot of their newer songs even more so than “Family Tradition”. The songs that stuck out the most on this album were “Lungs Like Gallows”, “Wolves At The Door”, and “Four Years”. These three songs I felt displayed the greatest change within the band, just evoking that louder, faster and heavier sound and are songs that can be played over and over again because they are literally just that catchy especially “Wolves At The Door”, which I felt was more metal than the band had ever attained before with their previous works.

Something I also noticed maybe not right off the bat but a little later after listening to the entire album a couple times when I actually went to check out the lyrics in the CD booklet was the amazing photography that went into the making of the album. Basically it’s just a young boy in a suit and a gas mask in put in different settings. The imagery within the photography just provokes so much loneliness and feels so dark that it’s actually quite beautiful. I feel the album could have used the photography in the CD booklet to tell an entire story and could have had based some of the lyrics around each photo, but in retrospect that might be a little too much to ask from this band.

Lastly I think it’s somewhat necessary that I should point out that although you can hear the drums, the guitar, and both sets of vocals perfectly, it took me a bit of time to pinpoint the bass within each song. It’s as if the bass has all but been drowned out from the entire album, it feels like the child in the family that gets neglected as soon as the newborn arrives in a family. I think the album could have definitely profited from some heavy bass solos or a couple of very melodic and fast bass riffs. It just seems that everything else on the album overshadows the bass to nonexistence here whereas the bass used to be a much bigger aspect of the band.

Overall I can definitely say that even with all the new changes in lineup as well as with the sound, I feel that Senses Fail was right on the money with Life Is Not A Waiting Room. It will definitely leave some fans questioning their choices and will draw in some new comers as well but ultimately I’m sure that this change is something that everyone will learn to overlook and accept. Keeping to this new heavier and fast paced direction, with the inclusion of some minor changes, I’m more than sure the next album will be yet another mainstream success. If you ever get a chance, listen to Life Is Not A Waiting Room, you may just find yourself becoming the newest fan of one of the quickest emerging post-hardcore bands out there.

8.0/10

Four Years by Senses Fail
Wolves At The Door by Senses Fail
Lungs Like Gallows by Senses Fail

Tags: album