Review Summary: Senses Fail need to heed their own advice on, "Hell is in Your Head"
Years ago, when the band was in its early days of its existence, frontman Buddy Nielsen explained what exactly is meant by the band name itself. He stated and I'm loosely quoting here, that in "Hinduism your senses need to fail in order to attain peace or Nirvana in order to see God and reach one's highest level of being." Based on the lyrical content of their latest offering, that endeavor seems to have failed.
Over the course of their discography, the main themes have ranged from loss, insecurity, finding oneself, love, death and familial hatred. Hardly finding peace through letting your senses fail I'd say. In particular this album picks up where their sophomore, Still Searching, left off, following the person's afterlife. It is an admittedly deep and interesting concept, however that is not reflected on the musical side of things which to be honest, is a step or two backwards from the albums Renacer, and Pull the Thorns from Your Heart. Both of those albums had some experimentation that offered glimpses of beauty in the form of ethereal and ambient passages. On this new record, that shoegaze ambient atmosphere would have worked wonderfully and fit in with the afterlife aspect and that out of body experience that the shoegaze genre suggests to the listener, since that is a great unknown to mankind. Instead what we received was your typical post hardcore sound. I have nothing against that sound, however it is disappointing when you consider the potential they have shown on previous records and frankly, they themselves have done post hardcore better and felt more inspired doing so on their first few albums.
On this offering, the lyrics by and large have the classic poetic spin on them that have been a Senses Fail staple, and I've always been able to connect with them and that is no different here. Take Death by Water for instance, which happens to be my personal favorite on the album. The song was released as a single only a month before my wedding, and in dependable fashion the themes of that song reflected my own feelings and thoughts at the time. The passages "I left my heart inside the ocean of you, I let my lungs fill up I'm choking on you, This connection feels like it's too much but that's just the price you pay for love" resonated with me because with how much I love my wife, it feels I am at times lost in the ocean, or world of her, and at the time being 1,500 miles away from her the connection felt like it was too much. Fast forward several months with the usual disagreements that are expected to happen with married couples, the title of the record and single Hell is in Your Head, rang true. What we experience in life despite any outside forces, really does come down to our mentality and whether we choose to be positive or negative. I'm at times guilty of creating Hell in my head through negative thoughts, regrets and other emotions. Ultimately though it is up to us how we feel and we do have the power to let circumstances shape us or we take control of our circumstances and shape them instead.
Overall I have mixed feelings about this record. For the most part it is strong lyrically but musically it disappoints. On their next album I would like to see more experimentation and inspired effort. For now though, this to me is an average album but one worth a listen.
