Review Summary: If you try to forget Still Searching, you'll find that this is a decent addition to their discography, take it for what it is and not what it should be.
When Senses Fail announced the release of a new album, there were a lot of good reactions. Senses Fail are one of those bands that never seem to be a let down and only better themselves with each new release, however, I do feel that their latest release, Life Is Not A Waiting Room isn't much of a progression from Still Searching. We still have all the songs about self-loathing and depression. We yet again have melodic guitar parts that don't really change, and we still have the heavy chord progressions. Although I'm not saying that it's a bad thing. Perhaps the fact that this record is not too far away from Still Searching is what makes it so good.
Even with all the similarities between this and their last album, the one thing that does stand out on a few of the songs with this are the changes to Buddy's vocals. He's found a singing style which fits somewhere between the vocal style from Let It Enfold You and Still Searching. Both of those albums had strong vocals, so it is a step up to see that he has combined them for Life Is Not A Waiting Room. The bass is a let down as it doesn't really stand out at all (Which is pretty much the norm for most bands in this genre). The breakdowns of the songs sound very complex but Senses Fail pull them off to perfection because that's what they are good at.
The whole concept of the album is about how the narrator is starting to feel older and how he doesn't know where he's going to go from where he is now. The song subjects have almost always been about depression, alcoholism and having a father walk out on him when he was very young, and there's no change here. Although Buddy executes his lyrics really well, it does feel like he over over-uses alot of his song subjects. It would be interesting to see on the next album how he explores his writing capabilities if he does so, because songs about drinking do get rather boring. The messages he puts into songs would be alot more powerful if he hadn't used the same message 5 times previously on other Senses Fail songs.
The music itself on this record sounds like a thunderstorm; Going from calm waves to terrifying and thunderous havok. Showing that Senses Fail can excel themselves in different areas of their sound. Sometimes you find with other bands that their emotion is mainly pushed forward by the vocals, with Senses Fail, that doesn't seem to be the case. They use all fronts to get their message across and do it extremely well.
Perhaps in the future it would be quite interesting to see Senses Fail experiment in different sounds and vary their sound a bit more. They've started taking steps towards that on this album, by including some piano spread out across the album and a few small synth lines here and there. I would personally like to see them press this out a bit more.
The lead single, Family Tradition is pleasure to listen to. It's catchy, and powerful. A song that could last a while. Something which is so uncommon to find in new music these days. The band really put all their feelings into the writing and recording of this song and you can tell that it is so close and personal to them that it has an undescribable effect on the listener. Fireworks At Dawn is dark and haunting track that sounds like it has come from the depths of Senses Fail's souls and has been brought to life with their crashing guitars and daunting vocals. Life Is Not A Waiting Room, the song named after the album, shows how Buddy really stretches his voice and this song is bursting with emotion from the word go. This track is the one that really focuses on the subject of growing older and feeling as if you haven't done much with your life. Proven by the opening line: "I stand alone on the verge of 24, I come undone, I'm left at shore."
Now, I'm not being being biased because I'm a fan of the band, but there is no song in particular that stands out as a bad track because they are all enjoyable and each deserve that credit. It's something that is hard to find, an album without a really bad song on it. So even though the band haven't really advanced much, they are still top class and still sound like they have alot of potential left, even if Buddy does feel like he's getting old.
Top tracks
*Family Tradition
*Life is Not A Waiting Room
*Four Years
