“I promise that my pain won’t be your coffin nail.“
Senses Fail have been around longer than most of us can remember, and they’re a group that many had their phase with, so to speak. Early records such as Still Searching and Let It Enfold You were staples of the 00s emo era, with “Calling All Cars” and “Lady in a Blue Dress” remaining some of the groups most streamed songs. Despite these arguably being Senses Fails defining era, they continued to make impressive records in the form of The Fire, Renancer and Pull the Thorns from Your Heart, with the latter two seeing them lean into post-hardcore influences, with “Mi Amor“, “Wounds” and “Dying Words” being the heaviest tracks they’ve written to date. Since the most recent of those releases, Senses Fail have since began to trace back to their founding sound, with the emo and alt rock influences returning on If There Is Light, It Will Find You. With the record being an overall solid attempt, the sharp turn back to this sound felt unsettling. Now this brings Senses Fail to Hell Is In Your Head, where they’ve fully dived into their old sound.
The emo influences and sound are brimming to the seems in the record, “Lush Rimbaugh“, “End Of The World / A Game of Chess” and “I Am Error” being ballads of an age gone by. Which is ultimately what they are. It’s Senses Fail trying to rediscover what they wrote nearly 20 years ago. It all feels painfully out of place, with each track as they pass by digging up another trope or cliché that the genre has presented over its history. With such biting lyricism as “I’ve got to heal these open wounds to save us” and “I left my heart inside the ocean of you“, much of what is found within Hell Is In Your Head‘s lyrical content is nothing more than painfully dated, and a stark reminder that the era they so desperately cling to needs to remain in the past. The grace and manner that Senses Fail have explored topics such as loss, sexuality, self-worth and personal growth on previous records is mostly absent here, and while at times minorly present on Hell Is In Your Head, demonstrates an almost impressive step down in songwriting that feels nothing more than limp and juvenile. Given the very personal topics that are on Hell Is In Your Head, it’s a shame that the tracks don’t give their message and story a worthy vessel.
The record does, admittedly, contain a handful of small saving graces. track “What The Thunder Says” has some solid guitar work, blending a pitched guitar riff with brooding drum fills and rumbling bass. It’s the one track across the record that for those with in an interest in Senses Fail is worth visiting. Unfortunately, in the wider context of Hell Is In Your Head, its contrasted by dismal tracks such as “Lush Rimbaugh“. A track about a person who vocalist Buddy Nielsen evidently despises, yet it has the wording of an angsty teenager. Lyrics such as “There’s a special place in hell for you” feels soft-punched and removes any emotion of anger the track is attempting to build. On its way out, “Grow Away From Me” is a stretched out six minute closer that fails to add any further substance. It all feels like surface-level thoughts spilled onto the page, without any attempt to turn it into anything artistic or developed. When lined up against previous closers such as “If There is Light, It Will Find You” and “Between the Mountains and the Sea“, it completely pales in comparison.
With Hell In Your Head, it’s difficult to figure out who this record is for. It’s an evident attempt to conjure up the nostalgia and comfort of past sounds and reintegrate Senses Fail into what is a somewhat remerging emo scene. What has seemingly been missed is that despite this revival, it’s not a simply reincarnation of days gone by. Groups such as Static Dress, If I Die First and SeeYouSpaceCowboy have brought emo into the 2020s in their own different and unique way, rather than retreating the tropes of the past and a sound that hasn’t aged particularly well since its heyday. Until Senses Fail realise this with their new-but-old direction, they will be stuck sounding like their own tribute band.
3.5/10
Hell Is In Your Head is out this Friday, July 15th.