Album Review: Senses Fail - 'Renacer'

Senses Fail celebrated their ten year anniversary by hitting the studio and creating their fifth full length album, 'Renacer.' The opening and title track is exciting, slow and sludgy with a rolling drum beat being driven by the snarl like vocals, only to speed up for a fast paced punk rock chorus. It's like Senses Fail are busting out of the gate with an air of swagger and attitude that will blow your head off.

Semi-unfortunate that they would then slip back into their standard heavy verse/clean chorus sound with tracks like 'Holy Mountain' and 'Mi Amor', despite their intense openings. Senses Fail have always excelled when they are at their heaviest and that has not changed here, even despite the fact that the clean sung chorus lines of 'Holy Mountain' are catchy as hell.

The mid-section of the album seems to agree with the "heavy is better" theory as the dirty bass lines of 'The Path' work perfectly with the gritty vocals, allowing the guitars to explode in the chorus lines. The mood completely changes for 'Glass', a track that sounds like a mix between a radio rock anthem and the Deftones, which kinda works but doesn't really fit the context of the record. The band take this idea a little bit further on 'Snake Bite' but personalise it far more, making it more of a believable Senses Fail song with different touches.

It will be interesting to see how die-hard Senses Fail fans take this record as it is a progression for the band themselves, but not necessarily for the genre. Whenever these moments appear however, they are followed by a classic style track like 'Courage Of The Knife', which is possibly the most similar to the band's older material on this record. The final track, 'Between The Mountains And The Sea', is a slow builder, which manages to sum up all of the elements of its predecessors fairly well, listening to this one track alone will give a good idea of where Senses Fail are at as a band and when coupled with the opener, is a great demonstration of their versatility.

Renacer is Spanish for "to be reborn," and while the different elements on Senses Fail's fifth record may not be as dramatic as a complete rebirth, there is certainly enough curve balls included to either keep fans interested or turn them away completely.

1. Renacer
2. Holy Mountain
3. Mi Amor
4. ClosureRebirth
5. The Path
6. Canine
7. Glass
8. Ancient Tombs
9. Frost Flower
10. Snake Bite
11. Courage Of The Knife
12. Between The Mountains And The Sea