The career of a traveling musician is full of ups and downs. That being said, there are very few bands that can hold a candle to the run Senses Fail have been on over the last decade. The band appeared to be next in line behind The Used and My Chemical Romance when emo broke into the mainstream, thanks to the still heralded Let it Enfold You. The single-driven Still Searching, featuring the band's catchiest songs, got the band even closer to stardom. A grueling label battle, countless band member changes, and two albums that fans readily described as "subpar," and the band found themselves at a crossroads. Finding themselves the lone two remaining members of the band, vocalist Buddy Neilson and drummer Dan Trapp enlisted new bandmates, and decided to take a chance with their future. The result of that risk is Renacer (that's "to be reborn" in Spanish), a pulverizing album that finds Senses Fail taking a sonic shift they showed signs of on their last full-length (2011's hit-or-miss The Fire). It's really easy to make a "reborn" joke here, but rather than a full-blown rebirth, Renacer feels more like a new chapter of a book we've all become familiar with.
The album starts off with its title track, a dizzying, pummeling, two-and-a-half-minute snapshot of just how much the band has changed. Neilson's screamed vocals have continued to improve throughout his career, be it in Senses Fail or his hardcore side project Bayonet. Throughout Renacer, Neilson's screams are the dominant form of expression, which is main reason for the drastic changes from the band's older material. Senses Fail clearly wanted a heavier sound on the album, which is achieved through the welcome contributions of new guitar tandem Zack Roach and Matt Smith, who present a drudging, powerful tone throughout the entire album to perfectly complement Neilson's best vocal effort to date.
Fans of the band's earlier, less scream-oriented work will still find enough to remind them of the band's earlier work, especially those who enjoyed Life is a Waiting Room. "Holy Mountain" and "Closure/Rebirth" all have phenomenal choruses reminscent of "Wolves at the Door" or "Lungs Like Gallows." "Canine" soars from the second it starts, providing a perfect start for the second half of the album. Though each song has it's obligatory clean-singing periods, the screaming of Neilson was clearly emphasized in the recording of Renacer, which continues to be readily seen as the album closes with "Between the Mountains and the Sea," which begins with Neilson's nasally croon before building into a crushing track that not only wraps up the album, but serves as a one-song story of Senses Fail's career.
While it is being billed as the rebirth of Senses Fail, Renacer feels a little forced by album's end. While Neilson and Trapp felt the obvious pressure to recreate the formula of their band to stay in the spotlight a little longer, there are parts of the album that feel stale and reproduced. Taking cues from what's becoming the popular trend in hardcore, with bands like The Ghost Inside and Stick to Your Guns (both bands Senses Fail has toured with recently), there may be a sense of trend-hopping so the band can stay relevant. The accusation has some merit, but is discredited when considering the risks that Neilson takes on Renacer, relying so heavily on his screams and singing in a different language on "Mi Amor." Though the album could have been a little more consistent, it's clear that if Senses Fail are truly reborn, the new version of themselves appears to be ready to reclaim the spotlight.
The Bottom Line: Renacer is not only a new chapter of Senses Fail, it's a dividing line. Those who have been calling for the band to return to the way they sounded on Let it Enfold You may be sorely disappointed, while fans of the bands heavier work will welcome the new sound with open arms. The band took a huge risk on the album, and more often than not, that risk has paid off. Though there a plenty of bands making music like this right now, very few of them have the talent, bravado, and creativity to pull it off the way Senses Fail can.
Recommended if you Rock: The Ghost Inside's Get What You Give, Norma Jean's The Anti-Mother, Killswitch Engage's The End of Heartache
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