Buddy Nielsen and company return and dive deep into personal exploration with their sixth full album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ivuL3lYBB4
https://vimeo.com/131836944
Text Review:
Adding too many elements to your style can sometimes over complicate the final result. When making a good soup sometimes only three or four ingredients can make everything work, while overloading the broth will overwhelm your senses. The same principle can be said for music.
So when you add elements of hardcore, punk, emo, and anything else that fits the mood – it can sometimes confuse the listener. Senses Fail is one of the few bands that have a successful record of throwing in different musical styles and creating a quality result.
Although there have been maybe lineup changes and the only remaining constant is Buddy Nielsen, Pull the Thorns From Your Heart marks the 6th full album under the Senses Fail name and with it comes an extremely introspective dive into Buddy Nielsen’s life. In a quote online, Nielsen said that: “This record (referring to the album) is the complete documentation of my transformative spiritual experience from the darkness to the light…I want this record to be more than just words and music but a blueprint for how through contemplative practice you can come love, grow and blossom out of the muck of life and into the light. It is not intended to motivate in steps or exact teachings but empower. It is above all a personal story of struggle and realization.”
From an explanation like that and an album title like Pull The Thorns From Your Heart you can easily sense that you are about to hear a personal story in many different expressions. Combined with the track list of titles that deny any subtlety, it’s easy to see that a lot of personal experience was put in.
Back in April a music video was released for The Importance of the Moment of Death. This song is the demonstration of the hardcore style that Senses Fail is capable of and has been known for in the past.
The chorus is what stands out as Buddy Nielsen’s personal message. Hearing him scream “I want to believe” is a great example of his earlier quote about the album being a personal story of struggle and realization. The drum work is excellent and keeps a deep rhythm, but the bridge and guitar feedback is what derails the song and can cause the listener to be taken out of the moment.
It’s that disjoint in the second half of the song that represents a problem when trying to combine so much into one song. In order to incorporate so much emotionally along with different styles of music and having it all flow, you sometimes need time to stretch things out and make sure the flow feels natural.
The hardcore sound is something that Senses Fail knows how to do well, even if doesn’t always come across in every song. There are several examples of when Senses Fail get more melodic on this album where the quality starts to stand out.
While songs like Moment of Death and The Three Marks of Existence try to get their point across in the hardcore scene, tracks like Wounds and Surrender slow things down and in my opinion work much better on this album. Whether it’s because of the subject matter or just the pacing, these melodic tracks come off cleaner and more memorable.
While you can hear the passion and energy in these songs there is a rough transition from track to track. It doesn’t offer much time or environment to get into each mood. As a result it comes off as a list of songs as opposed to a complete album. Although the lyrics are a huge reflection of Buddy Nielsen’s self-realization, it’s hard to connect when there are so many rough transitions.
Sometimes when you listen to an album that doesn’t completely win you over, you can still ask if the pros outweigh the cons. In this case, do the songs that come out loud or melodic in a good way outnumber the songs that come off boring or unmemorable? In this case, the positive just barely outweighs the bland. For every track that comes across fluidly, there is another that is lost in the shuffle.
Overall, Pull the Thorns From Your Heart undeniably sounds personal, but also does not leave much of a lasting effect. Senses Fail is a name that has stood on its own merit for years now and should satisfy longtime fans, but casual hardcore and rock fans may be looking for something more memorable.
