The rating is not a typo or a fan-boy handout.

Senses Fail unleashed one of the most surprising albums of 2006, “Still Searching.” The album proved to be a giant step forward for the band as an enormous improvement over its disappointing debut album.

The band manages to keep the momentum going on the surprisingly fantastic “Life Is Not a Waiting Room,” which can’t help but be compared to the previous release. The band finally mastered the ability to write lighter-sounding tones without coming off like it’s doing it to appeal to a wider audience.

Now the band does it because it works with the song. The band members demonstrate how they learned from their mistakes on the single-worthy tracks “Lungs Like Gallows,” “Garden State,” “Family Tradition” and “Chandelier.”

As a result, Senses Fail released the best post-hardcore album of 2008 – so far.

Former Midtown guitarist Heath Saraceno brought a lot to the table on the last album and now sounds more comfortable playing in a post-hardcore band.

“Hair of the Dog” is the standout track on the album, featuring a beautiful melody and excellent use of delay effects.

Angels and Airwaves: listen to this song. You guys are doing the delay thing wrong.

As far as criticisms go, none of the tracks stand out as genre-defining works and the album lacks the central-theme focus that helped the previous album, which was about a man committing suicide via rooftop jump.

The underlying themes about losing faith in one’s religion and resorting to binge drinking to deal with depression gave “Still Searching” a lasting appeal that fans could easily miss even after a dozen listens.

The band receives its fair share of condoning critics due to Buddy Nielsen not being the best vocalist and the other band members not being the greatest instrumentalists on the scene.
However, Senses Fail is a band with a lot of heart. The band keeps pushing itself to write better music and is constantly improving.

“Life Is Not a Waiting Room” is just a taste of what is to come from this band.

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