There is something prophetic about the Senses Fail title, Life is Not a Waiting Room. Perhaps they are stretching our ability to withstand the same dangerously monotonous, bubble-gum pop sound, intermittently infused with speed metal, one song after another. After about the third song in, I was disparately begging for a changeup that had a little more vitality than what was nourishing me, and that displayed, in the words of Iggy Pop, a "Lust for Life". Now, if that seems unduly harsh, it's because I came into this album with great expectation. With a song from the Senses Fail soundtrack slated to appear in the movie Punisher: War Zone, due out 12 December, I had an amplified expectation of their recently released album.

Senses Fail is a hybrid musical-mash up of Blink 182 meets Perfect Circle, meets Linkin Park meets Green Day framed in the dreaded pop-cycle rotation. There is a metallic, screaming, alternative tension that teeters on boredom in this album that is never quite reconciled. I mean that in the nicest way. My favorite track, "Wolves at the Door" probably most signifies this combustion. The initial implosion of sound is unsettling and stunning, and then without warning, the passion seems to drain out and ends on a flat note. It's like listening to Rage Against the Machine without the rage.

The hard-edge discordant intensity that is kicking around "Lungs Like Gallows", which incidentally starts off instrumentally reminiscent of Metallica's "Ride the Lightening," seems to exert an awful lot of noticeable effort. "Four Years" does offer a rhythmic drive in that overexposed punchy-pop kind of way punctuated by moments of raw intensity that seems to categorize this album. Rather disingenuously, as if to reiterate their creative lyrical genius, the verse, "wake-up, you're sleeping behind the wheel," a brilliant catchy-little refrain, echoes in both "Four Years" and "Yellow Angels". Whether producer Brian Mcternan intended to thread this statement so pointedly or as an afterthought still rattles my brain. I must admit, I prefer the rendition in "Yellow Angels" over the former. So we could save a little bit of repetitiveness by dropping "Four Years" entirely from the CD and call it a good edit. I'm just saying.

Before I get accused of being a cruel reviewer, James "Buddy" Nielsen is a prolific songwriter. He has an irrefutable talent to create narratives and exceptionable insight into the inner-workings of the mind as evidenced by his genuinely hard-hitting lyrics. The backdrop of the bands' musical talent is flawless. Without a doubt, Senses Fail will find a home in Hollywood's big screen commercial play; "Chandelier" and even "Blackout" have that mainstream movie sound to them. I just don't hear a single in this new release.