Music is routinely used as an avenue to either express one’s feelings or to make sense of them. Oftentimes used as a crutch in our darkest of hours, it’s safe to say music has helped countless people crawl out of their lowest of lows, both through listening and writing

Buddy Nielsen, frontman and last remaining original member of post-hardcore powerhouse Senses Fail, was confronted with a very serious challenge with the birth of his child, which put his wife’s health in legitimate danger. It’s also forced him to confront the very idea of death, even more so considering his four-year-old daughter would often ask about it.

Hell Is In Your Head (Pure Noise) is Senses Fail’s eighth and arguably most impactful album. The record is rife with metaphors drawing from nature; the lyrical content is chillingly blunt and insightfully provocative. Harsh vocals come at a mighty premium but emerge at the most perfect of times, representing the inner struggles of not only Nielsen but all who are listening. It’s best evidenced on ‘Death By Water,’ which additionally delivers the line, “I left my heart inside the ocean of you”.

It’s honestly a godlike ask to name a standout song. Take your pick of elegantly emotive compositions. ‘Miles To Go’ touches heavily on global warming (‘The world’s on fire and the president’s a liar’) while simultaneously speaking for every single one of us in 2022: “Some days I can barely brush my fucking teeth”.

The crown jewel of Hell… is how much weight the basic lyrics carry. It’s resembles allowing your friend to raid your pantry and them coming back with a five-course, Michelin-star-rated meal. ‘The Fire Sermon’ especially bombards the sensitivity gland: “Today’s the anniversary of the day you should’ve been born”; “How do I bury someone that I never even got to know?”

The screams find a second wind in the final four songs, and the blunt reminder that “The older I get, the harder it gets” (‘Hell Is In Your Head’) is precisely the brutal honesty everyone needs to hear this far into uncertainty, unrest and unbelievable world events that seem never to relent.

But Nielsen knows that just as well as anyone else, and for him to lay his heart and soul out on the table for our consumption is as admirable as it is motivating.

Buy the album here: https://sensesfail.merchnow.com/

9 / 10

MATT COOK