The day Senses Fail's debut album, ‘Let it Enfold you’ was released, I fell in love with the band. Since that day, they’ve slowly gone downhill. And now I'm faced with this?

'Family Tradition' is awful. Especially in comparison to their previous material. Yes, I know their first album was ‘EMO’ (whatever that is) but people have kept saying that the 'EMO' phase was going to die. Well it’s been on it's apparent deathbed for near on five years now! Maybe bands should realise that sticking with their roots is more often than not the best idea, and that the ‘EMO’ 'scene' is still and thriving.
'Family Tradition' has a predictable intro but in a way where we know that everything is about to kick in. Unfortunately, it isn’t quite as powerful as you’d expect or hope for. The clean, delay riff, just isn’t welcome here, and in my opinion somewhat clashes with the rest of the song. The vocals of James Nielsen arrive as so does a droning whine! The melody is boring and depicts no sort of vocal challenges at all. The gritty, ‘my first guitar’ guitar tone at the beginning continues to be used [don’t ask me why] throughout most of the song.

After 'Family Tradition' has dragged itself along for 2 minutes, I cannot wait for the bridge for some hope of a change. It never comes. The bridge is just as tedious as the rest of the song. I’m not sure if it’s meant to sound like that?!? What annoys me the most about 'Family Tradition' is that every single chorus appears to have some form of gang vocals. VERY irritating!
Nothing in 'Family Tradition' seems to make any sense, and kind of makes my head hurt a little too. Overall, a VERY poor effort by a band I used to love and be IN LOVE with.
http://www.myspace.com/sensesfail