In Hearts Wake are the latest metalcore band to breakout from Australia, a country responsible for some of the best bands in the genre. With their second album In Hearts Wake want to deliver more than just a good metalcore album but instead have tried to create an album that will encourage the listener to think about the environment and where we stand in the bigger picture. The band have even gone as far as go carbon neutral with this album by planting a tree for every copy that was preordered. This might sound a bit pretentious to some but it is nice to see a metalcore have a strong message behind their music that they truly believe in.
Unfortunately the rest of the album isn’t as strong as the message behind the music. There’s nothing particularly bad about Earthwalker but at the same time very little really stands out either. The album is full of everything you’d expect to hear on a metalcore album in 2o14: chugging riffs, screamed vocals during the verses while soaring melodies take over on the chorus and lots of breakdowns. If there was a checklist for what to include when writing a metalcore album then In Hearts Wake would have ticked every box. This safe approach to song writing means things get boring pretty quickly on Earthwalker.
One of the albums few major strength’s is the vocal performances by Jake Taylor whose screams are consistently impressive and bassist Kyle Erich who provides the album with some of it’s catchiest moments such as the chorus to the title track. Their performances combined with the impressive lyrics are easily the best thing about Earthwalker. It’s unfortunate that the rest of the album happens to be so unoriginal making it difficult to recommend Earthwalker over some of the other fantastic metalcore albums released this year so far.
In Hearts Wake’s Earthwalker is out now via UNFD.
