80%
To me, In Hearts Wake have always seemed like also-rans in the popular metalcore genre. You know the type: not bad, just not good enough to really stand out, unlike some of their contemporaries both here and overseas. After the amicable departure of their clean vocalist Kyle Erich prior to the recording of this album, the rest of the band are determined to make the average punter stand up and finally pay them the attention they deserve.
Wasting no time going about proving the slimmer line up has bite, Spitting Nails (also with the upside down title ‘Wheel Of Fortune’, I won’t be typing nothing upside down…) has In Hearts Wake get straight to the business of heavy, while missing none of the vocal melodies that this genre typically demands.
This is eagerly shown again on the follow up Hollow Bone that has the band collectively singing the more melodic parts of the track whilst keeping their new found bite well intact. And if you want even more bite, you got it. Incarnation is coated in venom, but none more so than The Flood in which vocalist Jake Taylor trades barbs with Parkway Drive’s Winston McCall, creating a track heavier than most heavier things from a band that hasn’t quite sounded this volatile or ready to take over the biggest world stages until now.
From here IHW spend little time fluffing pillows and more time smacking you around the ears with a piece of sustainable timber. There is little let up in the musical assault, and the very small impasses where they relax are welcome change in the formula, making it feel like the freshest thing they’ve ever put together.
If you avoided this band based on the generic nature of their output, now is the time to start again, they have everything to prove and are leaving it all out there.
