The latest incarnation of Byron Bay metalcore band In Hearts Wake is called just that, their sixth album is called Incarnation. It’s a new look for the band, with bass player and clean vocalist Kyle Erich recently departing the band to settle into family life, departing with the track “Farewell”.
The clip for that song shows the band running him over and saying “It’s dead now”, before changing the channel to the next track “Hollow Bone”, which was the preview single for this album.
Before we get to that point, we open with “Spitting Nails” which starts at a blistering pace and doesn’t slow down from there. “Hollow Bone” starts with a bouncy entrance before the blistering pace continues. As mentioned, the band treated the departure of their long-time clean singer as a death of sorts, and used actual bones as part of the percussion
The new album is described by vocalist Jake Taylor as “the shadow counterpart and sequel to the band’s debut album Divination”. Having already completed a double album with Earthwalker and Skydancer, 12 years is a lot more time to work on something rather than 12 months.
In those 12 years, the band have been extremely busy, touring relentlessly both in Australia and overseas. The Decade of Divination tour last year was a success, following up appearances on festivals both in Australia and overseas. Touring mates have included Northlane, Like Moths to Flames, The Amity Affliction, Alpha Wolf and Byron Bay neighbours Parkway Drive. The relentless touring has built their fanbase, with 2020’s Kaliyuga reaching #3 in the ARIA charts and all of the follow-ups to Divination reaching the top 5.
“The Flood” includes news footage from Australian news programs and the major call “Outlive, Outlast!”, while “Orphan” continues the high-speed attack. With the departure of Erich, it seems the band has opted to limit the clean singing options and in this go for a less formulaic sound.
Many of the songs delve into environmental themes, which the band has regularly shown support for, organising beach clean-ups and soundtracking their own movie, Green is the New Black.
Forest spirit Shishigami from Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke gets a mention in the track of the same name, the heavy track representing this spirit of life and death. Where many bands in the metalcore genre look to be heading for a lighter angle in search of catchy hits, In Hearts Wake has gone the other way, offering a torrent of relentless heaviness.
Like Divination, each song represents a tarot card. The band has set up a website with various features including early access to new material and behind the scenes clips that explain some of the connections.
With 11 tracks on each album, they have completed the set of 22 tarot cards. Byron Bay and surrounds have a large supply of tarot card readers, so the band would not have had to look far for inspiration regarding the tarot cards.
“Michigama” is a bit of a forgettable track, going for some hip-hop elements and ending up sounding like a discarded track from Machine Head’s Supercharger. “Shellshock” brings back in the clean vocals and the final track “Transmission” is a last reflection on death – “Where do I listen for my transmission?”
The band will embark on a farewell tour with Kyle Erich in September before moving on to their next steps. Incarnation is a strong showing from the band and will please fans of bands like Parkway Drive and The Ghost Inside.
In Hearts Wake: Facebook
Release Year: 2024
Label: UNFD
Category: Album
Country: Australia
Reviewed by Daniel Boyle
