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ALBUM REVIEW: "Ark" by In Hearts Wake

   In Hearts Wake have returned with a follow up to the two part Duality project, Earthwalker and Skydancer, with Ark, another collection of generally by the numbers metalcore tunes with a socially and environmentally conscious message. The band's first album from 2012, Divination, was and still is my favourite album from the Byron Bay quintet, and unfortunately Ark continues the downward trend they have been on since their blistering debut. It's not necessarily that they have been getting worse, it's simply that they haven't moved forward noticeably since Divination. This wasn't a massive problem for Earthwalker, because it was their second album and they were still riding on the mildly interesting concept album thing they had going, but it was a watered down replication of Divination. After a couple of listens through Skydancer, the surprise second part to Earthwalker, it had become clear to me that the band were rapidly running out of musical ideas. You can only play the same pit-call-followed-by-breakdown sequence so many times and keep my interest. While Ark is definitely a big step up from the very average Skydancer, it's still incredibly derivative for the majority of its runtime. After a third completely unnecessary and boring opening build up track in a row, "Passage" gave me hope of something with more substance and innovation. Jake Taylor's vocals are typically powerful and deep, and the first breakdown is surprisingly effective, transitioning into the kind of fist-pumping chorus In Hearts Wake provide frustratingly infrequently. "Nomad" is also really solid, and it's an opening pair on par with "Earthwalker" and "Divine" on Earthwalker. After this solid opening, however, In Hearts Wake stick to the same formula they have across their discography, and if you've heard their other stuff you've heard Ark in some form or another. If you're new to In Hearts Wake or are a complete metalcore fiend you won't find any of this to be an issue - it's a similar case to that of fellow Australians The Amity Affliction; they put the same album out a bunch of times and people have started to catch on. I don't think In Hearts Wake gone that far down the road of self-plagiarism just yet, but in two years time they definitely need to give us something startlingly different is they want to avoid it completely. Like I said earlier, though, it's a huge step up from Skydancer and substantially better than Earthwalker on the whole. It seems more fleshed out and complete; the longest album of theirs by almost 10 minutes, and has a larger body of actual songs (both Earthwalker and Skydancer had intros, outros and annoying interlude tracks). The guitar tones are more reminiscent of those found on Divination than the sanitised, compressed sounds on the subsequent records, and clean singer Kyle Erich's performance is his best so far, finally shrugging off the nasally whine he had going for a while. The drumming is also more dynamic and punchy, possibly down to a change in drummer between records. Despite these improvements, Ark is still a largely mediocre retread of weary metalcore trends and cliches.

   For Fans Of: In Hearts Wake

   Favourite Tracks: Passage and Nomad.

    Least Favourite Tracks: Warcry, Flow and Elemental.

   Rating: 4/10
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