The fourth album from In Hearts Wake was always going to be interesting, after the incredible Earthwalker // Skydancer project any follow-up was bound to suffer somehow. How do you follow up a project of such immense proportion? Well a few months ago they brought us Ark.
Now any fans will know that these boys love to play around a single concept for the albums and we were certainly not disappointed here. Ark is a genuinely good album, it has a number of strong tracks musically and lyrically, interesting and well written, with all of the hooks and heaviness one could ever want from a metalcore album. That said there are still moments where I feel that they could have done better or, for want of a better phrase, tried harder
They have continued to branch out and try new things with their music, making it seem almost as if the effort in diversifying was left for the latter end of the album. For me this is where most of the strength in the album is. Don't get me wrong, Nomad is a strong song, but it's not THAT out there and similarly you can't deny that the verse riff in Passage is devastatingly good but the rest of the song lacks something. The reactions of Northlane fans to that bands shift in style was met with a mix of emotions and this could have effected to what degree IHW really started to branch out.
That said, the album does get stronger, from the emotional Arrow onward it seems to change, with the songs really starting to reflect their own message musically. Songs like the resolute Overthrow talk of the defiant truth behind depression, the will to fight and grow as a result of your experiences.
All in all I think that they've done well, not amazing with this album but as I said to begin, it was always going to be hard to top what they had done before. The Earthwalker // Skydancer was definitely something to behold and while Ark is not its predecessors, it won't disappoint.
How does the follow up sit amongst the rest?
Episode 4 of the In Hearts Wake series: 6/10
Top tracks: Passage, Arrow, Overthrow.
Ark was released May 26th 2017 via UNFD:
inheartswake.com/#PURCHASE%20ARK
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