What a deceptively beautiful beginning to what is frankly In Hearts Wake’s most gnarly release to date. Ark, their fourth full-length album, lives and breathes with an ebb and flow of bold melodies and purposeful lyrics.
Written in support of the band’s involvement with Tangaroa Blue for the We Are Waterborne Initiative, during which In Hearts Wake are leading a series of clean-ups along some of the most polluted waterways on the east coast of Australia, Ark follows the band’s style of releasing environmentally charged music aimed at creating awareness around important issues. It’s a mantra that does great credit to the group’s level of commitment to the state of our world.
The Byron Bay metal maestros waste no time in ripping ears to shreds – after the peaceful ambience of opener ‘Ark’, ‘Passage’ breaks out to tear us a new one. A tsunami of metal crashes down from the word ‘go’, leaving the listener with no choice but to give In Hearts Wake their full attention for the entirety of the album.
Ark provides a very real soundtrack to those issues most often overlooked, with In Hearts Wake creating the perfect metaphor for the potential catastrophes mankind may be subjected to without action.
Ark is out Friday May 26 through UNFD.
