In Hearts Wake Announce In-Store Signings After Storm Derails Album Release Plans

In Hearts Wake

The mighty beating handed out to New South Wales by Mother Nature last week has had unexpected consequences for Byron Bay five-piece metalcore crew In Hearts Wake, who have announced a handful of in-store signing appearances after the region's massive storms heavily damaged the warehouse in which the band were housing pre-shipment copies of new album Skydancer.

Despite delivery of the new LP being unaffected for stores in Western Australia, Tasmania and the northern region of Queensland (and pre-orders, which shipped before the storm), the major east-coast cities of Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney will have the chance to see the band in the flesh when they hit up Rocking Horse Records (Friday, 1 May, 4pm), 24Hundred (2 May, 11am) and Utopia Records (3 May, 2pm) respectively, with Skydancer in tow, to ensure the album makes its promised physical release date as best it can given the circumstances.

"As you're all probably aware, severe storms have damaged large parts of New South Wales in the past week," the band wrote in a statement about the in-stores. "The storms have not only damaged people's lives, homes, workplaces and wreaked havoc on public transport and roads, but the warehouse where our Skydancer CD stock was being stored was also heavily damaged. This means most of the stock wasn't able to ship out to stores around Australia.

"We've been informed that most stores … won't get the record by Friday and may not have it until next week," the band continued. "For anyone who wants a physical copy of the CD, you can still order it online … or for those who prefer heading to record stores, we've organised to come and hang out at stores in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney over the weekend. These stores will all have the record in stock, and we'll be signing stuff and hanging out with everyone who makes the effort to drop by."

Despite the setback, In Hearts Wake have remained in good, somewhat pragmatic, spirits, noting the thematic relevance of both Skydancer and its predecessor, Earthwalker, in terms of both records' underlying message of respecting the natural world.

"It's moments like these that we must surrender to what is, and do our best to make the most out of an unfortunate situation," the band explained. "But, seriously, what better way to admit defeat than for Skydancer to bow down to the power of Father Sky? Kind of ironic, isn't it?

"Just like the massive storms that hit us in the filming for the Breakaway music video, once again we've been rendered helpless to the true power of nature. Let the wild April Skydancer storms serve as a reminder that nature is the ruling force here on Earth!"

In Hearts Wake are scheduled to play at home in Byron this Saturday night, Melbourne in-store and all — see theGuide or check The Music App for more information.

For more details about the in-store appearances, see the event's Facebook page.