Album Review: In Hearts Wake - Earthwalker

Yet another standout Aussie metalcore act in a long line of domestic heavy progression, In Hearts Wake have chosen to make a powerful and positive statement with their second record, Earthwalker. It's a brave release – one that encourages you to think about the life you live and the changes you can make. This could have come across as preachy in lesser hands, but the Byron Bay five-piece have balanced their message with soaring slabs of world-class heaviness, so even those that don't want to listen will be forced to stand up and take notice.

The band have raised their game across the board: breakdowns add to songs rather than interrupt them, textures and layers don't come from clichés, while the scream/clean vocal balance is on the money throughout. And when the band get experimental with their guitar work – the aquatic background soloing on Divine and the fist-raising riffs of Afterglow for example – the album really shines.

If you hadn't picked up on the record's overarching theme already (and if that's you then go home, you're drunk), closing ode, Mother makes the ideals of this album crystal clear: “The blood that courses through your veins/Is like the sap that courses through the trees.” What we walk on is far bigger than us, yet that idea can be forgotten in our hectic day-to-day. It's nice to be reminded of where we stand in the greater scheme of things, without having opinions jammed directly down our throats.