This is by far the best album from In Hearts Wake since their debut in 2012. Interestingly, ‘Incarnation’ returns to the tarot card theme from ‘Divination.’ Both albums feature 11 songs connected to a different Major Arcana Tarot card, and since there are 22 cards, In Hearts Wake have finally completed their vision for each one.
In a lot of ways, ‘Incarnation’ is a major return to form. The departure of clean vocalist Kyle Erich seems to have actually tightened the band’s sound.
Kyle’s contributions on songs like “Traveller” and “Divine” should not be undersold, but In Hearts Wake isn’t really known for their choruses. Over time, Kyle started to have an oversized role in the band, and the struggle to balance soft and heavy elements became more apparent, especially on ‘Ark.’
This sounds questionable, but I’m going to put it out there and see how it’s received. I think Kyle’s range also somewhat undermined the band’s ability to solidify their identity because some songs had nasally, whiny cleans (see “Lorely”) while others were in a more standard range (see “Warcry”). In the end, the focus on incorporating cleans diluted the band’s overall sound and impacted their ability to craft cohesive, powerful songs. The dynamic worked on their debut album because there were no expectations, but continuing to toe that line was a different story.
‘Incarnation’ might be the heaviest, darkest album from the band yet. Part of the explanation is found in the upside down text of each song title. See, if a tarot card is flipped upside down, it delivers the opposite meaning. So this album is supposed to be the shadow realm, evil twin version of ‘Divination.’
Nevertheless, ‘Incarnation’ has plenty of melody too. “Transmission” is a surprisingly introspective album closer, and the cleans haven’t completely disappeared – screamer Jake Taylor has been singing on recent releases too.
‘Incarnation’ features many of the same guest vocalists that appeared on their 2012 album. Winston McCall (from Parkway Drive) is on “The Flood,” a throwback to his massive 2012 feature on “Departure.” He sounds great here, but unfortunately continues the trend of only having heavy screams on other band’s songs. Why doesn’t Parkway Drive sound like this anymore?
“Michigama” has solid features from For The Fallen Dreams and King 810 (among others), and it’s great to hear Garret Rapp from The Color Morale on “Shellshock.” TCM is supposedly recording new music this year so hopefully we’ll hear more of Garret soon.
As a Halo fan, I also have to point out that “Tyrant” features the “slayer” game mode audio – a clear nod to their 2012 song “Survival” which had the “killing frenzy” breakdown. For me, it really underscored that this album is the spiritual successor to ‘Divination’ and that In Hearts Wake is having fun again. Here’s to hoping that they can run with the success of this album and finally chart a path to the big leagues.
In Hearts Wake // Incarnation
Categories: Reviews
