In Hearts Wake reveal new album 'KALIYUGA' and drop 'Son of a Witch' single

In Hearts Wake fully pull the sheet off their new record, 'KALIYUGA,' with a new single too. 

Following the recent release of the band's intriguing and content-packed interactive website, The House Of Kali, In Hearts Wake today announce that their fifth record, 'KALIYUGA,' is out August 7th via UNFD, with all physical copies being made from recycled materials to help carbon offset the records footprint. In Hinduism, ‘Kali Yuga’ is the last of four stages that the world goes through as part of what’s described in Sanskrit scriptures as the ‘cycle of yugas’, with the “Kali” meaning “strife” and “discord.” If that doesn't best summarise the state of the world currently then I don't know what does.

Directed by vocalist Jake Taylor and animated by Flock London, the cartoonish, painted music video style for 'Son Of A Witch' carries with it a clear Mother Earth message about not learning from our past mistakes and our gross mistreatment of the planet. A theme that's truly par for the course for their usual lyricism. Similarly, even after the '90s riffs, breakbeats, larger King 810 groove vibes, and heavier deathcore undertones of 'Worldwide Suicide,' 'Son of a Witch' is also very par for the course for the metalcore quintet's key formula, sadly feeling like a retread on any new and interesting ideas.

The clean vocal parts from bassist/singer Kyle Erich that act as the songs core hook have this odd doubled-up, self-harmonizing and slightly tuned sound to them, feeling a little out of place with the direction in which In Hearts Wake seem to be moving in now. Also on the vocals, whilst Jake's screams sound more like that of Corey Taylor's with each new song, and his semi-rapped parts of "So back up, back up. Listen and learn." here make the song feel a little embarrassing instead of the emboldening power that it feels like it should instill me with.

Elsewhere, the bridge and subsequent breakdown part of "you walk through fire but you never learn, I'm the son of a witch you failed to burn" hits fuckin' hard, and the busier melodic guitars and harmonics and the under-current of synthesizers are cool, yet the song's more straight-forward metalcore set-up leaves a lot to be desired after how different and surprising 'Worldwide Suicide' was for the group's sound. Leaving me to think that 'KALIYUGA' will be actually be mixed bag LP of the new and old for IHW, making my excitement for it suddenly much milder following the shock of their previous single.

Your mileage may vary, check out 'Son of a Witch' below: