Hard rock, as a genre, has been in decline for a while now. While offshoots such as hardcore have flourished, big rock music with mainstream appeal has vanished. Personally, I blame Creed. It seems like ages since I’ve heard a great album by a hard rock band who unashamedly write anthems handcrafted to reach the back of the arena.

But from the opening riff of first song, “New Fire,” Our Graceful Words proves to be just that. Sent By Ravens do a great job of assimilating influences like heavier forms of metal and hardcore into their sound, but there’s no doubt that these are songs tailored for radio play (in a perfect world). On the few occasions that this band do falter, it’s down to vocalist Zach Riner veering a little too close to Nickelback territory in his vocal delivery. Thankfully, those moments are few and far between. Our Graceful Words is one of the better efforts in this genre in a long time.

Four out of five stars.