In This Moment is a melodic metalcore band, first known from their debut album “Beautiful Tragedy”. The band tries to explore different musical territories and in every new album release they try to give the fans something new and fresh to listen to. Their fourth release, “Blood”, again with producer Kevin Churko (Five Finger Death Punch, Ozzy Osbourne), is not an exception.
There are a lot of industrial and electronic influences in this album which is something new for the band. Although the album tries to catch your attention, it fails on the way. I find the instrumentation of the album disappointing. The melodies of the songs where forgettable and bland along with the too much for nothing aggressiveness some songs have, while the radio rock guitar riffs that accompany most songs have nothing much to say. The strong asset of the band, vocalist Maria Brink, is doing an amazing work with the clean and melodic vocals during the verses until the time of the screaming in the choruses. I found her screaming the most annoying in this album. Their tonality didn’t sound right; they were harsher than before and were pointlessly located during the songs just to make them sound more aggressive. The lyrics on the other hand are juvenile, the topics of the lyrics vary from sex, to break ups, to masochism, they make no real meaning and most of the songs in this album have a sexual undertone, while Brink has fully embraced her sex symbol icon, singing in the title track “Blood”: ‘I’m a dirty, dirty girl, I want it filthy’. They were couple of songs to be noticed like “You Are Gonna Listen” that even features a solo in the end and “Scarlet”, which is more melodic and begins in a smooth way to end with the dynamic vocals from Maria catching up.
This is an album that will either be loved for its ‘unique’ sound or be hated because of it. You should give it a try and decide for yourselves, especially if you are already a fan of the band.
Track List | Line Up | 01. Rise With Me 02. Blood 03. Adrenalize 04. Whore 05. You’re Gonna Listen 06. It Is Written 07. Burn 08. Scarlet 09. Aries 10. From The Ashes 11. Beast Within 12. Comanche 13. The Blood Legion 14. 11:11 |
Maria Brink: lead vocals , piano Chris Howorth: lead guitar, backing vocals Travis Johnson: bass Tom Hane: drums Randy Weitzel: rhythm guitar |