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In This Moment: Blood
 In This Moment have regularly kept their sound fresh by making sure they add some new elements to their metalcore attack with each new release. Their latest CD Blood continues with that trend, this time adding a healthy dose of electronica and industrial flavors to their sound. The 'face' of the band, vocalist Maria Brink, tosses in her usual mix of angelic crooning, maniacal screaming, and tortured gothic, but what's lacking here is anything really 'heavy', which for sure will disappoint loyal fans of the band.
Many of the tracks on Blood are swimming in electronica, which lessens any power the guitar riffs would have had, and Brink is all over the place stylistically, pretty much in every song. Tunes like "Blood", "Whore", "Burn", and "Comanche" just don't work, as the overabundance of spacey, techno styled synth blathering and Brink's schiztophrenic vocal performace makes for a very strange and often unsettling listening experience. The band seems like they can't decide if they want to be In This Moment, Otep, Nine Inch Nails, or Fear Factory here. "The Blood Legion" is a perfect example of a song that could have been decent, with its soaring keys, catchy melodies, and Brink's gorgeous clean vocals, but then she ruins it with some forced screams that just don't fit.
Despite some decent moments, this one is all over the place, and not necessarily in a good way. At this point in their career, In This Moment needs to figure out who exactly they want to be, but there's no indication here that they've discovered that as of yet.
Track Listing
1. Rise with Me
2. Blood
3. Adrenalize
4. Whore
5. You're Gonna' Listen
6. It Is Written
7. Burn
8. Scarlet
9. Aries
10. From The Ashes
11. Beast Within
12. Comanche
13. The Blood Legion
14. 11:11
Added: August 24th 2013
Reviewer: Pete Pardo
Score:  
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 2223
Language: english
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In This Moment: Blood
Posted by Steven Reid, SoT Staff Writer on 2013-08-23 18:57:16
My Score:
If rock and metal music is still, after all these years, meant to court controversy, then In This Moment and their front-woman Maria Brink are doing a good job. An in your face sexually charged image, lyrics that could either be seen as empowering, or worryingly submissive and band break ups and spats all being the stuff that makes the In This Moment world go round. Blood is their fourth album and crucially it continues a journey that has refused to repeat or stagnate and while that has seen fans and critics jump on and off the popularity poll, it does make a pleasant change from the countless run of the mill genre imitators constantly bombarding us with "their" music.
Not to downplay the parts of original guitarist Chris Howorth and recent recruits Tom Hane on drums, Travis Johnson on bass and Randy Weitzel rhythm guitar, In This Moment is the Maria Brink show and without her their steady rise towards mainstream success in the US would never have happened. It is easy to see and hear why, with the chanteuse capable of sugary pop vocals, shrieking screams of pain and pleasure and throaty harsh rasps that surprise by being so powerful. Add to that skin tight leather outfits that leave little and lots to the imagination and lyrics that must arouse the interest of teen (who am I kidding? And older) males in more ways than one and Brink is shrewd, uncompromising and manipulative in exactly the way needed (rightly or wrongly) to make a go of it in this industry.
So where does that leave Blood? Well actually in truth album number four finds ITM dipping into the well marked Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson, employing what we used to call Industrial Metal ideals and wrapping them in more snazzy, strut worthy clothes. For the main it works a treat, with the merest hint of symphonic bombast and Rammstein brashness behind much of what is going on, providing a surprising amount of melody even when the unadventurous drums clatter and bash for all they're worth.
"You're Gonna Listen" sums up much of what is good on this album, while also revealing its issues. A simple memorable chorus gnawing into the memory from the off as the guitars grate and grind in a way that would please Rob Zombie, but also revealing an all encompassing more is more ethos which infuses just about every second of this album. Something which results in Brinks going full on nearly all the time and actually lessening the impact. Add to that the likes of the short atmospheric "It Is Written", which closes with the whispered words 'fuck me now' and it becomes hard to escape the feeling that this album isn't just sex and shock at all cost.
However then take into account the sense rush that is "Adrenalize" or brooding scald of "Burn" and proof is also in abundance that when they hit the nail on the head In This Moment do so with ferocious force. As ever for this band some will see the latest twisting turn in style as a step too far, others will embrace it enthusiastically. Lyrically however opinions are likely to be even more split, some (myself possibly included) finding them too intentionally contrived, others lapping them up eagerly. Either way, In This Moment aren't going away and aren't about to bow to pressure and Blood is all the better for it....almost.
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