In This Moment
Blood

A woman shouting like crazy? Now where have I heard that before? Perhaps it's something I've heard in every couple relationship with or without children - married or not - between a man and woman? They don't even have to live together to make this kind of mad screaming come from the woman because if there's anything females are good at it's shouting (especially at men) and this is something In This Moment has taken advantage of and put Maria brink by the microphone. This is the fourth album by this American band and to me this sounds just like any other argument between a man and woman I've heard… and as usual the woman wins.

'Blood' gives us 14 songs and 48 minutes of music where two of the tracks are sort of interludes on 30 and 40 seconds and the opening track is an intro on two minutes. The rest are real songs with very different character and also (unfortunately) a pretty big variation in quality. In This Moment play some sort of melodic extreme metal, heavily influenced by electronic and industrial sub genres and a touch of screamo as well as death metal. My guess is that this isn't telling you anything about how they actually sound as I just mentioned about a million different kinds of music but hopefully you will get the picture in a moment.

The band was started in California in 2005 by already mentioned Maria and the guitarist Chris Howorth. The last album was followed by a few members leaving the band, which leaves Maria and Chris the only members being there from the start. As they've got some new blood in the band for 'Blood' it's an album that has taken a somewhat different form than the previous albums, at least that's my impression after hearing the songs available on the web from their previous releases. 'Blood' is more varied in tempo and form, more songs are calm and relaxed at the same time as more songs has become heavy and hard. The album have acoustic guitars on some of the songs, while some have a heavy electronic influence and other bangs the strings on the bass so heavily it could shake the earth out of rotation from the sun. Maria sings very softly in some songs, while others are so screamy and shouty you almost call the cops for a domestic disturbance issue. You almost expect to see a man fleeing from kitchen equipment and china flying all over the place. I think Maria looks a bit like a sluttier Lady Gaga but she's able to give this band some character with her style of singing and more so than ever on 'Blood'. This is an album with more of everything that has defined the band earlier: it's more electronics, more shouts, more screams, more clear vocals, more heavy guitars, more of an industrial touch, more melodic death… to be honest, it might be too much of everything sometimes and honestly I feel what this album lacks is some structure and discipline. I feel it's a bit all over the place, but... why the hell not?

As I've played this album a few times I feel more and more that the songs I prefer are the slower and calmer ones where they hold back a little bit on the "everything" and doesn't try to do as much in as short period of time as possible as it's a bit more comfortable to hear in the long runs. I'm not saying that there's anything wrong on the heavier, faster and more "gone mad" songs, but after hearing them a few times it's not too different from headache in compacted form. And while I'm complaining it could be the place to mention that I really don't fancy the lyrics either, but that's more of a side point.

The strongest songs on the album are Whore, burn and The Blood Legion in my book, while the worst is the title track that you'll also find in the video below as the band (and especially Maria) seems to have got a collective stroke and completely fucked out of sense as the song consist mostly of mental screaming. The best moments of this album are really good but overall I think this albums have difficulties leaving a more sustaining mark than perhaps being very annoying in the tracks where they really go mental big time. Still, a pretty solid four.

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