{"id":6522,"date":"2012-08-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-08-14T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=6522"},"modified":"2013-06-01T14:23:44","modified_gmt":"2013-06-01T14:23:44","slug":"album-review-in-this-moment-blood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-in-this-moment-blood\/","title":{"rendered":"IN THIS MOMENT – Blood (2012) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

IN THIS MOMENT
Blood<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nCentury Media (2012)<\/span>
Rating: 6\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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There have been many changes in the In This Moment camp since the release of their last album, A Star-Crossed Wasteland<\/em> (2010). With new members in tow (rhythm guitarist Randy Weitzel and drummer Tom Hane), the Los Angeles, California-based band embark upon the release of Blood<\/em>, their fourth album and also their most confusing. An album that\u2019s prone to wander, Blood<\/em>, is one of those albums that takes some patience when trying to uncover its sweet spots. <\/p>\n

For the new album, the band seems to be going for a more crossover sound, but not in a commercial rock way (as they did with 2008\u2019s The Dream<\/em>). There are a handful of tunes here that are electro-effect tinged and it really draws you away from the song.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m a big fan of incorporating these elements but the band\u2019s use of them on songs like \u2018Whore\u2019 and the title track come off about as generic as they possibly could. While the title track attempts to get pretty damn heavy, the effects constantly disrupt the flow and the guitars come off sounding like an 80s industrial experiment. It\u2019s even more of a shame on this particular song because vocalist Maria Brink turns in one of her best vocal performances since the band\u2019s 2007 debut, Beautiful Tragedy<\/em>. \u2018Whore\u2019 has a near hip hop beat behind it that makes it catchy and cringe-worthy all at once, leaving much to be desired.<\/p>\n

The album\u2019s end \u201811:11\u2019 and the interludes \u2018Aries\u2019 and \u2018It Is Written\u2019 are as pointless as they come, simply filling up space and disrupting any momentum the band may have hoped to achieve. It\u2019s a bit annoying to hear one of the best of the new wave of rock bands bogged down by these things. <\/p>\n

The album\u2019s good does manage to outweigh the bad though. \u2018You\u2019re Gonna Listen\u2019 is a blistering assault as well as one of the few instances where the effects enhance the song. The power balladry of \u2018Scarlet\u2019 is a huge arena anthem that Brink\u2019s lyrics pull back into the cold reality that drew legions of fans to this band in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u2018Comanche\u2019 is a heavy, similar to Otep, style pummeling that predictably echoes \u201cLet me hear your war cry!\u201d<\/em> over and over. This is similar to what the band tried to do with \u2018The Gun Show\u2019 on A Star-Crossed Wasteland<\/em>, only they nail it on this one. I\u2019m very confused as to why this song doesn\u2019t open the album and I sincerely hope that the band is opening with it live though. Despite musically nailing it though, it\u2019s more than a little lyrically cheesy.<\/p>\n

The eerie \u2018The Blood Legion\u2019 is another moment where the effects offer something interesting, taking a mediocre song and helping it soar, eventually becoming one of the most memorable tracks on the album on repeated listens. <\/p>\n

Overall, Blood<\/em>, like its predecessor, gets off to a very slow and very uninteresting start but picks up about mid-album. If you took \u201811:11\u2019 off the album, it would finish very strongly as a matter of fact. This seems to me to be a very crucial time in the band\u2019s career as they now have two albums in a row that fail to meet the standards they set on their first two albums. Blood<\/em> is enjoyable when In This Moment go all out and play to their commercial side and hard to swallow when they try to stay on top of the current trends. <\/p>\n

Mark Fisher<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IN THIS MOMENTBlood Century Media (2012)Rating: 6\/10 There have been many changes in the In This Moment camp since the release of their last album, A Star-Crossed Wasteland (2010). With new members in tow (rhythm guitarist Randy Weitzel and drummer Tom Hane), the Los Angeles, California-based band embark upon the release of Blood, their fourth […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,328],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-in-this-moment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6522"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12024,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6522\/revisions\/12024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}