We are living in a crazy time right now with events, big and small, being canceled or postponed, and the 2020 concert season is taking a major blow as well. With how the music business has changed over the past couple decades, most bands rely on touring to support themselves and their art. One such band being affected by this pandemic is In This Moment. Their spring headlining tour was set to begin March 24 and run through May. Now the tour has been postponed to a later date, but it was meant to coincide with the release of their latest album Mother, out March 27th via Atlantic/Roadrunner Records. While the tour may be on hold, the album will still be out next week, and if you’re quarantined in your home looking for something to listen to, I highly recommend you give it a listen.
Maria Brink is one of the greatest metal vocalists of her generation and with each album, she and the rest of the band (lead guitarist and co-founder Chris Howorth, bassist Travis Johnson, guitarist Randy Weitzel, and drummer Kent Dimmel) continue to grow and evolve. As a whole, it’s not as thematically cohesive as Ritual or Black Widow, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a great record, it most definitely is and I wasn’t disappointed.
The fourteen-track album opens with a haunting interlude called “The Beginning,” which transitions into a killer cover of Steve Miller’s “Fly Like an Eagle.” While it’s an interesting choice to start the album with a cover, they make the song their own and it works. After another short interlude, “The Red Crusade,” we hear “The In-Between,” the first video and single from Mother. This song is heavy as hell and really feels like it’s a culmination and homage to how they made it to this point in their career, while aiming to move ahead and continue to mature. With “Legacy,” the band dials it back a bit but still continues to be a rocking tune, and Brink’s vocals are clean but still only hints at the power and range she has. The real surprise on the album was yet another cover of the Queen anthem “We Will Rock You.” It’s pretty insane they chose to do this particular song, but Brink isn’t alone. She shares vocals with Lzzy Hale of Halestorm and Taylor Momsen from Pretty Reckless. It’s a pretty epic collaboration, and exciting to hear.
The album takes a drastic turn when we hit the title track “Mother.” Brink delivers one of the best vocal performances of her career on this track, haunting and beautiful. From here on out, the album picks back up with heavy hitters like “As Above, So Below,” “Born in Flames,” “God is She,” and “Holy Man.” “Hunting Grounds” offers up another surprise with Brink trading vocals with Joe Cotela from the band Ded. Their voices compliment one another, and the song is a highlight. “Lay Me Down” has a cool tribal-sounding drum beat that opens the song before it kicks into a heavier Southern-style rock song. The album closes itself off with “Into Dust.” The nearly seven-minute opus is a piano ballad with Brink delivering this really soothing soft vocals. It’s a song to make you think and lose yourself in.
In This Moment never ceases to excite me about music. The songs on Mother don’t always seem like they belong together, but each individual track showcases the band as performers, writers, and once again proves why Maria Brink is one of the top voices in metal today. I can see some fans being divided over the album, but the band delivers not only on their classic sound, but also experiments with different variations, keeping their sound fresh, bold, and poignant.
Own it March 27th. Visit their official website for more info.
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