IN THIS MOMENT: Godmode (ALTERNATIVE METAL): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

From the outset, In This Moment has cultivated paradoxes and misunderstandings. Their music is labeled as metalcore, but they've never stopped moving away from it, drawing alternately on alternative metal and electro. Unfairly compared to the female bands such as Butcher Babies, the Americans have, on the contrary, developed a strong identity and a universe that is more interesting than it first appears. While the band merges with its singer, Maria Brink, whose personality as much as obsessions infuse all her art, the other musicians are not content to be mere extras in the service of their charismatic priestess. Guitarist Chris Howorth, in particular, plays an essential role in building this edifice of sound and aesthetics.

With a discography that is enriched by a new album every three years or so, In This Moment has earned the respect of critics and imposed a style, a signature, heavy and carnal, dark and sensual, that it continues to work on, shape and refine. In many ways, "Godmode" follows in the footsteps of its acclaimed predecessor. Its cover, with its central silhouette of Maria, the lascivious Madonna of a new era, echoes that of "Mother", with which this eighth album shares the same religious symbolism. Finally, it ploughs an identical electronic furrow, accentuating its industrial impulses even further ('Sacrifice').

This influence has now been perfectly digested by the Californians developing an almost unhealthy atmosphere which is evident right from the title track, a disquieting opener parasitized by robotic sounds. The drums hammer out a vicious fear and Maria's vocals oscillate between raging madness and troubled languor. This schizophrenia infects the majority of the songs, from 'The Purge', which sees the beauty whisper and scream with equal ease, to 'Sanctify Me', whose emotional beauty is smothered, crushed by a hallucinated anger that borders on dementia.

Unsurprisingly, the singer is on top shape, finding in these indus compositions the ideal setting for her licentious, self-possessed theatricality. However, it's the (deceptively) peaceful moments that provide her most seductive performances, such as 'Skyburner', whose deceptive calm nevertheless conceals a tension that smolders, rumbles but is always contained. Also worthy of mention is the powerfully erotic closing ballad 'I Would Die For You', made for the cinema, and used in the soundtrack of "John Wick: Chapter 4". True to form, In This Moment indulges in cover versions and duets. The first is Bjork's 'Army Of Me', which fits in naturally with her style, while the second, 'Damaged', pairs Maria's vocals with that of Spencer Charnas (Ice Nine Kills).

The whole may seem lacking in nuance, but in truth it teems with multiple details. Between fright and beauty, sin and purity, "Godemode" is a finely crafted record that pulsates with dark modernity. It's a work of its time, imbued with the band's own disturbing climate, which undoubtedly slows down the popular recognition that deserves to be greater, but haloing it with a kind of bizarre flamboyance, an orgiastic excess that definitely makes all its flavor, aggressive and suave. - Official website

IN THIS MOMENT

GODMODE

BMG

ALTERNATIVE METAL