In This Moment - A Star-Crossed Wasteland Review

In This Moment – A Star-Crossed Wasteland Review

Angry Metal Guy

In This Moment // A Star-Crossed Wasteland
Rating: 1.0/5.0 — Every time you play this record a Metal God dies…
Label: Century Media
Websites: myspace.com/inthismoment
Release Dates: EU: 12.07.2010 | US: 07.13.2010

So I admit, I’ve never heard SoCal pop rockers In This Moment before. This review will be completely devoid of comparisons to their last two records. Nor will it be filled with witty insights into how the band has changed over their time and whether or not this is a darker record (of course, every new record is the darkest, heaviest, etc., that any band has ever done, so trust the bio about as far as you can throw Arnold Schwarzneger). No, this is going to pretty much be a tirade about how much I really don’t like this album at all or the style of music or basically anything about this at all except for Maria’s clean singing voice, which is very good. You are warned. Don’t throw a fit in the comments because I hate your favorite band: I’ve already warned you. If you read past the jump then it’s your own fucking fault.

So wow, In This Moment sucks. This may be the shortest review I ever write because it’s pretty easy to sum up. In This Moment is pop rock, plain and simple. There is nothing even remotely heavy or raw about what they’re doing except for Maria’s screams which are a lot more annoying than heavy most of the time. The riffs are simple nu metal influenced (or I guess hardcore now) riffs that are so simple that they could be played by any breed of ape (not just homo sapiens sapiens) and have been reproduced hundreds of thousands of times before in the basements across America. While there may be a few happy moments of guitar solos or a melody or two that stand out from the herd, for the most part this is totally crap.

The production is fantastic. But I guess, since it’s pop rock there’s not much to comment on there. Though, really, I don’t like the guitar tone at all. It sounds really boxy and weird. But, of course, the vocals are just hyper, hyper, hyper overproduced. I hope this isn’t ’cause Maria can’t sing (’cause then apparently the only thing she offers the band is the ability to be commodified as a porn doll—honestly, when will women in metal be allowed to just be band members and not masturbation objects!?), and has more to do with the fact that the producer (who produced Ozzy and Five Finger Death Punch) is being paid to overproduce this band: so overproduce them he will!

The song writing is banal, contrived and crappy. I was unimpressed with the sappy ballads (“World in Flames”, for example, made me heave up my lunch). I was especially unimpressed with the sappy hardcore screaming love duet (this is not a joke) which popped up on “The Promise”, quite possibly the worst thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life (aside from Sonic Syndicate and Ravage of course—but close!) and because I feel like I have to be fair, I even forced myself through it more than once. Oh, there’s a talky cowboy song, too, which is also just lame and irritating. Holy crap. Talking over music stopped being OK in 1950 when everyone thought it was too cheesy THEN. I’m pretty sure that talking over music is punishable by marriage in some countries! The guitar work is occasionally interesting, but most of the riffs are “chug chug chug chugchugchug” that you expect from this kind of metalcore influenced poo. And then the when they do break out guitar solos, they sound like they belong on a butt rock album (see: sappy ballad “World in Flames”).

The only reason you should buy In This Moment‘s new record is because you want an example of everything that is wrong with the commercial metal in 2010. Honestly, I can’t even understand who listens to this shit. It just drives me completely insane and unlike other annoying records where I can sort of understand the appeal (Mnemic for example), this one I just don’t get. Have at it if it’s your thing, but I would never recommend this to fans of music that actually has any kind of heart, soul or I dunno, shame.

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Tags: 1.0, 2010, A Star-Crossed Wasteland, Butt Rock, Century Media, Cock Rock, Five Finger Death Punch, In This Moment, Maria Brink, Metalcore, Mnemic, Ozzy, Pop Rock, Ravage, Sonic Syndicate

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 at 14:49and is filed under 1.0, 2010, American Metal, Century Media, Cock Rock, Metalcore, Reviews, Stupid Metal Trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Lord Doom

I can’t wait to see the comments on this.

It’s funny how “judging a book by its cover” rings so true with most music, especially metal.
The name told me there was a female fronting the band; the album cover told me that the lyrical and musical themes would be about as metal is a rubber chicken and the photo made me want to personally slap each and every member for having the audacity to masquerade as a “metal” band.

But I guess this is what the kids term “metal” these days… Just ask a snot-nosed, oil-slicked kiddy what “grindcore” is and prepare to weep.
Sarah

I’m dissapointed in the directon this band went, they could’ve continued where their last album left off which had some amazing clean vocals but I guess they need to satisfy those “fans” who were dissapointed with the softer sound.

You should check out The Dream if you think Maria has a good singing voice, there are plenty of great songs there.
Steel Druhm

Best….review…EVA!!!!!
http://thenumberoftheblog.com groverXIII

You listened to this thing? I’m impressed.

I’ve heard ‘The Gun Show’, mainly because I mocked the video for it… I can’t take this band even remotely seriously. They’re like the new generation of nu metal, and they’re not any better than the first generation.
within_darkness

I remember trying to get into this band with their debut album and the best I could take from the follow-up (meaning 3-4 songs). Thanks for sparing me the new effort, if what, I reckon it’d just turn out to be another torture…
sbxx

Seriously you think maria cant sing… ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!! thats all im about to say about this review, this cd is great-kick ass even, go listen for yourselves other than listening to some ex-metalcore 40 year old “fan” reviewer.

http://www.angrymetalguy.com Angry Metal Guy

You’re not very bright, are you? First, I said that she could sing and that she was about the only redeeming quality of the CD and secondly “ex-metalcore” fan reviewer? What? That didn’t even make any sense. Also, I’m not even close to 40.

Scott

Pretty harsh review, and if it’s pop-rock, why isn’t it on the radio? I think this dude just loves to bitch for the sake of bitching. I’m disappointed in some aspects of this record, but I also can appreciate other aspects of it. When there’s shit like Nickelback and Daughtry out there, why rag so hard on a band like this? Do you have the mental capacity to suggest ways they could improve on the next record? Next time write a review we can actually use.

http://www.angrymetalguy.com Angry Metal Guy

Haha, that someone who listens to In This Moment has the balls to accuse me of being too stupid to like their music is classic. I mean, I get when Blind Guardian fans get all up in arms when I bitch about excessive overdubbing and stuff like that, but this is just fucking priceless.

And yeah, what could improve their next record? They could break the fuck up.

Oh yeah, also, in case you forgot: “You are warned. Don’t throw a fit in the comments because I hate your favorite band: I’ve already warned you. If you read past the jump then it’s your own fucking fault.”

lafierose

harsh review is correct the website “angry metal guy” lives up to it’s name. i do agree that the instrumental style is pretty much rehashed instrumental stuff. isn’t that what a lot of music is these days? lol anyways, i bought this album due to: one, i support female singers to the max no matter how bad the music quality is (i do agree with you that female singers need to stop looking like sex objects can’t they wear regular clothes? if they did then they would lose some of the people that follow them). two, sometimes you just need background noise while cleaning, driving, etc. to just keep thing going along. sad to see that it went into the background noise bin. great honest review.

http://www.angrymetalguy.com Angry Metal Guy

Ever read the posts about Cristina Scabbia at Blabbermouth? I think it really gets across what people think about her. As a warm blooded man, it’s hard to deny that she’s a very attractive woman. But she was that before the whole half naked on music magazine covers thing… and now Lacuna Coil has more fans. Blah. It undeniably works, and it’s totally disgusting IMO.

I like bands for the bands they are. And when they have female singers (the late Luna Mortis being a good example) that can rip it up: more power to ‘em. Unfortunately, In This Moment is bad. I’m sorry you spent the money on that CD. Check out the new Djerv, however, you might really dig that. The vocalist from that band has a super cool voice and she’s got real character. On top of that, the music is good.

http://callighan.wordpress.com Callighan

Thank you for such a review. I applaud In This Moment for their fist album. It was aggressive and I liked it. The direction the band went after the 2nd album leaves a lot to be desired. Thank you for clarifying my fears about their 3rd album.
http://www.circumsodomy.com Misanthroat

Nice Review,
I did kinda of like the first album of theirs but really liked the second.

The second was more of a Rock than Metal album and that’s what this band should be… Rock not “Metal”. Her singing in the second was great as it was mostly clean.
Higgz19

Harsh review you may have over exaggerated its flaws for entertainment purposes of the review.
I actually like the album for what it is, its not a classic but it has a few very good tracks, sadly a fair bit of filler as well

http://www.angrymetalguy.com Angry Metal Guy

Me!? Exaggerate!?

Unfortunately, not in this case. This record sucked.

Lisa

Ah, Angry Metal Guy… you never disappoint!
Well, I haven’t heard this album yet but I was amused by your review. I bought the first In This Moment album when it first came out strictly because of Maria, thinking it might be an interesting band with a female singer. I didn’t like it at first but after giving it a few chances I really dug it, even if some of the songs were repetitive. i loved Maria’s harsh vocals way more than the sweet ones, but together they were powerful. I bought their second album hoping for the same treatment but was bored on my first listen. I almost gave the CD away but I still have it, thinking maybe I’ll just give it another listen and one day appreciate it like the first one. This one… I might youtube their new stuff but I think I’ll just appreciate the music from the first CD and wish for nothing more from them. Also, i agree with you 100% about Maria being the sexual focus. I’m annoyed with her comically large breasts and how she constantly has to show them off, along with hiking up her already short dresses to show off her legs. I’m more interested in her tattoos!