Powerful hardrock and metal band, In This Moment, are back in 2014 with heavy mainstream release Black Widow.  The follow up album to Blood, is a mix of different modern metal sounds with extreme attitude.  In This Moment and lead vocalist Maria Brink infuse hard rock with poppy hooks, feminist attitude, heavy breakdowns, and melodic vocals with a scream edge.  Blood also incorporated more techno and poppy sounds, blending two genres in a very unique way.  No doubt there is no band out there quite like In This Moment, and there is nothing out there like their new album Black Widow.

Black Widow has parallels with Blood, but even more attitude and darkness as well as completely new sounds to the band.  It is clear the band is going for a mainstream sound, integrating a rap rock and Korn style sound to the new album.  They also have tracks that are similar to “The Gunshow” and the entirety of Star-Crossed Wasteland.  There is something more shocking and gripping about this album than previous In This Moment releases.  I can say honestly this album is heavily targeted towards women empowerment and feminist themes.  Obviously Maria Brink is very active in female expression and it has clearly steered their music in new direction.  Regardless if you like these themes or not, there is an artistic quality that makes the music desirable.   This album is also themed around old film, having this horror movie feel to it.  Black Widow is reminiscent of Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson as well.

Every track from “Sex Metal Barbie”  to “Infection” to “Big Bad Wolf” is extremely catchy and dark, with beats easy to dance to and words easy to sing along with.  These songs are audibly written for shock rock live performances, having an attitude to pull the audience in and memorize them.  Then there’s completely new and gripping tracks like “Sick Like Me” and “Sexual Hallucination”.  “Sick Like Me” is an epic, dark, melodic anthemic track that is undoubtedly one of their best tracks yet.  “Sexual Hallucination” is a power ballad featuring Shinedown’s power house frontman, Brent Smith.  This track is reminiscent of “The Promise” with the dark and gloomy weight and melodic bursting vocals from two different vocalists.  “Bloody Creature Poster Girl” is a really different track with this traditional pop sound, blended with a couple growls and heavy instrumentation.

Black Widow continues to surprise with a piano ballad with a dark Jazz sound never heard before in the track “The Fighter”.  This track features Maria Brink’s amazingly powerful vocals in a stripped down and unedited way.  It is a much needed track on this very poppy album.  “Bones” is a darker melodic track, staying with the poppy theme of the album, but adding a Five Finger Death Punch like heaviness.  If all the tracks were similar to “Bones”, “Sick Like Me”, and “Sexual Hallucination”, I would still label the album as metal and not pop rock however.  “Natural Born Sinner” is poppy and heavy like Blood, reminiscent of “Whore” and “Comanche”, containing a slow and dramatic build up with aggression.  This track is definitely rebelling against religious figures and themes, a newer influential subject to In This Moment’s writing.  The emotion definitely carries it beyond the actual instrumentation.  Maria Brink still has one hell of a voice and that’ll never change.  “Into The Darkness” is a disturbing and gut wrenching interlude that solidifies the women empowerment theme to it.  It tackles the subject of self doubt and inner demons, featuring a sobbing Maria, making it really difficult to listen to.  It is moving to say the least.

“Out Of Hell” begins with a beautiful piano intro and soft emotive vocals, reminiscent of the brilliant sound achieved with “World in Flames” of The Dream.  This is by far one of the best songs In This Moment has ever put on an album.  This track is a much needed artistic track on the album.  “Turn You” and “Rib Cage” are back to the Blood sound, bringing the metal and hardrock back to In This Moment’s prized sound.  These two tracks are good, but do not stand out compared to other tracks on the album.  I expected a more epic closing track to Black Widow, but it seems to end as quickly as it began.

Overall, Black Widow tends to be very disjointed and all over the place, lacking a consistent sound to pull the the album together.  The beginning of the album is very shock rock and rap rock themed, while the middle contains a power ballad and more pop-like songs, and the last four tracks tend to be a throwback to In This Moment’s melodic hard rock sound.  It sounds like the band are caught in a limbo of mainstream radio and 2000s metal.  It’s a different direction for the band, and overall they pulled it off well.  However, the first few tracks on the album are terribly executed and have no catching qualities to them.  I could’ve done without some of the songs on the album, because they just don’t fit with the other tracks.  I liked a lot of tracks on the album, but the shock rock direction of the band is demeaning and dumbing down their sound.  Maria Brink is too vastly talented to waste time with these shouty rap rock vocals.   Black Widow isn’t disappointing, but it is not the best from In This Moment.

Rating: 5/10  I stand by this review, even if it is against popular opinion.  

Listen for yourself here: http://loudwire.com/in-this-moment-black-widow-exclusive-album-stream/

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