Review Summary: Fallenmania, Part 19
We have now reached an interesting part of Fallenmania: let’s see how some of the bands I’ve reviewed before follow-up their first fallenmaniac album, if they keep a similar style… or not. Today, we have In This Moment’s second album, which used a similar style to “Beautiful Tragedy”, but less heavy, way more romantic and dreamy, basically even more fallenmaniac.
After a delightfully strange intro, where Maria Brink whispers almost creepily over male vocalizations, we get into the full-lengths tracks. Most of them could be described as sort of moody and melodic rock songs about romance and all its complexities, where Maria mostly sings and occasionally screams. I don’t necessarily mind that, because albums where vocalists known for using an aggressive style try to sing in a softer style can be interesting. It shows off their range, and I think Maria makes a pretty good display of her vocal abilities here, with her high notes, powerful singing and strange vocalizations. The songs tend to have a sweet wistfulness to them, or at least, a sort of cheesy charm.
For example, the first hit is called “Forever”, and is a rather catchy track about how Maria will keep your memory forever. I think it’s one of the best songs on the album, because I like the idea of holding on to your memories. Another highlight is “Mechanical Love”, with a more energetic riff, which becomes a Going-Under riff as the song progresses, and more passionate singing, with full-on melodramatic lyrics like “And if I saw you bleed, I’d stay here till the end”, and the desperate chorus “I know you’ll never understand me”. The best of the choruses is at the end, after a very Fallen-esque solo. Both those songs’ charm comes from their sense of angst and romance.
Other songs feel a little more ordinary, I guess. “All For You” is a more straightforward love song, but something about Maria’s singing gives the song a certain sense of melancholy. The best part would be those pretty and melancholic guitar effects on the bridge. “Lost at Sea” uses similar melancholic effects, alternated with a heavier and rather catchy riff. Overall, it’s a more ballad-like track.
The best ballad however would be “Into the Light”, with Maria’s soft, delicate and high-pitched singing, where she sounds like a completely different person and proves how much range she has. She easily alternates between high notes and her usual deeper voice on “You Always Believed”, with its frantic not quite metalcore, not quite fallenmaniac riff and passionate singing. “The Great Divide” shows she’s still great at screaming her lungs out over heavy and mean riffs.
The album also tries weirder things, like the heavier “Her Kiss”, with Maria’s peculiar singing, occasional screams and lyrics like “If you fall to the bottom of the sea and confess your love, you can find life in her kiss”. There’s a sort of eerie and magical tone to this song. Another creative song is “Violet Skies”, with its constantly changing, wild riffs, weird screams and singing. Finally, the title track is a mix of everything else on the album: re-using the “Lavender clouds, nothing matters” lyrics of the intro, Maria’s softer singing almost sounding like a different person, a very soft and dreamy atmosphere with occasional heavier moments. It fulfills title’s promise.
Really, while it’s not as memorable as “Beautiful Tragedy”, this album is not just a forgettable little relationship-themed rock album. In This Moment’s creativity still shines through, all the things that made their previous album so good are still there. But as a whole, I don’t think it’s really as good as “Beautiful Tragedy”. It’s more repetitive, has less memorable songs and doesn’t exactly make the same visceral impact as some of the songs from that album. If you discovered Maria Brink when she was screaming at her deadbeat dad or wishing to die to be reincarnated in a better life, hearing her sing songs with titles like “Forever” and “The Dream” will be kind of disappointing. And considering that their next albums would get a lot heavier, completely devoid of any fallenmaniac influence, In This Moment themselves were probably not convinced either. But their change in direction gave us their great third album “The Last Cowboy” and more success than ever, so it was a good decision. Many artists’ fallenmaniac phases would not last, and some would have more unpredictable careers.
