Review Summary: A great ablum with a great vocalist, setting a standard for future bands with female vocalists.
In This Moment- Beautiful Tragedy
In these modern days there are rarely any bands that have female vocalists or females in the band at all. This is due to the fact that sometimes, with female singers, the songs tend to sound a bit whiney or the lyrics get to annoying; this is definitely not the case with the new to the scene metal band, In This Moment.
They seamlessly succeed in creating brutal, heavy music combined with the crisp clean vocals of a rock band. What adds to this great idea is the fact that Maria Brinks, the vocalist/ frontwoman (if that’s a word), has one of the best voices present in metal. I was very surprised when I first listened to this album: her screams are ear piercing yet completely awesome, and then she comes in with clean vocals and blows you away with her amazing voice.
“Beautiful Tragedy” the title track is a great song to listen to if you want a sample of how good her vocals are. This tracks is only clean vocals (except at the bridge for two seconds) so don’t expect extreme heaviness, but it still demonstrates her ability to hold incredibly long notes, and I mean incredibly long notes. In terms of the screaming, she can also hold long notes, try listening to the track “Daddy’s Falling Angel” and you’ll see what I mean.
One thing I actually liked a lot about this album is the clever lyrics, like from “Ashes” and “Circles.” In “Ashes” Brinks sings, “Ashes to ashes!” and then she whispers, almost below her breath, “We all fall down.” This song is relating to a childhood game song while using metaphorical genius to tell the listener that we all eventually fail in the end. “Circles” again shows this same genius, almost relating back to “Ashes,” by again using a catchy chorus to express something more complicated than that is heard by the listener.
This band also excels in the musical department, with crushing breakdowns and actually some pretty impressive guitar solos here and there. “Daddy’s Falling Angel,” as mentioned before, demonstrates the guitarist’s ability to play decent guitar solos, and also shows that the band can get pretty heavy. After the solo featured in this song a heavy, crushing breakdown slams through your speakers; I’ve got to say this made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, which is always a good thing when you blast metal.
Also the drummer’s performance is solid the whole way through the album, doing sometimes complex beats and playing double bass blast beats here and there. This made me happy that I bought the album, because I, being a drummer, love blast beats (*ahem* As I Lay Dying). Anyways the drummer’s presence in the band is definitely noted, as he is pretty damn good.
The only and main problem I have with this album is, as always, the fact that I still cannot hear the bass guitar. Even though he also does a solid performance the whole way through, you can rarely actually hear him playing, which just downright sucks. So if your expecting to hear awesome quality bass-wise on this album, the only bass you’ll actually hear is the blast beats pounding.
Overall I greatly enjoyed this album, especially the vocals and drums, which are just a pure standout. The overall quality (minus the bass guitar) of the album is very well done, so no real complaints there. The album also runs very smoothly, with no filler tracks, just kind of intro and outro tracks, which are also very good. Anyways I suggest any fans of metal pick this one up, despite the fact it has a female vocalist, because it has impressive instruments, and some of the best vocals present in modern day metal.
Top Five Tracks:
1. “Daddy’s Falling Angel”
2. “Beautiful Tragedy”
3. “Circles”
4. “Ashes”
5. “When the Storm Subsides”
