Describe In This Moment here, because it’s a beautiful tragedy.
In This Moment is a female-fronted metal band from Los Angeles. Fronted by Maria Brink, they've been around for a while, having released their first album Beautiful Tragedy in 2007. Their ever evolving sound has garnered them an increasingly large fanbase over the years, and with the release of Blood in 2012, they broke through to the mainstream as one of the biggest, if not the biggest female-fronted metal band on the American market, and rivaled by Halestorm and The Pretty Reckless as the biggest female-fronted rock band, period, of The New '10s.
They started off as a pretty straight-forward Metalcore outfit, but eventually downplayed that aspect and brought other elements such as Industrial Metal, Gothic Metal, Electronic Music, and finally Nu Metal, the latter of which proved to be their key to success (ironic, given nu metal's status as a Dead Horse Genre). Their single "Blood" became their first song to crack the mainstream rock charts, and it reached #9. All of their follow-ups have since charted there as well. Their unique sound of heavy riffs with rough, screamed vocals manages to sound hard-hitting while still being radio friendly.
Members:
- Maria Brink - lead vocals, piano (2005-present)
- Chris Howorth - lead guitar, backing vocals (2005-present)
- Randy Weitzel - rhythm guitar, backing vocals (2011-present)
- Travis Johnson - bass, backing vocals (2010-present)
- Kent Diimmel - Drums (2016-present)
Discography:
- Beautiful Tragedy (2007)
- The Dream (2008)
- A Star-Crossed Wasteland (2010)
- Blood (2012)
- Black Widow (2014)
- Ritual (2017)
- Mother (2020)
- Godmode (2023)
Outside of the band, Maria Brink has made a number of appearances in songs from other bands. These include "Here's to Us" by Halestorm, "Anywhere But Here" by Five Finger Death Punch, and "Gravity" by Papa Roach.
In This Moment's music provides examples of the following tropes:
- The Big Bad Wolf: "Big Bad Wolf", obviously enough, is about this.
- Break-Up Song: "Blood" is about being heartbroken from a breakup and not being able to move on.
- Call-Back: "The In-Between" references their previous songs "Beautiful Tragedy", "Blood", "Whore" and "Sick Like Me" in the hook.
- Careful with That Axe: Maria sounds like she's going crazy in every single song.
- The Cameo: Rob Halford appears in the music video for Black Wedding and on the song proper.
- Cluster F-Bomb: Quite often. "Big Bad Wolf" features her dropping it over and over again.
- Costume Porn: Maria's outfits both in videos and on stage later in the career are full of this, going hand-in-hand with Ms. Fanservice below.
- Cover Version: The Limited Edition version of The Dream includes a cover of "Call Me" by Blondie. Ritual includes a cover of "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins. Mother features renditions of "Fly Like an Eagle" by Steve Miller Band, "We Will Rock You" by Queen and "Into Dust" by Mazzy Star.
- Distaff Counterpart: They could be viewed as the female fronted equivalent of Five Finger Death Punch. Groovy, hard-hitting alt metal bands that still keep radio sensibilities, and have received a very divisive reception from metalheads despite being successful. Fittingly, they've toured together and Maria appeared on their song "Anywhere But Here". Even before then, Ivan Moody did some backing vocals on "Adrenalize". Record producer Kevin Churko has also worked with both groups on several recordings.
- Intercourse with You: "Adrenalize", a song about rather violent sex. "Sick Like Me" has shades of this as well.
- Last Moment Together: "Into the Light"
describes the speaker lying on the floor with a dying loved one as they say their last goodbyes. According to frontwoman Maria Brink, the song was written for 1) a friend who died of lung cancer, 2) a beloved dog who had died, and 3) a fan whose son had died at fifteen and passed away while listening to the band. - Ms. Fanservice: Maria invariably goes onstage in some sort of form-fitting costume that shows a lot of skin, though the more revealing ones typically have a leotard under them to prevent any Wardrobe Malfunctions.
- Never Bareheaded: Maria is rarely seen without some kind of headwear.
- Nu Metal: Blood onward features nu metal aspects.
- The Smurfette Principle: Maria is the only female member of the band, and has been since the beginning.
- Shout-Out: The chorus of "Black Wedding" directly references Billy Idol's hit "White Wedding".
- Soprano and Gravel: Maria does a one-woman version of this in most songs.
- Take That, Critics!: According to Maria, "Sex Metal Barbie" is meant as a mockery of the band's
hatedom: several lines are borrowed from Internet trash talk about them. - Uncanny Valley: Used deliberately in the "Sex Metal Barbie" video, which is shot to make Maria look plasticky and with a severely distorted lens that exaggerates her body.
- Vocal Evolution: By the release of Blood, Maria had pretty much stopped doing any fully clean vocals. Even her sung parts have a rougher edge. Whether this is due to vocal damage from screaming for years, or a stylistic choice has never been explained.
