  
In this moment are back with their fifth album, Black Widow. Their last album, Blood, came at the end of a turbulent time for the band seeing most of the lineup departing along with their manager, so the album was written by Singer Maria Brink and Guitarist Chris Howarth. Blood also marked a noticeable shift in the sound of the band, and that change has continued on "Black widow" - there's no return to their earlier sound. While that won't please some fans, it will make others including myself very happy as in my opinion, Blood was the band's best album to date, but even after a couple of listens I have a feeling that "Black widow" will be giving "Blood" a run for it's money.
The imagery used in the album is dark - the song titles hint at that, and the lyrics really convey it, and I can see it leading to some great stage sets and costumes when the band tour.
Brief comments on a few tracks....
"The infection" is a short intro track with music that sounds like it belongs in a horror movie soundtrack, and that builds in volume and power till a siren sounds and the guitars and drums kick in before the music fades out ready for the next track.
"Sex metal Barbie" is the first real song on the album. Maria uses various vocal styles here, from the spoken style, to clean singing to screams - it's definitely a song that shows off her versatility.
"Sexual hallucination" is a slow ballad and features guest vocals from Brent Smith (Shinedown). It's a great duet, and generally it's a fairly slow soft song, although for the chorus Maria does unleash her powerful vocals (completely overpowerig Brent's vocals in the process as her voice is so strong).
Title track "Black widow" starts with a 50s style US TV presenter talking about the deadly black widow spider. The song contrasts a nice heavy guitar sound with Maria's vocals that range from straightforward singing and screaming to using various electronically manipulated vocal sections. It's a great song.
"Sick like me" is the first single. It's a catchy song with a nice guitar riff and heavy guitar sound, and sounds fantastic. A great song.
"The fighter" is a piano based song with the first third of the song consisting solely of Maria's vocals plus the piano, and its only later that the drums kick in along with some strings to replace the piano, and then finally the guitars kick in too and the song is up to full strength.
"Out of hell" is another slow quiet song with Maria singing along to the piano, and her vocals really do carry lots of emotion here.
Listening to the album, I have to say I love it, but there is one bit that does feel slightly odd - every song has a slow intro before you get into the main part of the song. I'd have liked to see them mix things up a bit and have some songs being fast and heavy right from the start as the current arrangement just makes things feel slightly predictable and loses some momentum.
A great album that fans of In This Moment who enjoyed "Blood" are likely to love. I think this is the best album yet from In This Moment.
Track listing:
1. The infection
2. Sex metal Barbie
3. Big bad wolf
4. Dirty pretty
5. Black widow
6. Sexual hallucination
7. Sick like me
8. Bloody creature poster girl
9. The fighter
10. Bones
11. Natural born sinner
12. Into the darkness
13. Out of hell |
