Those of you who read my posts (thank you!) know that I love to highlight women in rock. While the number of females in metal is increasing, I would dearly love to see more. This isn’t because I doubt the talent of the guys, I simply believe that each gender brings something magical to the music and that some of my absolute favorites feature male and female creating together. As the saying goes, “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.” I’ve featured many great ladies in music: Lizzy Hale, Ego Likeness, Within Temptation, Tarja (with Nightwish and without), Delain, Mono Inc., the list goes on. Let’s add another band to our musical cue.
In This Moment is an American band from Los Angeles. I do wish there were more female members as this is another situation where you have a woman singing lead vocals but I’m happy to introduce this quartet. They were formed in 2005 by front woman Maria Brink and guitarist Chris Howorth. The band has cycled through drummers and bass players over the years however the line up has been holding steady since 2016 with Kent Dimmel and Randy Weitzel respectively. Their first album, Beautiful Tragedy, deputed in 2007 and their eighth, Godmode, dropped in 2023.
This week’s song is Scarlet from their fourth album 2012’s Blood. This is about the time that the band entered my awareness. I had tickets to see them and Black Veil Brides in 2020 but… two guesses why that tour was canceled. Then once things opened up as the Pandemic ended Ticketmaster completely screwed me over. I still had electronic tickets according to them, however I couldn’t access them and there was no actual human being to help with this. I soooo tore my hair out. Long story short… still need to see these guys. Since they are from California you wouldn’t think it would be so difficult, sadly it hasn’t come to pass as yet. Anyhow, getting back to Scarlet, this is a pretty good representation of Brink’s intense vocals and the band’s musical signature. She’s really nailed the ugly-pretty look and scream in her delivery. I’d describe In This Moment as alternative metal. There’s a lot of goth, industrial, a little electronica all fused together in a delightful mess. Super fun. I also recommend their cover of Phil Collins’ In The Air Tonight and the 2017 Billy Idol-esque Black Wedding which features the Metal God himself, Rob Halford.
Hope you enjoy!
