:: In This Moment - Beautiful Tragedy

In This Moment

Over the last couple of years, MySpace has become a powerful tool for bands (both signed and unsigned) to get their music out to the masses, and even a way of getting their music heard by prospective record labels on the hunt for the next big thing.

Having built a strong following through the release of their three demo exclusively through their MySpace site in 2005, and a string of independently financed tours, North Hollywood based outfit In This Moment soon caught the attention of several labels, with Century Media Records finally picking up the band midway through 2006. Under the careful guidance of renowned producer Eric Rachel, the five-piece act has finally emerged with its debut outing ‘Beautiful Tragedy’. Although generally categorised as another metalcore act, In This Moment prove there’s more than one dimension to their sound, with ‘Beautiful Tragedy’ crossing over quite a few genres over its twelve tracks to include metal, metalcore and hard rock elements.

The album begins with the minute long introduction track ‘Whispers Of October’ which has Maria Brink lullabying over the sound of rain, but things take a swift change of direction with the lead off single ‘Prayers’ (Of which the promotional video clip is added as an enhanced component). Bar the Ozzy Osbourne ‘Bark At The Moon’ sounding guitar introduction, ‘Prayers’ has Maria giving the track a definite hardcore like sound with her mix of clean and screamed vocals, while the band dish out straight out heavy metal, with a hint of metalcore thrown in the mix.

The title track ‘Beautiful Tragedy’ and ‘This Moment’ once again allow Maria to bring out other varied musical sides of the band’s sound to the fore with the song hinged around her strong sense of melody in the memorable choruses, while tracks such as ‘Ashes’, ‘Daddy’s Falling Angel’, ‘He Said Eternity’, ‘Circles’, ‘Next Life’ (by far the heaviest track on the album) and ‘Have No Fear’ (the bonus track on the Australian edition of the album) are solid ferocious blends of metal with aggressive female lead vocals, but with catchy melodic choruses. The remaining two tracks on the album (‘The Legacy Of Odio’ and ‘When The Storm Subsides’) show off the gentler side of the band, with Maria fully utilising her clean voice to good effect over string enhances musical backdrops.

For a debut effort, In This Moment has come up with a solid results in ‘Beautiful Tragedy’. While there’s nothing on offer here that will change the shape of modern metalcore as we know it, it’s certainly something a little different to most albums in the genre these days, and that’s enough for me to give ‘Beautiful Tragedy’ a positive review rather than an all out bagging.